Symptoms of Low Blood Sugar That You Should Never Ignore
Having high blood sugar makes you diabetic. Likewise, low blood sugar makes you hypoglycemic. The symptoms of low blood sugar can differ for a diabetic and a non-diabetic person. However, diabetes often puts a person at the risk of hypoglycemia as compared to non-diabetic people. Before moving toward the symptoms of low blood sugar, let’s try to understand what hypoglycemia is? How do we come across such a condition? And what should we do to get rid of low blood sugar? Stay tuned for more description.
What’s Hypoglycemia?
The terminology ‘hypoglycemia’ itself explains the condition it is referred to. ‘Hypo’ means ‘less than normal’ while term ‘glycemia’ means ‘level of glucose in the bloodstream’.
The small glucose molecules act as energy providers in the body. Our body cells get energy from this simplest monosaccharide. Sometimes, our body faces shortage of glucose in blood and cells cannot get energy. Hence, we call it low blood sugar or hypoglycemia.
How many Types of Low Blood Sugar are there?
Low blood sugar is of two broad types;
Fasting Low Blood Sugar
It occurs when a person has an empty stomach for a longer time. They have missed their meals for some reason.
Reactive Low Blood Sugar
A person goes through this situation, when he has eaten a sufficient meal but their body shows symptoms of low blood sugar.
Who can Develop the Symptoms of Low Blood Sugar and How?
| A Diabetic Patient | A Non-diabetic Person |
| By the use of sugar lowering medicines Because of insulin injections More exercise or physical activity By less Eating than appetite | By the use of medication e.g. sulpha-drugs, etc. Due to weakness of liver As a result of liver infections Formation of a rare tumor in pancreas (insulinoma) Hormonal deficiencies Renal and hepatic metabolic disorders Alcoholism (especially when stomach is empty) |
Symptoms of Low Blood Glucose
For diabetic and non-diabetic patients, symptoms of low blood glucose (hypoglycemia) are almost the same in the initial stage. If you do not take actions on time the situations may become hazardous. Here we have enlisted some common symptoms of low blood sugar:
- Slow pulse
- Dizziness
- Blur vision
- Pale skin (yellow skin tone abruptly)
- Hunger
- Sweating
- Tingling
- Fatigue
- Hypothermia
Emergency situation| Call for medical help
- Confusion / Anxiety attack / Abnormal behavior
- Unconsciousness
- Seizures
- If you take something sweet to balance the blood sugar but it does not work
- If you are diabetic and have aforementioned symptoms
Note:
Our body shows symptoms of low blood glucose when glucose level in the bloodstream is lower than 3.5mmol/L or 70 mg/dL.
Also, if this condition happens frequently, it can cause hypoglycemic unawareness. It means that a person has low blood sugar, but symptoms of low blood sugar are not visible. So, the situation remains untreated and unnoticed unless a person faints and falls down.
How can a Healthcare Representative help you?
If you are a diabetic patient, then they will perform a blood sugar test without a delay.
If you are a non-diabetic person, then they can ask several queries before coming to a possible outcome. These queries may be about medicinal and medical history of a person. Afterwards, he might ask for a glucose test.
How to Deal with Symptoms of Low Blood Sugar?
The recovery process is quite simple for hypoglycemic patients in many cases. All their body requires is a normal amount of sugar in blood. You can drink juice or eat any sugar containing food to normalize the blood sugar. The symptoms of blood sugar itself disappear, once your body’s glucose requirement is fulfilled.
Diabetic patients use medicines to lower their blood sugar (sugar ki dawa). Sometimes these meds can cause hypoglycemia. In such cases, a physician changes the drug and shifts to another.
| Home remedies for hypoglycemia | OTC medicines for hypoglycemia |
| Fresh juice | Glucagon injections |
| 15 grams carbohydrates | Nasal powders |
| Glucose tablets | Glucose supplements |
| Sugar in water | Glucose gel |
Endnote
We can identify hypoglycemia by various symptoms of low blood sugar. One must give a serious account to low blood sugar. It can create more drastic conditions than diabetes. If a person does not take action timely, the blood sugar may lead to unconsciousness. Therefore, we must not neglect any symptoms of low blood sugar, especially when diabetic.
