Sugar Reading

[Darlene]

I felt funny last night.. like something was zapping my brain.. I checked my sugar... it was 5 hours after I had eaten.. the reading was 71.. is this normal?

[EarthMother]

Could be for you sure. 71 is on the low side and you said you hadn't eaten for 5 hours. Mine would be that low or lower if I went five hours without anything to eat. (I have reactive hypoglycemia). But I'd also probably be having some adrenaline surges by then as my body's attempt to convert sugar stores from my liver. Did you eat something? And did you feel better afterwards?

[MelissaCrystal]

My blood sugar goes all over the place, but according to my doc, I'm fine and don't show signs of anything to worry about. It's so confusing...

[flop]

I haven't been tested or diagnosed with any sort of blood sugar problem but I am seeing a holistic practitioner who is treating me for adrenal fatigue. One of the important things she has me do is make sure that I eat at least every 4 hours and that I am eating a diet that will give a stable blood sugar level (difficult to stick to at Christmas!).

Flop

[delphicdragon]

Going for 5 hours without eating is a bad idea for me. I need to eat about every two hours for my adrenaline surges get bad. I can't let myself get hungry. As for 71, that's not technically hypoglycemia. I was told that 60 was the cutoff. But if you feel bad, maybe ask your doctor about getting a Glucose Tolerance Test.

Sara

[Darlene]

EarthMother.. yes, I drink some milk.. and felt better

today I made myself eat every 2 to 4 hours, little stuff, hard considering i have no appetite

what is reactive hypogylcemia?

[carinara]

I also have to eat every 2 to 4 hours in order to keep my blood sugar stable! About 4 years ago i had to meassure my blood sugar daily so i developed a feeling for it and found out what my body is doing. I have totally changed my eating habbits since then and i always stick to them in order to not to mess my Blood sugar up. Now i know how i have to go about it to keep it stable. I always have food that keeps the blood sugar more stable, with me. I would never ever leave the house without plenty to eat. (just in case). I also stoped eating sweets and chocolate because they cause my blood sugar to drop after a little while and make me feels bad.

carinara

[jump]

71 is very normal, but if you have symptoms of hypoglycemia, you might as well get it checked out. Usually normal is considered 60-100, with 100-119 being "pre-diabetic" and 120 and above signalling diabetes. Below 50 can cause problems for some people, but not always. For a period of time I had blood sugar levels consistently in the 37-55 zone and nothing bad happened to me.

Read up on hypoglycemia symptoms (usually shakiness, sweating, tachycardia, feeling weak) and ask your doc about it if you think it sounds like you.

Do you have someone in your family with diabetes? (I ask because I wonder why you have a bg monitor). They might be able to give you more info, too, and might better be able to describe what low blood sugar feels like.

But if it were me, I would continue to look for something else as the source of the weird zapping sensation, since 71 is normal and "zapping" is not the most common hypoglycemic symptom.

[Darlene]

jump.. I think normal is between 70 to 100.. I have a glucose monitor because I have suspected low blood sugar for the past 10 years.. yes.. my grandfather had sugar and so does other family members.. I have had a lab test done where I fast and have blood drawn, but it came back normal..

This afternoon I had a bowl of life cereal.. then around 5 or 6pm I felt really nervous.. it's been happening to me for years.. my hands shake.. my heart races.. I feel funny.. I was diagnosed with POTS, so I just always assume it's my POTS.. because POTS affects your nervous system, right? But something made me check my sugar.. it was 67.. so I drunk some milk with 1 teaspoon of strawberry nesquick.. I still felt nervous.. so then I ate one of them little plastic cups of pears.. then I was ok.. I checked my sugar again, and it was 109.. I don't know if I should tell the Dr. or not.. they don't help me..

I am on my period, so I don't know if your sugar is lower during this time or not.. I wonder if this could explain my off and on blurry vision, flashing lights, feeling like I can't enough to drink, headaches, always tired, feet buring, can't remember anything..

[EarthMother]

Reactive Hypoglycimia is when you tend to drop to low blood sugar levels or even very low levels after eating meals that may be high in carbohydrates. I knew something had changed in my body last spring. But couldn't pin it down. I started to get jumpy, nervous, edgy after meals -- which was unusual since I normally just crashed with fatigue. Didn't seem to matter what I ate. I kept a food journal for weeks and wasn't ever able to pin point culprets. I stumbled upon some sights on reactive hypoglycemia and discussed it with my Doctor. A routine blood test in his office pointed to a low sugar reading, and he agreed it could be part of the problem. So I bought a machine and began getting my own data. What I saw surprised me. I would get quick increases ... maybe 120 - 140 after a meal and then sudden drops like 70 in what seemed like no time at all. At night, I was frequently waking up with tachycardia and hot flashes, and by morning, my blood sugar was often below 70.

It has taken me months on a hypoglycemic diet (no sugar, reduced carbs and frequent meals) before I could get my blood sugar to stablalize. I had to cut out anything that had concentrated sugars ... like orange juice! That's something that diabetics tend to take if they are low ... but for people with reactive hypoglycemia its the worst! It spikes our sugar up high and then we crash to even lower levels than before the juice. Unless, we follow up with a protein and complex carb.

Now everytime I eat I make sure I include a fat, protein and complex carb. "Dessert" is more like whole grain toast with some home made nut butter. It takes a while to get use to the change. But I do feel better when I'm eating more frequent meals, and my body does better without any of the refined or concentrated sugars.

Good luck finding something that works for you.

[MelissaCrystal]

Btw, "brain zaps" are a extremely common side-effect to drug withdrawal. Have you skipped any doses of your meds or lowered the amount lately?

I had that horrible sensation when I was tapering off Paxil. It was insane...there was no mistaking how it is described, definitely a brain-zap.

If you aren't tapering off or skipping any meds, maybe we can learn what our body is specifically going through during drug withdrawal (perhaps a brain chemical change, etc) and try to figure out if it has something to do with a temporary deficiency or just the nervous system fluctuating.

Definitely look into "brain zaps" as a withdrawal symptom though, since that is the same exact sensation millions of people experience during withdrawal.

Edit:

I looked through your posting history and found this:

i was diagnosed in 2004, put on lexapro and lopressor, and this did help quite a bit, my question is, why is it when i try to go off of it, the lexapro, why do I get sick again, I know I will never be able to go off the beta blocker because i have tachycardia, but why do i need lexapro, i hate taking it, it makes me fat, i was thin before i started taking these meds, i have tried other ssri, but they make me sick, lexpro is the only ssri i can take, i just don't know why when i try to go off of it, my nervous system fails.

Lexapro is definitely giving you withdrawal side-effects, and that's what is sending you into these episodes. When people withdraw from meds like Lexapro, they develop tons of symptoms that are indistinguishable from the usual POTS symptoms. It feels like a bad POTS episode, and then you add brain-zaps to it, which isn't associated with POTS---definite withdrawal. I went through the same thing as you, and I had to CAREFULLY taper off my SSRI. It took a half a year, and every single day I withdrew at the same exact hour before I needed my dose. It was horrible...really really rough time for me. The funny thing is, my blood sugar was doing weird things through this period too.

Definitely be careful with your Lexapro dosage. If you need to go off it, you have to taper the slightest amount. POTS people aren't normal when it comes to getting off drugs, so you need to do it extremely slow.

If you need to get off lexapro and you can't stand the withdrawal effects, there are some remedies that are scattered along the 'net. One "cure" for brain zaps is Malic acid and Magnesium supposedly... might be worth a try. Best cure though is taking the drug---works extremely quickly and you will feel wonderful within an hour or two. Then the next day, cut just a bit off the pill...you'll be able to figure out an amount that gives you no effects. Takes some practice, but the worst thing you have to do is take a little bit of the pill when you're feeling bad.

Lexapro can definitely make you gain weight, so it might be worth it for your body to slowly get off Lexapro and find something that actually does something positive for you. I'm in the same exact position.