Glucose Intake, Hypotension And A Drug To Help

[sue1234]

This may or may not be relevant. The article basically states that some people get low blood pressure after eating(which in turn causes a rise in heart rate). It is related to the vasodilation activity of insulin. In the study subjects, taking a drug to prevent the intestine from absorbing the glucose prevents the hypotension.

I am certainly having an issue with insulin/glucose, but don't know it this could factor in to my personal case. But, it could be something to think about and maybe have your doctor check into if you tend to get low blood pressure after eating!

http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/50/1/54.long

[DoozlyGirl]

Sue,

Sounds like we have taken a similar medical path. I spent months on this quest to understand my issues with food that ultimately lead to reactive hypoglycemia which lead to months of trying to capture an actual hypo, but only catching the drops/plummeting glucose levels. You on the other hand do get actual hypos. Early on, my Mayo trained endocrinologist suggested that an old diabetic med called acarbose could be used to help, but she didn't recommend it just yet for me, just offered it in case i was willling to take it. She did warn that there are significant GI related side effects documented for this med. I chose to not try the med and pursue insulinoma as a possible cause of my dropping sugars.

Fast forward three months, my autonomic neurologist feels my plummeting blood pressures trigger the sugars to drop in a sort of exagerated stress reaction. We are now pursuing what is making my blood sugars plummet.

Profound flushing and hives have lead ot a work up for mastocytosis. I've been reading up on mast cell disorders and many of my weird symptoms can be explained with misbehaving mast cells. Just started with the work up. Also learning about the difference between food allergies and food triggers and the clinical guidelines on anaphylaxis. This is a whole new world....

Best wishes,

Lyn

[sue1234]

We do kind of parallel, don't we. Yea, I tried Acarbose for a couple of days a few years ago, but the GAS BUILD-UP is awful! Like I said before, my gas does not move, so the build-up is almost smothering me as everything pushes against my diaphragm. Definitely let me know what all you discover.

[HopeSprings]

Sue I've been meaning to ask you if there is a medication used in diabetics that might be useful for you (and I suspect me)? They can go hypo too - so what do they do? Is that the type of medication you and Lyn are talking about?

[sue1234]

A type I diabetic, of course, just needs to lower their insulin to prevent lows, or make sure they eat averaged carbs with their insulin. Type 2 people, if I understand correctly, have either high insulin that doesn't work correctly due to insulin resistance OR their pancreas has a decreased insulin output, so their blood glucose goes up. The Acarbose can be used for the non-insulin dependent type, and the others take a combo that includes sugar-lowering meds.

I am not a diabetic, but the doctor that prescribed it said it would prevent the exaggerated insulin release by the body not absorbing carbs. I got scared because I was afraid I'd have a low and not be able to bring it up with foods. I think I don't fit their normal mold of an almost-diabetic-high-insulin patient.

[issie]

GTF chromium

[HopeSprings]

Bear with me.... if high insulin=low blood sugar, wouldn't a medication that prevented too much insulin (therefore preventing low blood sugar) be a good thing? Why would you have a low?