"crashing" After Eating (Blood Pressure Vs Sugar Sensitivity)

[Friedbrain]

I need advice, please, on how to eat in a way that's not impairing! I recently realized that there are probably two completely separate mechanisms causing me to crash after I eat. Here I've been thinking I had found a successful way of coping, only to start having a broader "crash" response I think the new problem is related to blood pressure/blood flow, and I don't know what to do so that eating and coping (ie daily living) are not mutually exclusive. (my recent blood results suggest I'm lacking in just about everything, which made me wonder if it's diet related, because my food intake has become more and more restrictive by necessity.....? Other option is that there's a serious health problem that I don't know about yet, which may be likely, but I should still increase my food intake).

Mechanism 1) If I eat sugar or carb-heavy meals, I experience tachycardia or crash (for HOURS;not to even open my eyelids). I learned to deal with this years ago by eating low carb, and it helped immensely.

But then over the past months, maybe since decreasing my cortef dose(?)......

Mechanism 2) any time I eat in the afternoon, I start feeling lethargic, and like there's a jumbo jet about to land on my head. I am luckily not working right now (tho want a job, so need to fix this pronto!), so I have the luxury of going upstairs to lay down. Once I'm horizontal, I start to feel the pressure in my head go away, and feel much better. Thinking this through, I realized that this is very different from Mechanism 1, which does NOT go away. I have low blood pressure and postural hypotension, so I think that maybe just the simple act of eating is enough to cause too much blood to be diverted to digestion and not leaving enough for my brain (and this is helped, in turn, by reducing gravity's effect on blood flow). The problem is, I don't know how to deal with that! I have to eat, and even eating small meals that used to be ok (heated frozen veggies, cheese, chicken chunks and spicy topping) do this to me in the afternoon. Take a midodrine before I eat?

Does this sound familiar to anyone else? I need to broaden what I eat, and yet I don't know what to eat! I promised my mom (who insists I don't eat enough) that I would ask for a referral to a dietician, but maybe someone here has specific suggestions on dealing with this. Thank you!

[rach73]

Hiya,

yes this is familiar. I suffer terribly with post prandial hypotension (low bp after eating) its due to blood pooling around your intestines for the body to digest your meals. It doesn't matter what I eat / when I eat I crash. My eyes literally roll in my head I can not keep them open and I yawn like crazy. My bp can drop to 72/40 from eating.

Ive tried eating protien rather than carbs, smaller meals, caffiene with meals, ibuprofen with meals. Nothing works. Even taking midodrine had no effect. Midodrine causes blood to pool in your belly anyway hence why you get cold hands and feet so it could possibly make the post prandial hypotension worse.

Like you it wipes me out for hours on each occasion, the symptoms can start within minutes of eating or up to an hour after - depending on how well my stomach is working! The symptoms on a bad day can last for 4 hours or more, 2 hours on a good day. The usual give away for me is the tachycardia, then my eyes bounce around in my head. All I can do is lie down until it passes.

If I have to do something in the afternoon I will skip lunch as if I eat I wont be able to function.

Sorry I dont have any advice for you, I just wanted to let you know you arent alone.

Rach

[MomtoGiuliana]

Small more frequent protein rich meals and lots of fluids seemed to help me a bit, but I also used to have greatly worsened symptoms after each meal.

[bellgirl]

What you say about the blood pooling for digestion makes sense, and I'm sorry, you are right, we probably all have trouble with this; other than what MomtoGiuliana said, because actually our bodies are designed to eat every two hours. I have to say that the foods you eat, do matter...low sugar or carbs, no caffeine at all, fruits, veggies, fish, chicken, salads, and nuts. I eat more at dinner than any other meal, because of nausea earlier in the day, but you can get vitamins and protein in drinks, as well, and it doesn't take your body as long to process or digest, so instead of skipping a meal, drink Boost, or a protein smoothie. Try not to drink too much before eating, because that will curb your appetite for food. Are you exercising? Because cardiovascular exercise improves blood return to your heart and increases circulation everywhere!! Then you will have more energy to do more. I have added a lot of supplements to my medication regimen that have improved my energy level, after much research. You can see them below. Everyone is different, so you should talk with your doctor, depending what your issues are, but the supplements I have added have improved my quality of life, and I had a lot of deficiencies, as well.

[Kellysavedbygrace]

I have pretty bad postbrandial issues too and they seem to be getting worse. I've had to change what I order when eating out. (ie- from regular dinner order to a side salad w protein). I made the mistake about 3 wks ago of ordering the "old way" and spent the next 4 hours in horrible pain in bed.

I have recently started juicing greens /whole organic veggies and fruits and that really helps w getting the nutrients in. It takes time and energy to do (and a few good tools) but seems to help me have a bit more energy- perhaps because my body isn't having to digest all that fiber.

Kimbell, those are really good points! My doc just ordered a comprehensive nutritional panel for me. It'll be interesting to see how it comes back.

[Batik]

Do you find that wholegrains make a difference? I do much better on, say, brown rice or wholegrain pasta, than I do on white rice/pasta, and far, far better on complex carbs such as those than on sugars.

[bellgirl]

Brown rice and whole grains are just better for your health, in general. I try to stay away from anything white, because of it turning to sugar. I'm not a nutritionist, but I am a nurse and took a bunch of nutrition classes, and also do research all the time for others and myself, and you guys!! Nurses are jacks/jills of all trades where it comes to taking care of the body, especially when your sick

[CarrieJessica]

I am crashing after sweets and carbs, its very similar to when I had gestational diabetes so I will eventually go to the doc about it but I do think it could just be really hard for my body to digest some things.

[Kellysavedbygrace]

What is wrong with me? I posted just yesterday about this and tonight it went all out the door. This is not due to brain fog.

The kids had pizza so I had a couple of small pieces w them with a mixed green salad and then 1/2 a bar of dark chocolate. (no protein). I forgot for a few hours which body I live in and was trying to enjoy my Sat night at home w the kids.

Now I'm in bed, fighting to keep my BP up, tach down and remain conscious. I know better. Silly me.