From age 14 to 23 I had low BGs that felt exactly like the ones I have had since becoming T1 at 23 in 1983. Back then they tested, but at that time there was a perceived health fad known as hypoglycemia; it seemed rampant. I was in wrestling and other sports which brought on the lows often. The doctors were skeptical of what I was telling them because they couldn’t get me to have a low while undergoing routine glucose testing. Jonah briefly mentioned a pre-diabetic condition called reactive hypoglycemia. Does anyone know about this? Have similar experiences? I’d love to hear from you since my family and coaches and so on always thought I was exagerating or faking, trying to get out of something.
This is a guess based on what I’ve read and what a friend of mine has been told my his doctor. So others can correct me where I’m wrong.
I don’t know how healthy people make themselves hypoglycemic, but for diabetics hypoglycemia is the first phase of diabetes. A healthy person has two phases of insulin response. The first prevents your blood sugar from spiking dramatically when you eat carbs. The second phase delivers insulin in doses to maintain your energy levels after you eat, between meals and at night. When someone becomes a diabetic, they first lose their “first phase” response, so they may spike after a meal, then their second phase response over-reacts and sends you too low.
A friend of mine took an OGTT (where you drink 75g of sugar and test 2 hours after). His result was 3.0 mmol or 54 and he was told he was prediabetic.
I was getting some hypoglycemia for at least a year before I was diagnosed w/ type 1 in June 2007 at age 22. I remember carrying candy with me when I worked in the library(I left that job in Jan 2007) because I would feel all shaky from low blood sugar. By April or so I was getting up to drink water in the middle of the night and by late April/May, I was throwing up after eating huge meals. I think I am a tad young to be clasified as LADA, but I definitely did not have a sudden onset of T1, it was a long process.
Thank you Kelly and Jackie. I spent years and years doubting what I really knew had happened to me. Thanks for letting me know it wasn’t all in my head.
I had hypoglycemia for years. I’d get depressed, cranky & ravenously hungry. As soon as I’d eat, I instantly felt better. No one ever told me that this was something to be concerned with. Wish my doctors had.
I had hypoglycemia issues in highschool, and now I’m Type 2… My lowest was a 40 mg/dL. Wrongly, I always thought that was a great sign I wouldn’t get diabetes. lol
I had similar episodes of hypoglycemia over the past 10 years or so, andf the lowest I went before diagnosis was 32. The doctors did mention to me that this was a reactive hypo and that it would only be time before the old pancreas burnt out or the insulin I made became inefficient.