Treating lows

I’m sensitive, so use glucose tabs (ReliOn from WalMart) if falling really fast–just one. If I’m trending low, 1 Sunsweet prune (5 carbs), will usually do it. They’re individually packaged so easy to carry (and I have them everywhere), I like them and it’s a chance for me to eat fruit.

Doing a little checking online and it looks like it’s a powdered product. That’s great for putting in drink but makes packaging and using it in relatively small quantities a challenge. The advantage of glucose tablets is its tablet form for packaging and using. Any failure of a package containing powder will make a mess. It would be OK to keep on a kitchen shelf and a quick mix into water for dosing. I don’t think I’d like small baggies of powder in my day-pack with their susceptibility to ripping and leaking powdered stickiness into my entire pack. Do you use this type of glucose to treat lows?

Yes, Dextrose usually comes packaged in 1kg plastic bags, which is a lot of
product if you only use it for treating hypos. Even the product my son
received from US was in a 2 pound plastic bag.

When I use the product, I store it in an empty 350g Ovaltine plastic
container which is kept in a 13L Waeco Cool-Ice Esky. This esky also serves
as storage for all my diabetic supplies and food when I am working outside.

As summer temperatures here are usually above 30 °C, a frozen plastic
bottle of water, wrapped in a tea towel to keep condensation at bay, keeps
every thing cool.

I take a tablespoon about 10-12g to treat a hypo below 2.8mmol/L and
usually don’t use water to wash it down unless I need a drink. The powder
dissolves instantly in my mouth and is working within 5 to 7 minutes. It is
a hypo fix that stores well, very convenient and cheep and is not
hydroscopic when stored in the container so the powder does not become wet
and sticky like sucrose (White Sugar) can when the humidity is high at high
temperatures.

Yes, I will buy a small packet of Glucojels if I have an appointment that
lasts for a period of time but usually finish the packet if I have to open
it. I have completely stopped treating hypos with soft drink, juices and
all other types of sweets.

Horses for courses Terry and, yes I agree with you and if you have to
carry it in your pocket it would be inconvenient. I did, at one stage, use
Dextrose in my Ovaltine for hypo events but it is much more convenient when
I am working to treat hypos with a tablespoon of dextrose.

I occasionally use dextrose to sweeten my coffee of a morning if my levels
are low but Xylitol is my sweetener of choice.

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You are so wright, Robyn. As long as it works for you that all that matters.

I use Dextrose because no body will eat it, it stores well and is cheep.

i was a sugar junkie, before i was diagnosed with Type 1 over 9 years ago.

I don’t think it’s melting from temperature, I think it’s humidity making them sticky and gooey.

For a lot of us we associate humid weather with hot weather but that’s not true for Phoenix!

For many years I used butterscotch life savers to treat. I liked them well enough to get them down if needed, but not so much I’d be tempted by them when I didn’t need them. But after having several packs of them melt into a mess during hot New England summers, I switched to starlight mints, which are individually wrapped. That worked for years.

Unfortunately, I am a compulsive overeater, and this past year I started raiding my mint stash too often. So, I finally decided to try glucose tabs again, for the first time in about 20 years. And I was doubly surprised:

First of all, the new glucose tabs are much easier to get down. Not nearly as chalky. I picked raspberry, and they don’t taste bad. Definitely not something I’d go to for a treat, but really not half bad.

The second suprise really bowled me over. So, with the mints, they were about 4g per mint, so I’d usually take 3 or 4, depending on how low I was. But if I was seriously low (low 40’s or even 30’s), I’d also eat. You know…the screaming hungry horrors that make you feel that you’re going to die immediately if you don’t eat everything in sight? So, naturally, I often ended up rebounding. BUT - with the glucose tabs, which are only a measly 2 grams per tab, they work SO quickly…within seconds…that I don’t even necessarily need more than two tabs, and I’m up to the 60’s or 70’s within 5 minutes! No hungry horrors, no rebounding. Darn - I wish someone had told me a few years back that the tabs were not only better tasting but worked so well!

Ruth

In Australia it’s readily available in most supermarkets, in the home brew aisle. Cheap and useful. I’ve even found it in very small country towns.
Deceptively unsweet though. Not at all like sugar.
I’ve tried to make my own glucose gels out of it. Miserable failures have happened. The powder precipitates within hours😐.

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This has been my experience as well. Before this discovery, I used to go through a bag of cookies a week treating lows. Since just using one or two glucose tabs, the last time I reached for a cookie, the bag had been in the cupboard so long they were stale.

Mini box of raisins