Hypoglycemia Forum - Advice Needed

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Q: Advice Needed

asked by: pab006 on March 28th, 2007

New User

All,

Sorry for the long post. Im 25, male and play football 3 times and week, and attend a martial arts class once a week. I dont usually have breakfast and have generally had two meals a day, one at around 12ish and one around 5 with no problems.

For the last 5 weeks ive been having dizzy spells, loss of concentration, mild headaches, and periods of what i can only describe as mental slowness (ie if someone was talking to me it would take me a second or two to register what they have said and respond). Off i trundel to my gp. He checked my blood pressure which was higher than it should be, and also thought he detected a murmur on my heart. He suggested trying eating breakfast, to see if this makes a difference, and sent me for a blood test when i have the symptoms (the blood test was for glucose random, thyroid, liver, kidney and bone). Had the blood test and an ecg. On a couple of days i actually had my sandwiches (normally for dinner!), and felt better.

A few days ago i recevied a letter from my doc, requesting i have more blood tests in 1 month, this time only testing kidney, liver and bone, and in the other notes section it said hypoglycemic?? Now obviously i cant eat my sarnies everyday for breakfast, so having done a little research sugar is a non no if its hypoglycemia, so opted for shredded wheat. Ive cut caffeine and sugary drinks out of my diet as well.

Dizzy spells have since more or less dissapeared, but have been replaced with very bad headaches, the pain generally moves around my head and eye sockets, and will fade when i eat, but never seems to go away, unless im excercising.

I have a few questions

1. are the above headaches a knee jerk reaction from starting to have breakfast/ cutting caffeine? am i eating the wrong thing?
2. Is there anything else i can do to relieve the symptoms, and does it sound like hypoglycemia?

i dont want to make too radical changes if i can help it until i know fully what im dealing with.

Thankyou for your help, all advice and comments are greatly welcomed

cheers
Paul

Replies(3)

Stan

replied on March 28th, 2007

Moderator

If you're eating whole grains you should be fine. Sugars are okay if coming from fruits, but stay away from dried fruits, watermelon and especially bananas. Something like one apple a day is good. Always make sure you're eating 100% whole grain and it says that on the box or whatever you're buying. If not, don't eat it. Don't eat white rice, white bread and so forth, that's pretty much like eating sugar. Most vegetables should be okay, but you might want to stay away from corn (it's actually a grain) or potatoes depending on how bad your condition is. Anyway, the symptoms you're experiencing are likely just your body adjusting to the diet. These things happen and there is unfortunately nothing you can do about it, you simply have to wait it out and keep eating right. Do not skip breakfast.

pab006

replied on April 4th, 2007

New User

hi stan,

thanx for your reply. Looking at the forum your certainly a guru. Quick question. My headaches and general symptoms seem to be 100% better if ive done some form of excercise the night before, ie the day after football. Now i know i havent been diagnosed yet, so i may not be hypoglycemic, but is there a link between excercise and hypoglycemia, ie imoproves symptoms etc?

Secondly, taking cod liver oil tablets really seems to help my headaches as well, are there any other supplements i should be looking at?

thanks again

Paul

Stan

replied on April 4th, 2007

Moderator

Yes, there does seem to be a connection. I don't know exactly why, but I've read that exercise strengthens insulin response and glucose regulation. I usually find that if I don't exercise for a few days (I do kung fu and heavy lifting), I feel worse, sometimes pretty bad. It also keep endorphins up which helps the entire body. Again, not sure exactly what's happening, but it definitely helps. Instead of cod liver, find these capsules called fish oil from a company called spectrum naturals. They have a particular type that has a picture of three little fish and which says it's derived from wild caught small fish. This is the kind you want and that should help even more. You may also want to try a nice, natural vitamin c tablet to supplement, getting around 1g per day maximum because you basically just pee out the rest. This will help. Try that and let me know. Here is what you need to find:

http://www.drugstore.com/qxp140306_333181_ sespider/spectrum_essentials/fish_oil_1000 mg_softgels.htm

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