Because your pancreas overreacts and continues to release more insulin than is necessary. If you happen to have functional hypoglycemia, it won't matter what you eat, but reactive is the type you're talking about.

Oh okay, I'm not really sure whether I have hypoglycemia for sure or not, but I do know my blood sugar is lower than most people, so I might as well start taking steps. Could you explain the difference between functional and reactive?

Functional just means it's generally low, but you'd be able to eat whatever you want. Reactive means that it's low, but you have to restrict what you eat because certain foods and carbohydrate loads cause your pancreas to overreact.

That makes sense. How could I tell which one I have? If I have it.

If you can eat candy bars with no problem, you don't have reactive.

that's sort of a bad example, because i never ever liked candy for some reason, nor soda or anything of the sort. what about fruits? they have alot of sugar even though they're healthy.

No, that's a very good example because if you can eat something like that, your pancreas is not overreacting. If you can't, it is. It's the easiest test in the world if you haven't started a better diet yet. Fruit should not make a difference even if you have it, so long as you are eating no more than 1-2 servings a day at first, nothing dried and no bananas.

ok, thanks, this information is helpful. i do have one more question. my ears have been popping lately almost all the day every day, but at some points it's more noticable than others. i also occasionally feel like things get slightly more blurry, it's hardly a problem, but it seems just enough of a change that it's noticeable. i read that both blurry vision and popping ears are symptoms of hypoglycemia. but these came suddenly after i'd had a case of insomnia, which i'm over now. and wouldn't my ears pop only when my blood sugar is low? do you think it would have to do with the blood sugar or anything else that you know of?

Ear and eye problems are common, especially tinnitus (spelling?), which essentially means any ringing or odd sounds in the ears. The insomnia is also a symptom. What do you mean only when it's low? If you mean that you feel fine otherwise, the problem is that with hypoglycemia (reactive), the constant cycling of sugar causes problems to occur after a readable level. So you could take your sugar reading while feeling awful and find it normal. The reason why is that the effect took place before, and the body is starting to adjust it but you haven't felt the full completion of it yet. Just how the body works. Imagine a lake that someone dumps gasoline in and although the initial corruption may burn off pretty quickly, it could, say, gradually effect plant life, which will then take time to return to normal, same thing.

that makes perfect sense. my typical readings two hours after a meal are typically between 80-90. and one time i got up in the middle of the night when it had been a while since i last ate and it was 73. so i'm not sure exactly how low it gets when i haven't eaten for a while. do you think that's low enough to generally cause those symptoms?
the weird thing is they initially tested my blood sugar and found it to be 90 fasting. and made me take this sugar drink to take my blood sugar every half hour for two and a half a hours. it took a while for my blood sugar to go down although i had plenty of insulin and c peptides cycling through my blood stream. i think it was kind of a fluke due to certain exceptions.

Did they tell you to fast before the test? What were your readings again? It's not the level of the drop, it's the speed that's important, because your brain can't cope with it.

right, the speed was slow because for a while, at first it was at 200. but then it started going down and doing what it was supposed to do. i think that was 167 or something around an hour/an hour and a half.

However, since then, taking it on my own, my readings have been low, and from what i've learned my symptoms better fit hypoglycemia than hyperglycemia. even after drinking nearly half a Sobe(31g of sugar in the whole thing), along with some stromboli and spinach, 2 hours later it was at 83. but without drinking the sobe, it was 89 one time after i ate two pieces of large pizza. so it seems that it may be possible that i'm somewhat reactive even if technically you have to be lower to be hypoglycemic.

it's kind of unusual that it would have been so high when they tested me. but i believe it may have had to do with my menstrual cycle. because i found a website that said "many woman reject their own insulin 3-5 days before, during, or after their menstrual cycle." i don't know if it could truly make it that high though. they said they found plenty of insulin and c-peptides in my blood though.

A drop of around 40 in an hour is not very slow at all actually. What is your level like when you get up in the morning? Does it ever go over 90?

no, i haven't seen it over 90, but i've only taken it a few times. i took it this morning an hour after eating a bowl of rice krispies and it was at 87. but i don't know what it was before. so what does it mean if it takes my blood sugar down low, but is also slow processing?

I'm not sure I understand your question. I suggest taking a reading before just to see and then around every half hour thereafter for about two hours to see what it does.

that's what they did at the doctor's office. i did something a little bit similar to that this morning, but not so many sticks. i took my reading this morning when it had a been a long time since i'd ate. then i took it again immediately after i ate 2 bowls of rice krispies. then i took it an hour later to see how much it went down.

before-75
immediately after-103
hour later-80

but as for what i was asking: you said it wasn't the reading that mattered so much, but the speed that it went down. so i waas asking what does it mean if blood sugar is generally low but processes slowly after you eat? or is that possible? because low blood sugar is hypoglycemic. and blood sugar processing slowly would be more diabetic.

You have a decent drop there. What do you mean by slow to process?

I meant as in blood sugar slowly lowering, particularly referring to the test at the doctor. But I think that was a fluke.

And you mean decent drop as in a good thing? I've heard that these levels (around 70-90) are normal and I've heard that they are low from different sources. I mean which are they and how can I know for sure?

Oh, and also, I already mentioned that my ears pop 24/7. I know that can be a symptom, but it shouldn't be that often should it? I'm not really sure if that's due to blood sugar though, because I'm having some issues with anxiety as well.

The level is determined by the individual primarily for hypoglycemia. If it drops 30mg in an hour and there are symptoms, then that's low for that person. I wish you had some sort of readings stretching over about five hours. It would be a pain but very helpful, one hour is not really enough because I can't see what happens afterwards. Sorry, but still am not certain what you mean! Hahahahaha. You say slow but the test at the doctors indicates a 33mg drop in an hour. Mine would only drop 30mg per hour and I would get awful symptoms, so I wouldn't call that slow.