Controlling your glucose levels.

So, I've had a lot of low-blood sugar issues lately. Literally every night around midnight, right as I'm trying to get to sleep, I get all shaky and hot and I go and test my blood sugar and it's relativley low. Along with a few times periodically throughout a week at other times, it gets low. The only thing I can attribute it to is not eating enough. I was just raised up to 850mg of Metformin twice a day, but my doctor assures me it shouldn't have too much of an affect on my blood sugar since I've been on it so long. So I'm trying to eat more frequently, without grazing.

Since I've had this issue going on for a few months, I thought I'd share some tips on preventing low blood sugar, and how to raise it.. and keep it at a good level.

My dad is hypoglycemic, but has no metabolic issues or anything. Other than smoking, and an inoperable benign brain tumor, he's relatively healthy.... Works a hard labor job, etc.. Whenever his drops, he can grab Reese's Peanutbutter Cups and it'll go up and he'll be fine. He doesn't ever really test his blood sugar. He can just tell. On the few occasions we've tested it just for fun to get an idea, he doesn't start feeling it untill his blood sugar is about at 40.

Where for me, I can start feeling it in the 60's. Which isn't even that low. (So you can imagine how bad it is when it gets down into the 40's-50's..) But I've always been like this. I've been overly-sensitive. I can estimate what my blood sugar is at any given time, and I'll be within 10-15 points of it. It's annoying.. but it's become a good tool.

But most people aren't like that. They can't tell what their blood sugar is very often. So you need to test a little more often to get an idea, rather than only when you feel high or low.

I know Type 1 diabetics need to test close to 7 times a day. At least the few I know, anyway. My grandma who was type 2 had to test fasting, with every meal, and at bedtime. so about 4-5 times. And All my life I had to test 2-3 times a day, up untill the past couple years. Fasting, and 2 hours after dinner primarily. But I say occasionally 3 times, because whenever I would feel sick, as a little kid I culdn't automatically say I knew it was my blood sugar, because I didn't know. So that was always a pre-caution to rule out low or high blood sugar.

Before I get into tips on how to controll it, lets talk about symptoms of the two. Sometimes I used to think i was low, when i was actually high. Obviously the only way to be sure is to test. but here are the defined symptoms of high/low blood sugar:

High: (listed on this website. It describes it all better than I could.) http://www.emedicinehealth.com/high_blood_sugar_hyperglycemia/page3_em.htm

Low: Personally for me, I get dizzy, shaky, irritable, and tired. But all the symptoms are listed here -- http://www.emedicinehealth.com/low_blood_sugar_hypoglycemia/page3_em.htm

So there are the lists of symptoms, and aside from testing to make sure you know where you are, and if your high or low, here are some tips on how to control it.

To prevent high/low blood sugar: protein!! Eat protein with sugar/carbs. If you're going to have something that you know can raise your blood sugar (like for me, a muffin or something like that that I normally don't have..) have milk with it. Or some source of protein. Sugar attaches itself to protein, and It won't raise your blood sugar as much.

To control high/low blood sugar: For high blood sugar, unless you're diabetic and have insulin you can take, there isn'tmuch you can do. Just wait it out. Sometimes if mine's high i'll drink a glass of skim milk and sometimes i think it slowly helps bring it down, but i'm not 100% sure on the science of that, if it helps at all. But for low blood sugar? Eat sugar/carb + protein. Like, peanutbutter toast and a glass of milk. Or strawberries and a piece of string cheese. Occassionally when it's really llow, I'll add in a real meal.. Sort of an egg sandwich. But with only one piece of bread. I'll take a piece of bread, a slice of cheese, and fry an egg and put it on top.. and eat that. It fills me up. (obviously, it may not fill somene up that has a normal sized stomach.. but it'll do.) the carb really helps raise the blood sugar and because there is protein, it stays up.

If it's dangerously low, like, below 40-45 ish... drink orange juice, or have something high in sugar. and once your blood sugar is raised, then add protein to keep it up. it'll happen faster.

So I hope this helps clear some things up for some people, and keep in mind I'm not a doctor or anything. This is just from my 10+ years experience with testing and dealig with high/low blood sugar. Obviously if you have chronic high/low's, make sure you let your doctor know and see if they have any further advice or want to run any tests or anything.

I hope you're having a great day, and feel free to email me or contact me on facebook or something, if you want. (:

---Ashley.

PS: I'm going to my first support group for the sugery, tomorrow... with a bunch of teenagers that had WLS at the same hospital I did. It's a summer event... at a rec center, there's gonna be swimming and sports and stuff like that. I have previously met 2 or 3 of the people that are going, and have talked to a few other people online. But this'll be interesting.. I'll be sure to post about it later. Maybe pictures too, if I'm allowed. (: