Diabetes?

[Good4you]

I’ve been having symptoms of hypoglycaemia for a while now, getting worse and I’m not sure if it’s due to medicine I’ve been on and eating habits increased because of that. ( I went from 8 stone to 10 stone in 8 months)

Anyway spoken to my doctor and I’m coming off of the medication (mirtizapine) and checking for diabetes with a blood test. The HBA1C. Unfortunately blood tests are hard to get and can only go in two weeks time.

My anxiety has made me get one of those blood sugar test kits because I feel rotten all the time and I’ve just been messing around with it but it says I’m 3.7 hypo. I had lunch at 12:30 but have had coffee with sugar and squash throughout the afternoon.

Also, I think I’ve had symptoms of hypoglycaemia my whole life but doctors always put it down to low blood pressure, anaemia or anxiety attacks. I’m a bit worried now but if someone can tell me what 3.7 hypo might mean for someone that hasn’t been diagnosed with diabetes.

Nothing to do with diabetes

Diabetes - you don't have the insulin in your blood to scoop up the sugar so you get high sugar levels

A diabetic gets low sugars if they inject too much insulin for the amount of sugar in belt system

There are two types of diabetes, and Type 2 is the sort they test with the HBAC1, which will give entirely different results from the fingerprick instant test because it is testing for different things. So please don't try and work it out for yourself.

That's type 1. They are testing the OP for Type 2 which is insulin resistant.

Thanks for your reply!

If you have diabetes type 2 you will have high blood sugars, not low.
The normal range of blood sugars is 4-7 so 3.7 is not unusual if you haven’t eaten for a while.

Thanks, that helps!

But those are not the figures the OP will get from the HBAC1 test and are just confusing her at the moment. They are not measuring the same thing.

The normal range for HBAC1 is up to 41. Between 42 - 47 is pre-diabetic (I'm currently 42) and 48+ means you have T2. diabetes.

@Good4you Might I suggest you go onto the Diabetes UK website and look up the differences between Type 1 and Type 2, they explain it very well on there.

The effect is still the same - there isn't enough insulin to mop up the sugar , not too much
Diabetics who inject insulin get low sugars

Before diagnosis and control you get high sugars not low sugars

The figures she has got are from a finger prick test, which would indicate that she is not diabetic.
Other things do cause low blood sugar, but this just looks like she needs some food.

Thank you for your response, I’m worried that I’ve eaten so much rubbish being on this medicine that I’ve given myself diabetes type 2. I can’t go very long between meals before I start shaking and sweating

The hba1c will tell you your average blood sugar level over the last few months. Both type 1 and 2 get this test. It will not tell them what type you have, to confirm type one they do an antibody test. However it's very unlikely that diabetes is the cause of your hypoglycaemia if that is what you are experiencing. An untreated diabetic would have high blood sugars.

This really helps, thank you!

That’s not how it works. Untreated diabetes type 2 cause high blood sugars not low.
it sound like you’re having dips in your blood sugar caused by your diet which is what’s making you feel rubbish

That makes sense although I have been eating healthy for 4 months now and regular meal times with no weight loss. Maybe there is another reason? I would understand crashes in my blood sugar at first but not now.. Thank you for your response, I don’t believe I have diabetes anymore 😊

There is a condition (not diabetes) called reactive hypoglycaemia, which causes blood sugar to dip quite/very low a few hours after eating. It’s caused by the body producing too much insulin to deal with a high-carb meal, which would make sense if you say your diet has been a bit unbalanced. Drinking coffee with sugar and squash all day would be putting a lot of sugar (carbs) into your system, which will set you in a rollercoaster of sugar and insulin spikes. You could try looking into reducing your carbs - there’s lots of advice on the internet - and see if that helps you at all.

I’m T1 diabetic and have found cutting carbs is the best way of keeping my blood sugars level, and feeling an awful lot better as a result.

As others have said, if you had undiagnosed diabetes, your blood sugar readings would be much higher, so I wouldn’t stress too much about that.

Thank you that’s very helpful, I don’t really eat many carbs and I didn’t realise sugar in drinks was a carb silly me! I usually have black coffee but thought the added sugar would make me feel a bit better xx

It might make you feel better in the short term, but then your pancreas will release insulin to combat the sugar and if it overdoes it, you’ll be back in that cycle. Protein or fats would be better to combat the hunger - something like BabyBel cheeses perhaps, or eggs for breakfast rather than toast or cereal, for example. If you can stabilise your blood sugar levels you’ll feel so much better overall. There is hidden sugar in so many products and ready-meals, even more than the obvious carbs you can see.

There are a few conditions that can cause hypoglycaemia (other than being an insulin dependent diabetic). Have you taken your blood glucose reading while feeling shaky and sweaty?