Blood Sugar Issues-Why?

[Fifteenthnamechange]

I've always been someone who has to be careful about eating sugary foods/caffeine/white bread etc. Afterwards when the crash comes I feel hot, shaky & faint until I ram a whole load of chocolate/sweets down my throat. Coffee can be the worst for causing this for me so I've pretty much stopped having anything other than decaf the past year.
The past 6 weeks or so this is much worse though. Even if I eat foods that wouldn't normally cause that reaction it is happening-eg I ate boiled eggs & then a couple of hours later felt faint, shaky, tired etc.
It seems I need to eat every 2.5 hours, if I leave it 3 hours I can feel myself crashing.
I had a health test in work recently & was told my blood sugar was low, but it was aid in a positive way
What is this?

I would get your HBA1c tested - a blood test which tells your average blood sugar levels over a 3 month period.

@Rachel438 thanks, I'll speak to GP

But does anyone have any suggestions what it might be?

Have you always had this or is it a sudden thing? You can buy blood sugar monitors to test yourself, do a weeks worth of testing, morning afternoon, evening before food and when you get symptomatic. Take that to the doctors with you.

My partner gets this feeling but he's never under 5mmol. My son has ketotic hypoglycaemia and he needs to eat every two hours during the day and has to eat through the night too, I'm pretty sure KH is a childhood thing and reactive hypoglycaemia is an adult thing. There are quite a few things that can cause low sugars - glycogen storage diseases been the only one I'm familiar with. We use glycosade/cornstarch to keep his sugars up and also try and get him to eat complex carbs to maintain blood sugars.

I don't have answers but I think you can eat other foods that slow the release of sugar. So for example, eating protein with a banana (not a great example).

I also find that a good thing for a blood sugar crash is actually an apple, it is sweet enough to hit the craving but it is slow sugar releasing. Obviously, get checked out to make sure there isn't anything underlying going on. Hope you get sorted soon.

Thanks @PonderLand I had a health check in work recently & I think i was 3--is that too low?
I've had this to some extent for as long as I remember but was manageable by being sensible with food. However the past month or two even eating sensible food (ie high protein, low carb/sugar) food has made me feel terrible a couple of hours later.
Could this be diabetes? Or something else?

I'd speak to your Gp. It could even be linked to other things, possibly for example thyroid or even anaemia.

Have you changed contraceptive pill? Some of them seem to have this effect on me.

@BeetrootBasil that's what I'm doing. Eating the normal things that wouldn't trigger the crash response but adding a fruit in-don't know whether that's healthy long term but necessary

@MrsHardbroom nope, not on the pill

Diabetes would cause high blood sugar levels, not low. Diabetic hypos are a side effect of taking insulin.

@NeurotrashWarrior thanks. I know I def need to see GP but am putting it off a bit due to paranoia that I have diabetes, and equally that I'm making a fuss over nothing!

I have very similar sounding symptoms and was eventually diagnosed with post prandial syndrome (also known as reactive hypoglycaemia which a pp mentioned). I went through endocrinology at the hospital who did an extended glucose tolerance test and found 2 hours after eating my blood sugar level was around 2. They prescribed acarbose which seemed to help. Definitely my symptoms get much worse in pregnancy!

It is definitely not diabetes. If you had diabetes your blood sugar levels would be high. The only time diabetics have a low blood glucose reading is when they have had too much insulin/not enough food.

4mmol/L is generally considered to be the lowest normal reading, so 3 is too low.

There are a number of possible reasons for spontaneous low blood glucose, but you do need to visit your GP for a fasting test and possible referral to an endocrinologist.

In my DH’s case he produced too much insulin, caused by a small benign pancreatic tumour called an insulinoma. They are very rare, so your problem may be caused by something else. He had surgery and is fine now.

my 3 year old has blood sugar issues and one suggestion is a glycogen storage disorder....there are loads of types some v extrme and some mild.
or gastric dumping