Symptoms of Low Blood Sugar

Symptoms awareness of Low Blood Sugar can help prevent or delay long-term, major health concerns including heart disease, eyesight loss, and kidney disease, it’s critical to keep your blood sugar levels as close to your target range as possible.

Maintaining your target range can also help you feel more energized and happier. Throughout the day, blood sugar levels fluctuate. Low blood sugar occurs when the levels go below 70 mg/dL. You must do action to bring it back up to this level. People with type 1 diabetes are more likely to have low blood sugar.

It’s critical to understand how to recognize low blood sugar because it can be harmful if left untreated.

What Signs and Symptoms Do You Have If You Have Low Blood Sugar?

Low blood sugar symptoms might strike without warning. They are as follows:

vision unclear due to light skin

dizziness

a fast heartbeat

abrupt mood shifts

unexplained weariness and unexpected nervousness

headache

hunger/shaking

sweating

difficulty sleeping

Skin tingling when sleeping

Inability to think properly or concentrate

loss of consciousness

seizure, or coma

Hypoglycemic unawareness occurs when a person is unaware that their blood sugar is decreasing. Your blood sugar may drop without you realizing it if you have this illness. You could pass out, have a seizure, or even slip into a coma if you don’t get help very away.

What Causes a Low Blood Sugar Level?

The following are the most common reasons for low blood sugar in adults with diabetes:

Taking too much insulin, sulfonylureas (such as gliclazide and gliclazide), glinides (such as repaglinide and nateglinide), or some antiviral medicines to treat hepatitis C

Skipping or delaying a meal

Not eating enough carbohydrate foods in your last meal, such as bread, cereals, pasta, potatoes, and fruit drinking alcohol

Low Blood Sugar Types

Low Blood Sugar During the Night

While low blood sugar can strike at any time of day, some people may feel it while sleeping. This could occur or a variety of reasons, including:

Had a busy day.

Physical activity towards bedtime.

Using an excessive amount of insulin.

Consumption of alcoholic beverages late at night.

Regularly eating meals and not skipping them will help you avoid low blood sugar at night. It’s also a good idea to eat while you’re drinking alcohol. If you’re worried about low blood sugar overnight, eat a snack before going to bed.

You may wake up if your blood sugar is low, but this isn’t a reliable indicator. If your blood sugar drops while you’re sleeping, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) might sound an alarm.

Low blood sugar levels are quite dangerous.

As your low blood sugar condition worsens, you may get more dangerous symptoms, such as:

Feeling weak.

Walking or seeing clearly is challenging.

Acting strangely or being perplexed

Seizures are taking place.

Low blood sugar is defined as a reading of less than 54 mg/dL. You might pass out if your blood sugar is this low (pass out). Severe low blood sugar often necessitates the assistance of a third party.

Even when closely regulating their blood sugar, people with diabetes may have low blood sugar once or twice a week. It is critical for your health to know how to recognize and treat it. Learn how to deal with hypoglycemia.

Why Check Blood Sugar?

Checking your blood sugar, if possible, is the only definite way to know if you have low blood sugar. Treat hypoglycemia if you are suffering symptoms and are unable to monitor your blood sugar for whatever reason.

Low blood sugar causes the “fight-or-flight” hormone epinephrine (adrenaline) to be released. Hypoglycemia symptoms include a pounding heart, perspiration, tingling, and anxiety, which are all caused by epinephrine.

If blood sugar levels continue to decline, the brain will not receive enough glucose and will cease to operate properly. Blurred vision, difficulties concentrating, muddled thinking, slurred speech, numbness, and tiredness are all symptoms of this condition. Seizures, coma, and death can occur if the blood sugar remains low for an extended period of time, starving the brain of glucose.

When Is the Best Time to Test My Blood Sugar?

The frequency with which you check your blood sugar is determined by your type of diabetes and whether you are taking any diabetes medications.

Checking your blood sugar at the following times is typical:

Before eating or drinking anything, when you first wake up.

Prior to eating.

After a meal, two hours.

Before going to sleep

If you have type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes with insulin, or low blood sugar frequently, your doctor may advise you to check your blood sugar more frequently, such as before and after physical activity.

How to Self-Treat a Low Blood Sugar Level

If your blood sugar level is less than 3.5mmol/L or you experience hypo symptoms, take the following steps:

Have a sugary drink or snack, such as a small glass of fizzy drink (not diet), fruit juice, 4-5 jelly babies, 3-6 glucose tablets, or 1-2 glucose gel tubes.

After 10 minutes, check your blood sugar levels; if they’ve improved and you’re feeling better, go to step 3. If there is little or no change, try a sugary drink or snack again after 10 to 15 minutes and take another reading.

If it’s the correct time, you might need to have your main meal (which should contain a slow-release carbohydrate). Alternatively, try a slow-release carbohydrate snack like a slice of bread or toast, a couple of biscuits, or a glass of cow’s milk.

If you only have a few hypos, you normally don’t need medical care until you’ve recovered.

However, tell your diabetes team if you continue to have hypos or if your symptoms disappear while your blood sugar level is low.

How to Avoid Low Blood Sugar?

The best thing you can do is practice proper diabetes management and learn to recognize hypoglycemia so you can treat it before it becomes worse.

The tried and tested way for preventing hypoglycemia is to monitor blood sugar with a meter or a CGM. Studies demonstrate that the more often a person checks his or her blood sugar, the lower the risk of hypoglycemia. This is because you can see when your blood sugar is dropping and address it before it becomes dangerously low.