Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia is another serious condition regarding blood sugar regulation. Hypoglycemia is when your blood sugar has gone too low.  Low blood sugar results in an inadequate supply of glucose to the brain and causes a serious strain to the body and can be dangerous.   

Typically, people may notice symptoms such as shakiness, weakness and altered mood and thinking when they have waited too long to eat or have missed a meal.  Ever notice that you get cranky and a little shaky when you have missed a meal? 

Hypoglycemia is serious.  This is your body in an acute stress response to get glucose (blood sugar) to the brain.  If you continually put your body through this cycle of stress you are prematurely aging your body AND your brain. 

Do you ever:

• Crave sweets during the day?
• Get irritable if meals are missed?
• Depend on coffee to keep yourself going or started?
• Get lightheaded if meals are missed?
• Feel like eating relieves fatigue?
• Feel shaky, jittery, or have tremors?
• Get agitated, easily upset, nervous?
• Have poor memory or feel forgetful?
• Wake up in the middle of the night?
  

Hypoglycemia goes way beyond just making you feel weak and shaky.  Your adrenals are releasing stress hormones to shake stored sugar from  your muscles and liver.  That is why you get cranky and shaky.  You have cortisol and adrenaline being released into your system triggering a process to pull stored sugar from your muscles and liver into your blood stream so it can get to the brain and your cells. 

Simultaneously, insulin is released to help the glucose get into the cells and to bring the blood sugar back down to normal.  All of this happens when you wait too long to eat or skip a meal.  Consider it a roller-coaster that happens at the expense of your healthy sugar metabolism AND your health.  Over time this roller coaster will damage your brain, make your pack on belly weight  and set the stage for insulin resistance and premature aging.

Sound extreme?  Well, it’s not.  For example, chronic bouts of low blood sugar impact your brain in many ways.  One of the many ways is that when cortisol is released in response to your low blood sugar (remember cortisol is released to get your blood sugar back up to normal), the cortisol impacts a part of your brain called the Hippocampus.  This part of brain is what enables your short term memory.  Have you ever waited too long to eat or skipped meals and felt like your memory was diminished?  Well, your hippocamus is being affecting in addition to brain fog kicking in because of the lack of glucose for your brain cells to function optimally. 

Additionally, chronic bouts of low blood sugar will make you susceptible to pack on belly weight.  Why?  Because of the chronic release of cortisol and insulin to regulate your blood sugar back to normal.  Both cortisol and excess Insulin will make you pack on weight around your belly.

All of this puts tremendous strain on your Adrenals, the small walnut sized glands that sit on top of your kidneys.  Every time your blood sugar goes low, your adrenal glands have to rally to secrete cortisol and adrenaline.  This can fatigue and wear out your adrenal glands to the point of making you ALWAYS feel tired.

To avoid hypoglycemia it is import to eat glycemically balanced meals and not go more than 5 hours without eating.  Avoid eating sugars, caffeine, sugary drinks and excessive carbohydrates.  For snacks have something with a little protein, fat and carbs, such as a sliced apple with almond butter.

If you feel want to prevent or reverse Hypoglycemia, please contact me here for a free 30-minute "Blood Sugar Balance Strategy Session".

May You Be Well & Thrive!

Sarah