Facts On Hypoglycaemia

Hypoglycaemia can leave your body without enough energy to carry out even light everyday tasks and activities.

In this article:

What is hypoglycaemia?

Symptoms

Causes

How Chemist Online can help

Advice & Support

What is Hypoglycaemia?
Hypoglycaemia is where your blood sugar (glucose) is at an abnormal level. This can trigger a range of symptoms.

Although hypoglycaemia can be a worrying condition, the good news it that the onset of a hypoglycaemic attack (where the blood sugar drops and reaches a sometimes dangerous level) usually occurs with some forewarning. That said, if hypoglycaemia is left untreated it can lead to serious health problems.

Hypoglycaemia most commonly occurs in people who suffer from Type 1 - Diabetes.

About Type 1 – Diabetes
Type 1 – Diabetes affects over 2 million people in the UK. It develops when there is an excessive amount of glucose in the blood (and your body stops making a pancreatic generated hormone called insulin which keeps your blood glucose levels under control). Too much glucose can damage your blood cells over time, make you feel ill, and lead to extremely serious medical problems. We get glucose sugar from food. It gives us energy and helps our cells to function properly.

Type 1 – Diabetes generally occurs in children of young adults.

Let’s return now to hypoglycaemia and look at its symptoms.

Symptoms
Symptoms of hypoglycaemia can vary in levels of severity from person to person.

Where mild hypoglycaemia occurs, its symptoms can include:

Dizziness

Sweating

Shaking

Irritability

A craving for sweets

A feeling of weakness of faintness

Overwhelming fatigue

Anxiety and mood swings

Also, people with hypoglycaemia can often suffer from depressive illness. Please see contact details for the Depression Alliance in the Advice & Support section at the foot of this article.

Where severe hypoglycaemia occurs (the blood sugar levels dropping to extremely dangerous levels) then the person suffering the hypoglycaemic attack may behave in a manner which others can find odd, out of character and/or strange. As a result of this the person suffering the hypoglycaemic attack could come across as acting in a drunken manner (onlookers being oblivious to the real cause of the person’s behaviour and therefore not responding with the appropriate help).

Causes
Hypoglycaemic attacks can be caused by a range of triggers, such as:

Insulin injections (or through taking oral medication for Type 1 – Diabetes)

Missing a meal or through being late to eat at your normal time

Through imbibing alcohol on an empty stomach

After partaking in exercise that is strenuous, leaves you out of breath and your heart-rate soaring

Treatment
Treatment for hypoglycaemia is very much self-medication based. This means that you should respond to a hypoglycaemic attack by having some sugar based food or drink immediately (e.g., sugar lumps, sweets, fruit juice…). This should end the attack and reduce symptoms. Then, eat a carbohydrate food. Long acting carbohydrate foods are best, such as fruit, a sandwich, some cereal or some biscuits.

Preventative measures you can take to safely avoid a hypoglycaemic attack are to keep a regular check on your blood glucose levels and ensure that you do not skip meals. An early warning sign of a hypoglycaemic attack is the sudden onset of ravenous hunger, so it is best to keep some food with you in your bag or in your desk drawer at work, for example, to prepare yourself for this possibility.

In situations where someone has had a severe hypoglycaemic attack which has rendered them unconscious, then an injection of the hormone glucagon by a healthcare professional is usually administered.

How Chemist Online can help
Through this website we have a range of products available to buy which can help you to monitor your blood glucose levels.


www.chemistonline.co.uk


Advice & Support
Hypoglycaemia Support Foundation
Website: www.hypoglycaemia.org

Diabetes UK – The charity for people with diabetes
Tel: 0845 120 2960
Website: www.diabetes.org.uk

Depression Alliance
Tel: 0845 123 23 20
Website: www.depressionalliance.org


This information and advice is not intended to replace the advice of your GP or chemist. Chemist Online is also not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based upon the content of the Chemist Online website. Chemist Online is also not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites.


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