Hypoglycemia For Dummies

Cheryl Chow has been a writer, editor, and journalist for more than 20 years. James Chow, MD, is a member of the American Academy of Family Medicine.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You’re Not to Read 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part I: Addressing Your Ups and Downs: Could This Be Hypoglycemia? 4

Part II: Diagnosing and Treating Your Hypoglycemia 4

Part III: Emulating Lifestyles of the Well and Healthy 4

Part IV: Spinning a Network of Support for Yourself (and Others) 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 4

Where to Go from Here 5

Part I: Addressing Your Ups and Downs: Could This Be Hypoglycemia? 7

Chapter 1: Riding the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster Isn’t Any Fun 9

Defining Hypoglycemia 9

Organic 10

Relative 10

Reactive 11

Like a Greased Pig: Easy to Define, Tough to Pin Down 11

Identifying key symptoms 13

Arriving at a diagnosis 13

Knowing Who’s Prone 15

Prevailing problem: The pudge! 15

Like a couple of hooligans: Linking hypoglycemia and diabetes 16

Heading Toward Better Health 16

Chapter 2: Digesting Hypoglycemia: Your Body’s Role 19

Absorbing Some Physical Food 19

Breaking down proteins 20

Pancreas plays its part 21

Insulin gone awry 23

Tracing Cause and Effect 24

Multiple causes 24

Exhausting your adrenals 25

Ravaging your health: The couch and the potato 26

Sugar, sugar, everywhere — except where you need it 27

Addressing Addictions: The Link to Low Blood Sugar 28

Chapter 3: Symptoms without a Cause 31

Jumping on Stage: No, You’re Not Faking It 31

Eying the Physical Symptoms 32

Identifying the Emotional Symptoms 33

Unmasking Hypoglycemia’s Hidden Faces 35

Reactions to food 36

Overlapping syndromes 39

Haggling with hypothyroidism 41

Joining the hypo bandwagon: Hypoadrenalism 42

Hypoglycemia and Diabetes — Flip Sides of the Same Coin? 43

Looking at the syndrome flowchart 43

Identifying the types of diabetes 44

Nailing Down Hypoglycemia: Symptoms throughout the Ages 46

Hypoglycemia and newborns 46

Hypoglycemia and children 47

Hypoglycemia and pregnant women 47

Hypoglycemia and menopausal women 48

Hypoglycemia and older people 48

Part II: Diagnosing and Treating Your Hypoglycemia 49

Chapter 4: Matching Up with the Right Doc 51

Why Seeing a Doc on a Regular Basis Is Important 51

Paging Dr. Perfection 52

Knowing what to look for in a doc 53

Finding the right doc 54

Dealing with doubters 56

Choosing a Specialist 56

Internists and family doctors 57

Endocrinologists 57

Preparing Shows You’re Caring (About Yourself) 58

What to take to your appointment 58

Following up after the appointment 61

Putting Some Ohhhhmm into It: Alternative Medicine 62

Defining your alternatives 62

Considering your alternatives 63

Working in tandem 65

Chapter 5: Getting the Lowdown on Low Blood Sugar. 69

Poking and Prodding Yourself 69

Filling in the circles: A questionnaire 70

Eating by trial 72

Getting the 411 on Hypoglycemia Testing 73

The pros and cons of these tests 74

What to expect from the tests 75

How your doc interprets the results 78

Graphing your own results 80

Chapter 6: Gorging on Good Health 85

Of Food Pyramids and Healthy Eating 86

Re-designing the familiar pyramid 86

Building a hypoglycemic pyramid 87

Keeping your diet in balance 89

Shunning problematic foods 90

The World’s Your Oyster and Your Pear — Foods to Eat 91

Life’s a bowl of cherries: Fruits 92

Vegging out isn’t a bad thing 94

The squeaky hypoglycemic gets the grease: Fats 96

Powering up with proteins 98

Doing dairy 99

Breaking the proverbial camel’s back: Breads and grains 99

Eating the Right Way 101

Starting off on the right foot 101

Eating six meals — or more — a day 103

The most important meal 103

Sizing up your servings 104

Getting back on the wagon if you’ve fallen off 105

Adding helpful food substitutes 106

Hypoglycemia in Vegetarians: What Can You Eat? 107

Chewing on a Food Journal 108

Knowing what to record 108

A food journal isn’t just for food 109

Tracking your progress 110

Chapter 7: Hanging with Herb and His Buddies Vitamin and Supplement. 111

Getting Acquainted with Herb 111

Saying Hello to Supplements and Vitamins 112

Vitamins and minerals 112

Supplements 113

Taking the Hypoglycemia Mix 114

Matching Supplements to Ails: Which Makes You Feel Better? 119

Anxiety 120

Asthma 121

Chronic fatigue syndrome 122

Constipation 122

Depression/mood swings 123

Digestive problems 125

Fatigue and energy drain 127

Fibromyalgia 128

Headaches 128

Insomnia 129

Low sex drive 130

Memory problems/poor concentration 131

Midafternoon slump 132

Nausea 133

Poor circulation 133

Stress 134

Water retention 135

Table of Contents ix

Taking a Whiff: Aromatherapy 135

Rocking Bach’s Flower Remedies 136

Part III: Emulating Lifestyles of the Well and Healthy 137

Chapter 8: Easing Symptoms and Energizing with Exercise 139

Why Exercise Is Important When Battling Hypoglycemia 139

Easing Your Way into Exercise 141

Modifying your behavior 141

Finding the time to exercise 142

Timing Your Carbs 142

Improving Insulin and Feeling the Burn: Aerobics 143

Strut your stuff and work that walk 144

What’s the difference, you ask? Running and jogging 146

Shaking your groove thang: Dancing 147

Regulating Blood Sugar with Yoga and T’ai Chi 148

Going yoga 148

Taking T’ai Chi 149

Kicking Weakness with Weights 150

Building endurance with bodyweight workouts 150

Easing into free weights with body weights 152

Incorporating free weights into

your exercise regimen 152

Clearing Brain Fog with Qigong 153

Chapter 9: All Stressed Out and Nowhere to Go. 155

How Stress Impacts Your Hypoglycemia 155

Determining Your Stress Level 156

Knotting Off: Relaxing Your Tight Muscles 157

Taking a Deep Breath to Relax 159

Breathing helps regulate your blood sugar 159

Trying some deep-breathing exercises to relax 160

Surfing the Alpha Wave with Meditation 161

Balancing your blood and body 162

Energizing with EFT 164

Kicking food cravings in the gut 168

Making the Ultimate Smoothie: Hypno-Soothing 171

Chapter 10: Defanging the Depression Demons 173

Revealing Another Epidemic 174

Knowing What (Gray) Matters 175

Getting Comfy on the Couch 176

Mastering new thinking skills 177

Thinking healthy 178

Easing through the transition 179

Beating the Low Blood Sugar Blues 180

Stop being so SAD 180

Taking a swing at your mood 181

Discussing dietary plans 182

Feeling Out Antidepressants 184

Identifying the different drugs 184

Considering antidepressants? Know both sides of the story 186

Working with a psychiatrist 187

Chapter 11: Making It through Your Day at Work 189

No Rings around Either: Blue and White Collar Workers 190

Hard hat area 191

Tie required 191

Addressing Your Boss and Co-Workers 192

Knowing when (and how) to tell your boss and co-workers 192

Knowing when not to tell 193

Flying with the legal eagles 194

Finding practical solutions 195

Framing your condition positively 196

Putting Up a Cot in the Cubicle?

Managing Long Work Hours 197

Gettin’ in the groove with work 197

Breaking up your work day 198

Preparing for those long hours when you’re away from the office 199

Diffusing Work-Related Stress 200

Evaluating your life: Does this job impede your health? 201

Passing up the caffeine 202

Creating a cozy cubicle 203

Part IV: Spinning a Network of Support for Yourself (and Others) 205

Chapter 12: Jockeying for Support 207

Grasping the Link between Support and Hypoglycemia 207

Getting Yourself Out There 208

Getting to Know Me 209

Joining the In-Crowd 212

Netting some help 213

Doing the 12-step 215

Buddying Up 218

Matching up with a buddy 218

Starting off on the right foot with your buddy 219

Chapter 13: Dealing with Friends and Family: Eat and Let Eat. 221

How Hypoglycemia Can Affect Your Relationships 221

Explaining to Your Significant Other 222

Starting with open dialog 222

Helping your significant other cope 223

Talking to Your Children about Hypoglycemia 224

Keep it simple 224

Be prepared for questions 225

Reiterate that they didn’t make you sick 225

Involving the Whole Family 226

Can we talk? 226

Helping your loved ones help you 227

When can we eat? 228

Dealing with the Doubting Thomases 230

Staying clear of negativity 230

Avoiding conflict 231

Maintaining your boundaries 232

Sabotaging the saboteurs 233

Chapter 14: Suffering Along with Your Sweetie? 235

Introducing Mr. (or Ms.) Hyde 236

Understanding Hyde’s condition 236

Identifying Hyde’s symptoms 237

Talking It Over 237

Starting with the four Rs 238

Giving these words the green light 239

Stopping negative talk 240

Offering Your Offspring Support 241

Jumping In with Both Feet (and 2.5 Kids, a Dog, and a Cat) 242

You Be Betty Crocker and I’ll Be Julia Child 243

Part V: The Part of Tens 245

Chapter 15: Ten Myths about Hypoglycemia 247

Hypoglycemia Doesn’t Exist 247

Hypoglycemics Lack Willpower 248

Eating Sugar Is a Quick Fix 248

One Diet Fits All 249

Eliminating the “Bad” Foods Is All You Have to Do 249

You Can’t Be a Vegetarian if You’re Hypoglycemic 250

Having a “Cheat Day” Is Okay 250

Sugar Can Be Part of a Healthful Diet 251

Hypoglycemics Should Eat Low-Fat Diets 251

Blood Glucose Levels Remain the Same throughout the Day 252

Chapter 16: Ten Hints for Helping Hypoglycemics 253

Acting Practically at Home 253

Testing for Sugar 254

Controlling Blood Sugar 254

Dining Out: The Do’s and Don’ts 255

Food Facts for Tasty Health 257

Noshing on Nourishment 258

Eating Brainy Foods 259

Banishing Brain Fog 259

Remembering How to Deal with Short-Term Memory Loss 261

Changing Successfully 262

Index 263