Keywords
Hypoglycemia, diabetes, insulin, fasting hypoglycemia, fructose intolerance, lactose intolerance, growth hormone deficiency, reactive hypoglycemia, glucagon, pancreas.
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Overview *
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Your body needs glucose, a form of sugar, to have enough energy. After you eat, your blood absorbs glucose. If you eat more sugar than your body needs, your muscles and liver store the extra. When your blood sugar begins to fall, a hormone tells your liver to release glucose. In most people, this raises blood sugar. If it doesn't, you have hypoglycemia, and your blood sugar can be dangerously low.
Signs include:
- Hunger
- Shakiness
- Dizziness
- Confusion
- Difficulty speaking
- Feeling anxious or weak
Hypoglycemia is usually a side effect of diabetes medicines. Eating or drinking something with carbohydrates can help. If it happens often, your health care provider may need to change your treatment plan.
You can also have low blood sugar without having diabetes. In that case, your health care provider will try to find the cause using laboratory tests to measure blood glucose, insulin and other chemicals that play a part in the body's use of energy.
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Multimedia
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This patient education program explains what hypoglycemia is, how to recognize its symptoms, and what can be done to prevent it and treat it.
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This button allows you to read and print an illustrated handout. |
This button starts a multimedia program with interactive questions. |
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This button starts an interactive quiz.
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This button plays a self-running presentation.
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Last reviewed: 12/28/2007 |
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