Help, I feel like poop!

May 20, 2010 6:03 PM

Question on feeling like I have low blood sugar.

Over the past 3 or 4 weeks or so I've been feeling not so great.

A little background: 32, average height/weight, don't drink, no drugs, no genetic history of diabetes.

I eat maybe 3 or 4 times a day and try to space out my meals well, eat something for breakfast, usually something for lunch, a snack and dinner, but lately my time seems to be split between feeling alright and feeling weak/shaky.

The other night I had a good dinner after feeling pretty good all day, had a pork chop with some roasted veggies, and after I got really hungry again and it felt like my sugar level just dropped- I got a little nauseous, shaky, and jittery.

I will make an appointment with my doctor tomorrow (which will be for late next week or the week after), but I would like to try and get a handle on what is going on.

I have also been acutely aware that this happens to me when I eat simple carbs, so I try and avoid them.

posted by TheBones to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

I suspect your doctor will talk to you about reactive hypoglycemia. This is low blood sugar that happens as a reaction to eating. It happens to me, and my doctor told me that it doesn't lead to diabetes or anything, and that I should manage it by being careful about what I eat: i.e. less simple carbs. I eat more cheese now, less caffeine, and I generally feel ok. Good luck!
posted by wyzewoman at 6:05 PM on May 20, 2010

Response by poster: I also all but quit drinking a while ago (now maybe a beer in a month or every couple of weeks), but since then my soda habit has skyrocketed, sometimes 2 or 3 sodas a day (usually dr. pepper- mmmm the sugary/caffeine goodness).

I haven't had a soda in 2 or 3 days now.
posted by TheBones at 6:12 PM on May 20, 2010

since then my soda habit has skyrocketed, sometimes 2 or 3 sodas a day

Oof, there's your problem. I have similar issues and sugar makes it much worse. I don't drink soda or eat candy at all now, and that helps. If you haven't had a soda in a few days, you'll probably feel better long-term if you just try to give up the habit now. When I want to drink something that isn't water, I usually go for some green or mint tea. Not terribly exciting, but better than feeling dizzy and confused all afternoon.

Another thing I've done is increase the meat in my diet-- if I had a choice, I'd only eat meat twice a week or so, but I've found I just feel way less terrible if I eat some chicken or cold cuts with lunch every day. I never feel full unless I eat some carbs, so I also eat some rice, cous cous, or pasta.

I just had my annual physical, and brought all this up with my doctor. She basically said, "Sounds like you get hypoglycemic, no big deal, let me know if it gets worse."
posted by oinopaponton at 7:33 PM on May 20, 2010

Not just sugar, but caffeine. Look at the obvious things here before getting too crazy about your diet. Also, let your doctor decide what the problem is, not random people on the internet; they'll be much better at it, I promise you. :)
posted by smoke at 7:44 PM on May 20, 2010

Yes, caffeine and carbohydrates could be the culprit. I have the same problem 2-3 hours after breakfast when I have coffee and carbs (even "slow" carbs like oatmeal). Wait a few more days, maybe it really was the soda.
Otherwise you could try cutting down on carbs (no candy, less pasta/bread etc.). Discuss this with your doctor though, because rapidly changing from high-carb to lowcarb might not be so great if your blood sugar is somehow out of whack.
posted by The Toad at 4:00 AM on May 21, 2010

I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. I do have hypoglycemia (although perhaps not the same variety as you might have). This is what I do to avoid feeling like you described:

Eat things with a low Glycemic index (GI), these take longer for your body to absorb and helps to avoid spikes in bloog sugar.

Try to get 20%+ of your calories from protein. This is harder than it sounds. A lot of foods that you might think have a lot of protein relative to their calories often have a lot more fat and/or carbs than you think. 20% calories from protein means 5 grams of protein per 100 calories. Some good go-to items: salmon, low-fat cottage cheese, eggs (not on a McDonalds breakfast sandwich!)

Make sure that the FIRST THING you eat during the day is high-protein. The first thing you eat sets the tone for your blood sugar for the day, and will have the biggest effect. Coffee with sugar counts as eating, and is not high-protein. Eat something else (eggs w ham & low-fat cheese?) first.

Feel like you're blood sugar's going out of control? One thing I've found that has a stabilizing effect on my blood sugar and is surprisingly filling is a Chocolate Banana Vivanno Smoothie from Starbucks. It's counter-intuitive, but it actually has 31% of its calories from protein. Yes, it has sugar and carbs, but it seems to be just the right ratio and GI to get things back on track when balanced with the protein.

Keep small high-protein snacks around to eat between meals - peanut butter protein/cereal bars, greek yogurt, and low-fat string cheese are good choices. Eat them BEFORE you have a blood sugar problem. By the time you feel it coming on, it'll take a couple of hours before high-protein snacking will start to counteract the problem. You have to be proactive about this.

It's possible (just speculating here) you might be having some caffeine withdrawal symptoms if you went from 2-3 sodas per day to 0 cold turkey. That could be adding to your misery. Are you drinking something else with caffeine? If not, to ease your withdrawal without too much sugar shock, could you drink black coffee, or unsweetened iced or green tea? These things have caffeine but no carbs.

I do the above and I haven't had a significant low blood sugar problem in years. It used to happen all the time.

YMMV. I reiterate, IANAD. Please consult one (as you said you were going to).
posted by Vorteks at 8:19 AM on May 21, 2010

Amendment to previous post: based on updated information on Starbuck's site, the Chocolate Vivanno Smoothie is actually only 26% calories from protein. Still, it's a good amount, and I definitely find them helpful. If you have a few minutes and access to a blender and whey powder, you might be able to make something even better for you.
posted by Vorteks at 8:28 AM on May 21, 2010

Another thing I just noticed in your post - you say you "space out your meals" and you eat "usually something for lunch". Usually? "Usually" can definitely caus a problem. DO NOT SKIP A MEAL. Also, don't space out your meals too much. You need to eat high-protein foods regularly. Ideally, you should never go more than 3 hours without eating something (see notes about low-fat string cheese and snacks above). This will make a big difference.
posted by Vorteks at 8:32 AM on May 21, 2010

Not a doctor here, but have a family history of diabetes/dealing with wonky blood sugar levels.

One thing I find extremely helpful is to stick to a fairly regimented eating schedule, even when I don't feel hungry. I have to eat breakfast or I'll feel light-headed and dizzy, and it has to be something substantial - protein without excess fats and complex carbs with at least several grams of fibre. The fibre bit's pretty important - if I eat, say, a McMuffin versus two slices of multi-grain toast with turkey and egg, my sugars bottom out a couple of hours earlier with the McMuffin. Fibre tends to help stop sugar spiking or at the very least helps slow down sugar absorption.

As for the sweet, sweet lifeblood that is soda, you might consider switching to a soda that doesn't use high fructose corn syrup. There's no direct evidence that there's metabolic differences between HFCS and regular sugar, but some people say it fills them up faster than HFCS. YMMV.
posted by zennish at 10:44 AM on May 21, 2010