Hi, I know someone touched on this subject just a few days ago and I can't seem to find it to read over it again. Yesterday, I had 2 hypoglycemic attacks. I woke up to one out of a dead sleep this morning that knocked me on my rear end. It caused me to shake so violently. I am not diabetic, and have been tested just recently. What is going on with these attacks? I am getting them mostly when my cycle is ending. If anybody can please help me understand this and what I can do for them, I would greatly appreciate it.
I have hypoglyceamia due to nervous system damage, and it can wake me during the night, if it wakes you and you find you cant sleep, you need to put food by your bed, because if you dont eat, you will find it very difficult to go back off as our body then releases adrenalin to try and bring our sugars up for us, try a small protein snack, like handful of nuts and small amount of dried fruit with it for the carb content, but dont eat carbs on its own, stick with mainly protein, and dont eat refined sugars at all, around peri flare times, as this will cause a sugar crash and make the attack worse later on, its happening because like you have stated, you were at the end of your cycle, and hormones in all of us however subtle, causes sugar fluctuations, your test for diabetes is normal, because like me, it isnt your pancreas thats the problem, its hormones, eat little and often throughout the day during your flares to help keep your sugars balanced , especially immediately before your period, you will be fine when your on as when our hormones settle then, so, so do our sugars, it will then dip again a couple of days after finishing as, hormones leaving our bodies also causes imbalances in our sugars, and thats whats happening with you, so to avoid it being particularly bad during this time, you need to avoid sugar, thats why our bodies are giving us the sugar cravings, its telling us it needs sugar, but, dont eat refined sugars, you will just make that feeling worse not better, because eating refined sugar, causes us to produce insulin and too much insulin in our system causes are sugars to drop, and we want them to stay balanced, refined sugars give you up and downs, and unrefined, and particulary protein give us balance, but we do need unrefined carbs to give us energy but keep it small and always with protein.
Elaine, thank you so much for this. I was getting worried something was terribly wrong and I was possibly diabetic and they just gave me the wrong test results. (it happened to my poor hubby, they gave him the wrong negative results when in fact he was positive for being diabetic) I did feel better after drinking some orange juice, but later, I got ill to my stomach,maybe OJ was not the best choice. I will stop and get some almonds and dried apricots and keep them on my nightstand. And yesterday, I had a ton of sugar. I crashed with a hypo attack and got a candy bar (what a bad choice)
I was worried for ages, I have this thirst and the only thing that makes it go is fruit cordial. If it has sweetener it just doesn't cut it.
Water seems to make me feel more thirsty.
I have a couple of diabetic friends and if they hear me say that they go on at me to get checked out because that is how theirs was.
I have been checked a few times now for it but all is well.
I'm wondering if like a b12 result you can be close to diabetic.
I was told with b12 that I was on the low side several years before it showed up as a deficiency.
Good question. But its sure a scary thing to deal with, the trembling is terrifying.
My mom had hypoglycemia and terrible panic attacks during her peri years. I often wake after just about 4 hours of sleep with either the hypo, the panic, or both, but not every night. I am cutting out a lot of sugar and eating more protein and hope it will help. I've also been taking 3 mg of melatonin each night to try to help me sleep, but it is hit or miss and seems to have stopped working. I took 6 mg last night and woke up hungry after only 4 hours and am still awake 3 hours later, never could go back to sleep even after having good snack with protein. My recent blood work and urinalysis were normal, too, no sugar issue, just this horrible peri disaster. Do you try having a protein snack at bedtime? I do sometimes but didn't last night because I was full from dinner, had plenty of protein at each meal and thought I was all set. Elaine's description of the snack, protein with a bit of a healthy, low sugar carb, is how I do my snacks with this, too. I'm going to try some additional vitamin supplements as well, just started on Vitamin D and plan to add B complex and C. Take care and let us know how you're doing with this, hopefully something will help!
Thank you Elizabeth! Well, I did a tiny bit better and slept until 4am, but woke with a pounding heart, nausea and what felt like anxiety. I had my almonds and fruit next to my bed so I choked them down (so hard when no appetite and nauseated) I also took my Bach rescue remedy and so far its been 15 minutes but things are calming down a tad bit. I pray it continues. I also take Vit D and B complex. This peri morning waking is not fun one bit. I pray this passes quickly for all of us.
Waking with the anxiety is the worst!
Oh it is! Anxiety is just awful period. I absolutely hate it. Its my shortness of breath that sets it off most the time, but waking with it really stinks. And somedays it calms down quickly and others it takes hours and hours to calm. Its just yuck.
Thats happened to me when ive drunk juice made me feel very sick, but felt good initially, think that is the sugar crash effect to be honest, the problem is, refined sugar goes in much too quickly and thats what causes the fall afterwards, you tend to think well if my body craves sugar then i w ill just stick this chocolate bar in, not realising that its just going to cause a another attack not long after, were just creating a viscious circle, you are allowed refined sugar if you feel low, especially if your having hypos but, your supposed to follow it with a small snack to stop the fall later on, but then again, your not really a diabetic so, its not the same thing, see how you get on with the nuts and apricots, apricots are a good choice, but eat more protein with it and see how you go, im not talking eating a small meal during the night, just a very small snack, just stick to your diet whilst in a peri flare, you wont need to be on it all the time, .................that is bad about your husbands test results, but unfortunately nowadays its happening all to much..................good luck snowbell, let us know if you feel better with changing your diet slightly.
Thanks Elaine. I did much better with the almonds and grapes this morning. Thank you for your help. Its definitely a process.
I think if you feel you wake with genuine anxiety, the almonds and fruit wont work, hypoglyceamia causes panic attack type symptoms, fast heart, shakiness, breathless, need to wee, hot sweaty clammy, weak muscles, etc , this is because adrenalin comes out thats what gives you your symptoms initially, its to kick start our liver to produce the hormone glucagon, this is what our bodies naturally produce when our sugars go too low, so, when its that low, glucagon will always bring it up for us if we dont, that doesnt mean though, you shouldnt do anything about the attack yourself, but, you need to be sure what your experiencing to be sure of how to treat it, so, is it a panic attack your having due to anxiety with peri, or, a hypoglyceamic attack again due to peri, because treatment would be different for both, also when we become fatigued during peri, and we over exert ourselves we will get pain in our joints and muscles, and if we dont rest but push ourselves instead, knowing were getting tired, and have the aches and pains as our sign, we will then, also produce adrenalin, and all this affects our female hormones, so fatigue due to peri could be another reason why were getting the panic attacks, so, when you wake next time and cant sleep, keep a check on whether it was a day when you were particularly fatigued, and you feel you have pushed yourself that day. To deal with that it would be to rest during the day and pace ourselves, but also try drinking half glass of water upon waking, and see if that makes you go off, you may find you will wake again later if its down to fatigue, but again drink, and see how you get on, dont eat that night, just until you identify, what is exactly causing the attack, low sugar, fatigue, or, worsening of PMS symptoms, all caused by peri, the problem is, were not on HRT, which soughts everything with one pill or, patch, so what we have to do is, work out, what is happening, what am i dealing with tonight, and once idtentifed treat each group of symptoms accordingly, unfortunately its trial and error and sometimes some things work, and sometimes they dont, and i wonder if, we havent identified which particular group of symptoms were in so, can then get the treatment wrong, because there are so many conditions that give off the same symptoms, which makes our job even harder, hope this makes sense, just had this vision of you in midst panic throwing the nuts and apricots down you..................ha
good im glad, it is a process of ellimination, what is happening this day with my symptoms, which particular group of symptoms am i in, so what should i be doing for this today!! ive found grapes work well for me also, grapes are one that is known for bringing sugars up, so i think at the moment snowbell yours may be sugars thats your problem, stick with your diet and see how it goes, ive found that a certain amount of fat in my diet works well also, but we cant have too much of that now can we.
Yes zigangie ive found that water can do that with me, im tempted to say, that is nothing to do with our sugars going to high, i think that may be, we have taken in enough water and its actually starting to dilute our salts, which means we will go even thirstier, and what we should do then is, actually take in salt and drop the water down!! go on your urine colour, in the morning if it seems dark, your dehydrated, as you drink it will go straw like, or, clear, once this happens you have drunk enough water, stay off caffine though and fizzy drinks with caffine, it will affect our sugars, and our nervous system, which in turn will trigger our peri symptoms.
when you get the trembling, does it come with other symptoms, or is it on its own?? severe fatigue comes with trembling but you would have more symptoms if it was that, you would get more with low sugar also.
LOL.... Your vision was right! It did calm me though, for about 2 hours then the anxiety crept back in I want to thank you for this info. Im so lost as to what is going on sometimes.
I may need all the fat I can get, ive lost so much weight, its pitiful. I look so thin and unhealthy it makes me panic when I loose my appetite. I can't afford to loose anymore weight
Along with the trembling, I get nervous, heart is pounding out of my chest, going so fast. I also sometimes feel nauseated, head feels like its underwater and sometimes doom and gloom.
i know its extremely diffcult to work out isnt it, it really puts our multi tasking to the test doesnt it, glad the snack helped, that does sound like your sugars, unfortunately it will cause it to happen again later on, try just having the nuts next time, keep off the carbs, see how you go with that instead, your having whats called hypoglyceamic reactions, eating just starts to cause a viscious circle, of more insulin, which then lowers our sugar, so we need more food, but then we produce more insulin, so the circle starts, so if this is you, what i tend to do then is, starve myself for 24 hours then start again with my diet, tends to reboot everything, just resting the system seems to work sometimes, depends on how hungry you get though, if your having major hunger pangs, try if for half day, see how that works ..................ha
that sounds more like anxiety, i have had thousands, of hypo attacks, and reactions, dont get the doom and gloom, but that could be me couldnt it.