Diabetes Care - Preventing Hypoglycemia
- Preventing hypoglycemia is one of the key aspects of diabetes care.
Preventing Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia can be potentially dangerous when it happens when you are driving, swimming in the pool, operating dangerous machineries, and so on. Knowing the symptoms and how to prevent a hypoglycemia attack is important in your diabetes care.
What is exactly hypoglycemia? Hypoglycemia is a condition when the blood glucose level falls below 70 mg/dl and the brain is deprived of glucose for energy. Hypoglycemia can cause a person with diabetes to go into coma. Hypoglycemia occurs because of an over-reduction of glucose in the blood due to too much insulin is present.
When a person with diabetes takes his or her insulin injection and the insulin has started acting, it must be matched with a sufficient amount of glucose in the bloodstream. If it is not matched because of too much insulin, too little glucose in the blood, or the physical activity is too strenuous, the blood glucose level drops. Thus, hypoglycemia refers to a condition of low blood glucose caused by an insulin reaction or insulin shock.
The usual initial sign of hypoglycemia or insulin shock is mild hunger. This is then swiftly followed by
sweating, tremors, palpitations, dizziness or lightheadedness. When nothing is done to stop insulin shock, it may progress to drowsiness and finally loss of consciousness. When hypoglycemia or insulin shock happens late at night or early in the morning, while a person with diabetes is still sleeping, it may be unrecognized, and the diabetic stays unconscious the next day. Some people with diabetes may experience sweating in the middle of the night as a sign of insulin shock.
If the diabetic recognized the insulin shock early before he or she passes out, the diabetic can usually rectify the insulin shock by taking something sweet such as sugar, honey, a small glass of sugary drink or sweets. However, if a person with diabetes has an insulin shock and lose consciousness before any corrective action can be done, he or she has to rely on others to deal with the situation. If they do not know exactly what to do in such a situation, they could simply call an ambulance.
You may find it useful to tell and discuss with your family, friends, colleagues, or people with whom you spend most of your time about your possible insulin shock or hypoglycemia episode. Inform them about the signs and symptoms of a possible insulin shock, and tell them one of the signs is refusing to recognize the problem. Giving you something sweet to drink when you are conscious is fine. However, you have to forewarn them that giving anything sweet for you to drink when you are unconscious is dangerous as you cannot swallow and may choke, and the liquid may block your airways. You may want to teach them on how to give you an injection of glucagon to counteract the insulin action when you are unconscious. But it will only probably be those very close to you will get involved to this extent. If not, calling an ambulance may be the best thing to do.
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