Hypoglycemia is a medical term for low blood sugar, and it usually occurs when the blood level dips so low.
Medically, there is a slight difference between hypoglycemia and diabetes. People tend to feel the symptoms of low blood sugar when the blood glucose levels are lower than 50 mg.
The sign of low blood sugar levels includes the following:
1. Clumsiness
Clumsiness is a symptom associated with low blood sugar, and it occurs when the blood sugar level drop below 40 mg/dL.
Here, the sugar starved brain is capable of changing the way you sound. When this sign occurs, you start to feel like one who had had too many cocktails.
If one ignores diabetic hypoglycemia, clumsiness or jerky movement may come into play.
2. Difficulty in concentrating
The brain depends on blood sugar for energy, and in a situation where there’s a drop in glucose, the brain is likely not to function correctly.
It brings about the difficulty of concentrating on something at a particular time. This main sign doesn’t result in long-term brain damage.
Low blood sugar often causes the brain to make more cortisol to counteract hypoglycemia; hence concentration and focus become more complex. It’s safe to say low blood sugar results in poor coordination.
3. Vision problems
Sudden experience of vision problems may arise as a result of a drop in blood sugar level. The eye-related symptom of low sugar is blurred vision, dimness in vision and black spot.
Low blood sugar is capable of causing blurred vision or even double vision, and you can correct the treatment sooner by getting the blood sugar back to normal. Both low and high blood sugar has an array of ways to affect vision.
4. Lightheadedness
One may feel lightheaded when the brain preserves excess energy; when the sugar level is low, such extraction from the brain will lead to lightheadedness.
If such a symptom persists, it is advisable you treat hypoglycemia quickly, try to lie down, and lastly, seek medical help if you experience any recurrent or prolonged dizziness. When the blood sugar drops, you can be dizzy, shaky, tired, and lightheaded.
5. Shakiness
Shakiness is another symptom that occurs when the blood sugar level is lower than usual.
Shakiness is an early warning sign that the blood glucose levels are too low and have fallen below four millimoles. Low blood sugar causes shakiness because the nerves and muscles don’t have the necessary fuel.
6. Sweating
Sweating is the main sign of low sugar, and it happens as a result of adrenaline which increases as glucose levels drop.
When blood glucose drops too low, you produce excess adrenaline, which causes sweating and stops once the glucose return to normal.
Mild hypoglycemia can make you sweat profusely, and when the blood sugar level of a diabetic patient is low, such a person may sweat as the body goes into fight or flight.
7. Anxiety
When low sugar leads to anxiety, the body releases epinephrine and cortisol, which signal more sugar from the liver into the blood.
One of the significant symptoms of anxiety is low blood sugar which can also spike the existing situation.
In addition, the dietary change, complicated medication, exercise routines, smoking cessation, and blood glucose monitoring associated with diabetes treatment can make anxiety worse.
8. Ravenous hunger
Once you inexplicably feel as if you are starving, it signals that the body is experiencing a blood sugar drop.
You can manage your blood sugar by having an intake of carbohydrates between 15 and 20 grams.
Abnormal low blood glucose also causes increased appetite. If the blood glucose readings fall below four MMOL/L, the glucose level will rise to normal because the body will release stored glucose from the liver.
Low blood sugar level changes appetite and starves cells for energy.
9. Tingling lips
In hypoglycemia, low blood sugar results in a symptom like tingling around the mouth. Tingling lips is a feeling of pins and needles in your lips.
When the blood sugar is low, the body will start releasing epinephrine hormone. Epinephrine is what can result in the signs of hypoglycemia like anxiety, tingling, etc.
One should seek e medical attention when you experience a sudden onset of unexplained tingling.
10. Palpitation
Diets that are rich in added sugar can spike palpitations for someone with low blood sugar.
These foods can force the blood sugar levels to spike, and there will be a likelihood of experiencing palpitations. When the blood sugar level is abnormal, it leads to a rapid heartbeat and heart palpitations.
Among the hemodynamic changes concerning low blood sugar are increased heart rate and peripheral systolic blood pressure. Therefore, heart rate is associated with glycaemic status and capillary glucose.
11. Emotional instability
Mood swings and emotional episodes far from your normal behavior are part of the neurological symptoms of hypoglycemia.
Low sugar levels can be the culprit of common mood disorders, and it should come as no surprise as the brain primarily runs on glucose.
A body of evidence has suggested that there is a relationship between mood and blood sugar.
12. Unconsciousness
The low blood sugar that causes one to be unconscious is known as hypoglycemic or insulin shock.
Due to low sugar, unconscious people injecting insulin is not the way forward; instead, you should use glucagon.
Before unconsciousness sets in, the blood sugar level must have dropped below 20 mg/Dl.
13. Changes in behavior
Fluctuations in blood glucose can lead to rapid mood change. It occurs when hypoglycemia is less than 70 milligrams per deciliter.
As hypoglycemia develops and the brain loses enough glucose, one’s behavior may deteriorate immediately and become bad-tempered, irritable, easily cry or depressed, etc.
14. Seizure
When the blood sugar level is severely low, one begins to experience seizures, and this kind of seizure involves the entire body and violent muscle contractions.
A low sugar level in the diabetic’s blood causes seizures, and diabetic seizures are a critical medical condition that has proven fatal, especially without emergency treatment.
Again, a considerable change in the blood sugar level directly affects the nerve cells that allow quick seizures.
More so, abnormal glucose levels, either high or too low, can cause seizures, and the problem is active in individuals with diabetes whose blood glucose levels swing.
15. Slight nausea
Another symptom of low blood sugar is nausea, and it occurs when it dips too low and is common among diabetic patients and people with hypoglycemia.
In most cases, hyperglycemia can make one develop a queasy sensation, including an urge to vomit.
When nausea becomes the case, one starts to experience health issues like food allergies, migraines, overeating, stomach bug, anxiety, etc.
What is the best test for hypoglycemia?
The best test for hypoglycemia is known as a mixed meal tolerance test [MMTT].
Before conducting this test, you must have a special drink that can raise the blood glucose, and the doctor will now check the blood glucose levels over the next few hours.
What are three signs and symptoms to tell you that you have low blood sugar?
The symptoms of low blood sugar vary from milder, standard indicator to most severe, and they are shaky hands or body, feeling lightheaded, and finally seizure.
Can blood tests reveal hypoglycemia?
Health practitioners can cause hypoglycemia through a blood test to measure the blood glucose, and it is best to detect it after fasting overnight, physical activity, or between meals.
Conclusion
Low blood sugar is a deadly disease that is steadily monitored and demands regular checkups. Just as said earlier, one can detect the symptom of low blood sugar without stress or at a glance, and the list above enumerates such symptoms.
