Coach Sonnon or anyone else: Hypoglycemia

[Charlie McCarthy]

Coach,
I was wondering if you had any suggestions or resources that you could offer on the topic of hypoglycemia. I'm bothered by something that seems to be some sort of blood sugar problem and was wondering if you could shoot some advice/suggestions my way. Anything you could offer would be of geat help to serve as some sort of reference guide/general knowledge. I've looked into this a bit and am looking for more info/advice. Thanks in advance. Anyone else who has something to share please do. Any and all posts welcome.

Charlie

[bob_stra]

The first place to look is in the established texts to get a general overview. Then you can go off and research the specifics.

FWIW, for me that means I hit NIHM first and then spiral outwards.

http://tinyurl.com/y391

After that, you can start hitting PubMed, ScienceDirect etc for more cutting edge stuff.

Hope I understood what you were after ;-)

I think Coach actually had this problem and kicked it.

You got to go low carb/small often meals/low glycemic.

What your trying to do is keep your blood sugar steady. Hypoglycemia is related to insulin resistence et al. Your eating carbs without enough fat and your blood suger is going up then dropping off the chart. You need to get off that see-saw. I say small and often because a real large meal, regardless of make up can cause a big rush.

Bill

[Scott Sonnon]

Precisely what Bill said. In addition, I knocked out all refined sugars, caffeine, and most simple carbs. For me nuking caffeine was the most significant.

[Charlie McCarthy]

Thanks guys. Thats what I was thinking.

[Connie Brown]

One place to start is to search the diabetic literature for volatile blood sugar studies. Or Carlton Frederick's New Low Blood Sugar and You
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399510877/qid%3D937581272/102-9762849-0132944

Here's some stuff from DesMaison's theoretical work on people who are sensitive to sugar. Use at your own risk - it's still theory but it works for me.

There is a class of people who have what is called in the diabetic literature, "volatile blood sugar." That means their blood sugar goes up faster than the rest of the population, and they secrete more insulin accordingly. Similarly, the drop in blood sugar is steeper too.

What is interesting is that these people experience low blood sugar symptoms merely from how steeply blood sugar drops. So you could feel nausea, shaking, loss of strength even if the blood sugar is clinically above the "too low" level. It is the steepness of the drop that affects the systems.

The workaround is to avoid the big spikes in blood sugar in the first place so you don't get such highs and lows. No more up like the rocket, down like the stick. Slow carbs only and as Bill says, not high volume either at one sitting. And the caffeine is a "booster" for the effect of the sweets.

And here's an interesting tidbit. In some of these same people, the steep drop in blood sugar triggers a beta-endorphin rush. This is because beta-endorphin is supposed to cover pain during a crisis so you can do what you need to do.

This is what is behind some individuals feeling light, high, and in control when skipping meals: from the steep BS drop and resulting endorphin high. Problem is many people don't connect the crash later to those two spikes.

[Charlie McCarthy]

Wow Connie! Thanks a million for that.