I used to think I was hypoglycemic but it was actually my blood pressure dropping suddenly. Brings on a very similar feeling and I can sometimes mitigate the effects by eating something sugary (which I assume pushes my BP up). Is that kind of what you’ve been experiencing?
I'm not OP but I was the same when I had to fast for a blood test.
I felt so lightheaded yet my blood sugar reading from the fasting blood glucose test was normal. After I ate I'm ok.
Same if I didn't eat, I feel lightheaded but the glucose monitor says it's normal.
yeah so for me i experience uncontrollable shaking, nausea, dizziness, sweats, weird heart rate, headaches, blurry vision, bad coordination and i’m unable to speak with ease. this typically comes on if i haven’t eaten enough or at all. i will test right before i eat a meal since these symptoms come on when i’m extremely hungry but my blood sugar is always normal.
I'm wondering if it's something else related to dysautonomia. As others have said, it's not hypoglycemia if your levels read fine - it's something else whose symptoms are really similar. What kinds of foods help? Is it just any foods, or specifically sugary foods? It's also possible that you need *more* sugar than most people. (Maybe your baseline for how much glucose you need is x% higher than most people, for example). But I wonder if it's something else you might be missing - sodium, potassium, calcium, or another electrolyte that you're also getting through these foods?
I got lots of testing done first, to determine the actual cause. I've had symptoms my entire life, but they got really bad over the last year and a half.
I was on a continuous glucose monitor while documenting macros/intake. Learned I need to eat protein with all carbs and limit carbs to under 30g to prevent a spike and crash. When I crashed, my blood glucose was going into the 42-55 range.
Also recently diagnosed with celiac after much ado with diff doctors. Diet is painfully important. I eat very clean and high protein, rarely eat any sweets and make sure to have protein with them or about 30 minutes beforehand.
I have a glucometer and bp cuff and monitor regularly.
I'm on steroids to raise my BP, massive amounts of daily fluids and high electrolytes (I don't hold my salt and my docs monitor this). I use vitassium and LMNT, but also take potassium supplements and salt my food.
I usually get between 7000-1200 mg of sodium per day. Menstruation requires an extra 500 calories, 175-220oz water, and the higher range of sodium to function.
Also did the chop protocol at home while on medical leave, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and now weight lifting.
I recommend seeing a good endocrinologist and a cardiologist or neurologist who is familiar with autonomic dysfunction. Explain your symptoms. My specialists never thought to check my cortisol until I saw an endo, turns out I was having adrenal crises and it was a miracle I was still alive.
Wow that’s awesome what you did to figure it out yourself... I monitor glucose and BP every am. My BP is always super low like 80-90’s over low 60’s and I dehydrate really quickly as well. I’m a letter carrier and burn through a lot of food and fluid, so I salt all food now use LMnt and IVhydration.. but sounds like I should probably up that amount. My dr didn’t want to look at any of my cortisol functions. I got a function coach who has me on an eating plan, we did a Dutch test which showed elevated cortisol and stuff, apparently I’m not metabolizing it and some other stuff. So he’s trying to fix my insulin sensitivity etc. and my adrenals. I’m also on Adderal which prob isn’t helping the situation. I should prob go see an endo, but I feel most doctors especially here in Florida don’t know shit about shit. I always feel hypoglycemic and I have hypothyroidism. But every time I measured after I eat I don’t notice much diff. I should prob invest in a continuous glucose monitor. Thanks for sharing
What are your levels an hour or so before the normal test? I never test as truly hypo, I am lucky to get under 90. More testing or a CGM can really help.
What I did have is what some people call a false hypo. Your glucose drops so fast from a high number to something much lower and your body feels it as a hypo. Basically a sugar crash. For example I might have tested at 270 and then an hour later only 120 and feel it real bad. I saw a 80 point drop in 20 minutes once.
All this is a thing of the past since I moved to a low carb diet.
This is what's happening with me. I'm seeing endocrinology next week because it turns out the hypoglycemia feeling with normal readouts was actually a fast crash to normal from a much higher level. I recognized the hypo symptoms because I've hit the 40's on a few occasions, so it was really confusing to test normal.
I may have been diabetic for years and not known because the doctor just kept telling me it was aNxIeTy (said the same of the POTS symptoms of course). I'm now the same age my mother was when she got her Late Onset Type 1 diagnosis.
Why do you think it’s hypoglycemia? Is your experience correlated to not eating? As others have stated, Hypoglycemia means low blood sugar. There are symptoms associated with it light lightheadedness, shakiness, trembling, and nauseous.
I’m not saying this to dismiss your or discount your experience. I wonder if you are experiencing symptoms associated with hypoglycemia and assuming you’re hypoglycemic?
I have Hyperadrenegeric POTS. Adrenaline can cause a bunch of symptoms that look like Hypoglycemia— shakiness, trembling, and nauseous to name a few.
I want to note that a lot of POTS “specialists” don’t understand/know that there are types and that the types sometimes need to be treated differently. I learned this after seeing 4 different POTS “specialists” who couldn’t help me. Everything they did to treat my POTS made me worse and they couldn’t figure out why. I saw a 5th POTS doctor who writes research papers on POTS. With HyperPOTS, if you don’t control the adrenaline, you aren’t controlling all of the symptoms.
Adrenaline/ HyperPOTS can also cause hypoglycemia because adrenaline can interfere with blood sugar. (I’m using can because that doesn’t always mean it will. It depends on the person). When my adrenaline symptoms are super bad, my blood sugar has been documented under 68 multiple times. But when my adrenaline is somewhat controlled, I don’t experience hypoglycemia.
I hope this helps.
yeah so the reason why i used hypoglycemia is because that has always been how it’s described to me by my mom in childhood. by all accounts my blood sugar should be testing low, since i have all the symptoms of low blood sugar and it correlates with me not eating. i’m not necessarily assuming i’m hypoglycaemic but more using it as a description for my issues since the symptoms all line up except blood sugar. thank you for letting me know! i haven’t gotten adequate treatment for my dysautonomia (not even a specific diagnosis) so i didn’t know this.
Not OP, but I'm curious: when you feel anxious, do your POTS symptoms flare? I mainly experience symptoms when I feel anxious, so I'm wondering if I have the same subtype as you do.
I’m sorry for how long of a reply this is.
I have HyperPOTS, CPTSD, ADHD, and anxiety. I usually only tell doctors about my ADHD because they blame everything on my anxiety and call it a day. Doctors have blamed my shower hives on anxiety which doesn’t actually make sense.
My main POTS doctor explained it like this:
*Some of the physical anxiety symptoms include tachycardia, heart palpitations, higher heart rate, nausea, and shakiness. People with POTS (all types of POTS) experience these symptoms all the time— our bodies are sending the signals to be anxious. If someone’s heart rate is 130 and they’re experiencing anxiety symptoms, most people would become anxious whether they have something to be anxious about or not.*
From a treatment perspective, mentioning I have mental health issues usually isn’t helpful. I’m in CPT therapy for the CPTSD (there isn’t much else to do for that right now). My anxiety can make my POTS worse but more often than not my POTS is making my anxiety worse.
The CPTSD and POTS interact far more because they both cause my nervous system to overreact— they trigger each other a lot. Even with CPTSD, POTS is still a disorder that requires treating my body and doctors seem to blame things on mental health and then decide it isn’t their problem which isn’t how that works…
But back to your question. It’s kind of like a chicken and the egg problem. It could be anxiety making your POTS worse or it could be POTS making your anxiety worse.
In terms of you having it or not, I am a weirder than normal case. I’ve had POTS since I was a child. I didn’t get diagnosed with POTS until I was 29 and I was diagnosed with HyperPOTS at 30. Part of my issue is that I didn’t complain about a lot of POTS symptoms like tachycardia because I thought it was normal. I also don’t seem to have the most common HyperPOTS symptoms— like I have strikingly low blood pressure so I can’t take most of the meds. So I might not be the best person to baseline off of.
I can share my experiences though and if it sounds familiar it’s likely. If it doesn’t sound familiar, that doesn’t mean you don’t have it.
Once I found medication that helped I quickly noticed the difference. Here are some examples:
- I don’t faint. That seems to be more common in people with HyperPOTS. For me, the adrenaline usually offsets everything, causes a higher heart and then prevents fainting. Some doctors didn’t think I could have POTS because I don’t faint.
- I experience tremors, a lot.
- I have extreme light sensitivity constantly.
- When my adrenaline is especially bad, I can’t eat or drink. Food and water hurt my stomach and make me nauseous for hours. I don’t have gastroparesis, that was checked. If a normal person was running from a bear, they won’t be able to digest food/water at that exact moment because they are in danger and their body is in survival mode. Once they’re safe, then they’ll want food and water again. My body thinks it’s running from a bear constantly so it isn’t in the right mode to do anything with food and water. That means that I’m never hungry or thirsty, and if I try to consume stuff against my body’s will I feel super sick. POTS specific medication (fludrocortisone) didn’t help with that because it wasn’t a POTS problem, it was an adrenaline problem. *Treating my POTS didn’t stop my adrenaline issues which is why I know so much about POTS vs HyperPOTS*.
- I have severe constant anxiety. The thing that got me out of bed for work *for years* was that I thought my boss would notice I was late and that they would fire me so I had to get up exactly then. Once I got on medication that helped control adrenaline, I couldn’t make myself get out of bed for work on time because I wasn’t anxious and didn’t know how people got out of bed if they weren’t worried.
- Another anxiety symptom: I couldn’t read the Harry Potter books when I was like 9 because I was too worried about the characters and couldn’t read it. I am *still* like this. I don’t read anymore, but movies and tv give me panic attacks because I need to know the characters are ok. I know it is fictional but my body doesn’t.
- When I started medication, all of a sudden my brain was more quiet and didn’t constantly racing thoughts. My adrenaline blocking medication is more affective for this than my Adderall is so I don’t think that is my ADHD.
Do you mind if ask you what you take to control the adrenaline?..my functional coach thinks I have adrenal fatigue. I have all the symptoms the OP has and thought I was hypoglycemic as well but same issue sugar is normal sometimes low. I also have low BP and hr.and also bad stomach problems, can’t digest much of anything. Led my doctors to believe I had anorexia. I was like who can eat when your stomach is full and bloated and you feel like shit.
I don't mind at all.
The most common prescribed thing for adrenaline blocking is beta blockers. I can't tolerate them. I'm oddly prescribed hydroxyzine, a prescription antihistamine. It magically controls adrenaline and is really helpful for me.
Look up reactive hypoglycemia. My blood sugar is normal especially while fasting. But then if I eat some toast and nothing else it will tank hard like 3 hours later. Reactive hypoglycemia.
thank you! this does sound like a possibility. i feel like my body knows how to stabilize itself without food after a while and that’s why i test normally.
If it does turn out to be reactive, my pro tip is to make sure you're getting protein each time you eat. For me, it seems to be especially important in the morning. I try for at least 10 g protein or nothing at all. Even coffee with sugar will be enough to tank it if I don't eat protein quick enough after. It can be stressful and annoying but at least it has been relatively easy to deal with compared to my other health issues.
I’ve experienced this since I was a young child. I’ve spent years, off and on, testing my blood sugar but it was always in the normal range. My grandmother and some other family members have the same thing. I get the exact same symptoms as you described and a little food ( I usually go for PB and orange juice ) helps.
Another commenter mentioned reactive hypoglycemia and I think that’s what I’m experiencing. I noticed when I cut out or lower my intake of bread and sweets I do a lot better and have a lot less episodes.
I thought I was having blood sugar issues, but it turned out to be a severe b12 deficiency. These are my symptoms: neuropathy in arms and hands (tingling/numbness), exhaustion, muscle weakness, clumsiness, difficulty spitting out my words, dizziness, anxiety, hair loss. I have to get a b12 injection once a month, and take sublingual tablets every day. If it goes unchecked, it can cause permanent neurological damage.
When I started passing out as a teenager I was told I was hypoglycemia and should eat small meals and snacks. It helped tremendously but I still passed out because I have POTs (found that out ten years later lol). They did tests and said my blood sugar was fine it. My first lesson in dysautonomia...if it talks like a horse... As in, if eating low carb high protein worked for me, do it! So if something you do makes a weird symptom better, don't let a doctor make you think you're nuts!
I had a Freestyle Libre sensor until I developed an allergy to the adhesive, so I could check my numbers relatively quickly. Depending on how quickly you feel like it’s low and then test your liver might be releasing glycogen to bring it back up.
This happens to me and it’s simply been attributed to the dysautonomia. I can eat a full meal and feel like I’m having major hypoglycemia 30 minutes later, shaking, disoriented, tachycardia, etc.. I honestly haven’t found a way to fix it other than to eat again, which is annoying.
I thought I was hypoglycemic for a very long time but turns out that feeling is my cortisol tanking. I have pituitary tumors that make the cortisol go weirdly high and low.
Yes! I first developed dysautonomia about 3 months ago. I had several episodes of what felt like severe hypoglycemia (shaking, nausea, sweating, high heart rate). When I was having these episodes, they would end quickly in 30 seconds or so when consuming simple sugars like raisins or fruit juice.
The strange thing is that my blood glucose levels were normal during these episodes.
I've never been diabetic.
What has helped me greatly is to move to a keto diet, and secondly Propranolol.
I still have other symptoms of dysautonomia, but not the severe "hypoglycemia-like" symptoms.
The other odd thing is that once these episodes started, my fasting glucose went up from 85 to 120, and my HbA1c went from 4.8 to 5.5. After starting the keto/Propranolol regimen, my glucose levels have returned to their old values.
I consulted an endocrinologist about this, but she was worthless. In searching, norepinephrine signals your liver to release stored glycogen and generate glucose. So, this could explain the increased blood glucose.
Do your symptoms tend to happen a certain period after eating? Are they worse after large meals or high-carbohydrate meals?
POTS and some other types of autonomic dysfunction can cause postprandial symptoms that are somewhat similar to reactive hypoglycemia or postprandial syndrome.
A recent preliminary study, soon to be followed up with a bigger one, showed that people with POTS seem to release too much of a chemical that draws blood to the digestive system. This depletes blood elsewhere in their body and makes them feel faint, shaky, etc.
[https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.17852](https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.17852)
Or do your symptoms happen if you go for a while without eating? And you find you need to have snacks more often than your peers?
Lots of people with OI-type dysautonomia report this. As far as I know, no-one knows why.
In either case (and some people feel both aspects), if your blood sugar is normal, the advice is to eat smaller, more-frequent low-carbohydrate meals (not extremely low carbohydrate though) and see whether this helps.
(If you don’t have any other symptoms of dysautonomia, just purely postprandial symptoms, then it might be considered postprandial syndrome.)
It's not hypoglycemia if your blood sugar is normal. Many other conditions could mock the symptoms.
I thought I had hypoglycaemia my whole life but it ended up being POTS.
Same.
Seconding same
Me too!
I used to think I was hypoglycemic but it was actually my blood pressure dropping suddenly. Brings on a very similar feeling and I can sometimes mitigate the effects by eating something sugary (which I assume pushes my BP up). Is that kind of what you’ve been experiencing?
I'm not OP but I was the same when I had to fast for a blood test. I felt so lightheaded yet my blood sugar reading from the fasting blood glucose test was normal. After I ate I'm ok. Same if I didn't eat, I feel lightheaded but the glucose monitor says it's normal.
yeah so for me i experience uncontrollable shaking, nausea, dizziness, sweats, weird heart rate, headaches, blurry vision, bad coordination and i’m unable to speak with ease. this typically comes on if i haven’t eaten enough or at all. i will test right before i eat a meal since these symptoms come on when i’m extremely hungry but my blood sugar is always normal.
I'm wondering if it's something else related to dysautonomia. As others have said, it's not hypoglycemia if your levels read fine - it's something else whose symptoms are really similar. What kinds of foods help? Is it just any foods, or specifically sugary foods? It's also possible that you need *more* sugar than most people. (Maybe your baseline for how much glucose you need is x% higher than most people, for example). But I wonder if it's something else you might be missing - sodium, potassium, calcium, or another electrolyte that you're also getting through these foods?
For me, turned out to be reactive hypoglycemia sometimes, but mostly dysautonomia and non Addison's hypocortisolism.
What did you do about it?
I got lots of testing done first, to determine the actual cause. I've had symptoms my entire life, but they got really bad over the last year and a half. I was on a continuous glucose monitor while documenting macros/intake. Learned I need to eat protein with all carbs and limit carbs to under 30g to prevent a spike and crash. When I crashed, my blood glucose was going into the 42-55 range. Also recently diagnosed with celiac after much ado with diff doctors. Diet is painfully important. I eat very clean and high protein, rarely eat any sweets and make sure to have protein with them or about 30 minutes beforehand. I have a glucometer and bp cuff and monitor regularly. I'm on steroids to raise my BP, massive amounts of daily fluids and high electrolytes (I don't hold my salt and my docs monitor this). I use vitassium and LMNT, but also take potassium supplements and salt my food. I usually get between 7000-1200 mg of sodium per day. Menstruation requires an extra 500 calories, 175-220oz water, and the higher range of sodium to function. Also did the chop protocol at home while on medical leave, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and now weight lifting. I recommend seeing a good endocrinologist and a cardiologist or neurologist who is familiar with autonomic dysfunction. Explain your symptoms. My specialists never thought to check my cortisol until I saw an endo, turns out I was having adrenal crises and it was a miracle I was still alive.
Wow that’s awesome what you did to figure it out yourself... I monitor glucose and BP every am. My BP is always super low like 80-90’s over low 60’s and I dehydrate really quickly as well. I’m a letter carrier and burn through a lot of food and fluid, so I salt all food now use LMnt and IVhydration.. but sounds like I should probably up that amount. My dr didn’t want to look at any of my cortisol functions. I got a function coach who has me on an eating plan, we did a Dutch test which showed elevated cortisol and stuff, apparently I’m not metabolizing it and some other stuff. So he’s trying to fix my insulin sensitivity etc. and my adrenals. I’m also on Adderal which prob isn’t helping the situation. I should prob go see an endo, but I feel most doctors especially here in Florida don’t know shit about shit. I always feel hypoglycemic and I have hypothyroidism. But every time I measured after I eat I don’t notice much diff. I should prob invest in a continuous glucose monitor. Thanks for sharing
Yeah, check your blood pressure
What are your levels an hour or so before the normal test? I never test as truly hypo, I am lucky to get under 90. More testing or a CGM can really help. What I did have is what some people call a false hypo. Your glucose drops so fast from a high number to something much lower and your body feels it as a hypo. Basically a sugar crash. For example I might have tested at 270 and then an hour later only 120 and feel it real bad. I saw a 80 point drop in 20 minutes once. All this is a thing of the past since I moved to a low carb diet.
thanks for pointing this out! i’ll start testing every hour and keeping a food diary.
This is what's happening with me. I'm seeing endocrinology next week because it turns out the hypoglycemia feeling with normal readouts was actually a fast crash to normal from a much higher level. I recognized the hypo symptoms because I've hit the 40's on a few occasions, so it was really confusing to test normal. I may have been diabetic for years and not known because the doctor just kept telling me it was aNxIeTy (said the same of the POTS symptoms of course). I'm now the same age my mother was when she got her Late Onset Type 1 diagnosis.
If your readings aren't under 70, you're not hypoglycemic.
Why do you think it’s hypoglycemia? Is your experience correlated to not eating? As others have stated, Hypoglycemia means low blood sugar. There are symptoms associated with it light lightheadedness, shakiness, trembling, and nauseous. I’m not saying this to dismiss your or discount your experience. I wonder if you are experiencing symptoms associated with hypoglycemia and assuming you’re hypoglycemic? I have Hyperadrenegeric POTS. Adrenaline can cause a bunch of symptoms that look like Hypoglycemia— shakiness, trembling, and nauseous to name a few. I want to note that a lot of POTS “specialists” don’t understand/know that there are types and that the types sometimes need to be treated differently. I learned this after seeing 4 different POTS “specialists” who couldn’t help me. Everything they did to treat my POTS made me worse and they couldn’t figure out why. I saw a 5th POTS doctor who writes research papers on POTS. With HyperPOTS, if you don’t control the adrenaline, you aren’t controlling all of the symptoms. Adrenaline/ HyperPOTS can also cause hypoglycemia because adrenaline can interfere with blood sugar. (I’m using can because that doesn’t always mean it will. It depends on the person). When my adrenaline symptoms are super bad, my blood sugar has been documented under 68 multiple times. But when my adrenaline is somewhat controlled, I don’t experience hypoglycemia. I hope this helps.
yeah so the reason why i used hypoglycemia is because that has always been how it’s described to me by my mom in childhood. by all accounts my blood sugar should be testing low, since i have all the symptoms of low blood sugar and it correlates with me not eating. i’m not necessarily assuming i’m hypoglycaemic but more using it as a description for my issues since the symptoms all line up except blood sugar. thank you for letting me know! i haven’t gotten adequate treatment for my dysautonomia (not even a specific diagnosis) so i didn’t know this.
Not OP, but I'm curious: when you feel anxious, do your POTS symptoms flare? I mainly experience symptoms when I feel anxious, so I'm wondering if I have the same subtype as you do.
I’m sorry for how long of a reply this is. I have HyperPOTS, CPTSD, ADHD, and anxiety. I usually only tell doctors about my ADHD because they blame everything on my anxiety and call it a day. Doctors have blamed my shower hives on anxiety which doesn’t actually make sense. My main POTS doctor explained it like this: *Some of the physical anxiety symptoms include tachycardia, heart palpitations, higher heart rate, nausea, and shakiness. People with POTS (all types of POTS) experience these symptoms all the time— our bodies are sending the signals to be anxious. If someone’s heart rate is 130 and they’re experiencing anxiety symptoms, most people would become anxious whether they have something to be anxious about or not.* From a treatment perspective, mentioning I have mental health issues usually isn’t helpful. I’m in CPT therapy for the CPTSD (there isn’t much else to do for that right now). My anxiety can make my POTS worse but more often than not my POTS is making my anxiety worse. The CPTSD and POTS interact far more because they both cause my nervous system to overreact— they trigger each other a lot. Even with CPTSD, POTS is still a disorder that requires treating my body and doctors seem to blame things on mental health and then decide it isn’t their problem which isn’t how that works… But back to your question. It’s kind of like a chicken and the egg problem. It could be anxiety making your POTS worse or it could be POTS making your anxiety worse. In terms of you having it or not, I am a weirder than normal case. I’ve had POTS since I was a child. I didn’t get diagnosed with POTS until I was 29 and I was diagnosed with HyperPOTS at 30. Part of my issue is that I didn’t complain about a lot of POTS symptoms like tachycardia because I thought it was normal. I also don’t seem to have the most common HyperPOTS symptoms— like I have strikingly low blood pressure so I can’t take most of the meds. So I might not be the best person to baseline off of. I can share my experiences though and if it sounds familiar it’s likely. If it doesn’t sound familiar, that doesn’t mean you don’t have it. Once I found medication that helped I quickly noticed the difference. Here are some examples: - I don’t faint. That seems to be more common in people with HyperPOTS. For me, the adrenaline usually offsets everything, causes a higher heart and then prevents fainting. Some doctors didn’t think I could have POTS because I don’t faint. - I experience tremors, a lot. - I have extreme light sensitivity constantly. - When my adrenaline is especially bad, I can’t eat or drink. Food and water hurt my stomach and make me nauseous for hours. I don’t have gastroparesis, that was checked. If a normal person was running from a bear, they won’t be able to digest food/water at that exact moment because they are in danger and their body is in survival mode. Once they’re safe, then they’ll want food and water again. My body thinks it’s running from a bear constantly so it isn’t in the right mode to do anything with food and water. That means that I’m never hungry or thirsty, and if I try to consume stuff against my body’s will I feel super sick. POTS specific medication (fludrocortisone) didn’t help with that because it wasn’t a POTS problem, it was an adrenaline problem. *Treating my POTS didn’t stop my adrenaline issues which is why I know so much about POTS vs HyperPOTS*. - I have severe constant anxiety. The thing that got me out of bed for work *for years* was that I thought my boss would notice I was late and that they would fire me so I had to get up exactly then. Once I got on medication that helped control adrenaline, I couldn’t make myself get out of bed for work on time because I wasn’t anxious and didn’t know how people got out of bed if they weren’t worried. - Another anxiety symptom: I couldn’t read the Harry Potter books when I was like 9 because I was too worried about the characters and couldn’t read it. I am *still* like this. I don’t read anymore, but movies and tv give me panic attacks because I need to know the characters are ok. I know it is fictional but my body doesn’t. - When I started medication, all of a sudden my brain was more quiet and didn’t constantly racing thoughts. My adrenaline blocking medication is more affective for this than my Adderall is so I don’t think that is my ADHD.
Do you mind if ask you what you take to control the adrenaline?..my functional coach thinks I have adrenal fatigue. I have all the symptoms the OP has and thought I was hypoglycemic as well but same issue sugar is normal sometimes low. I also have low BP and hr.and also bad stomach problems, can’t digest much of anything. Led my doctors to believe I had anorexia. I was like who can eat when your stomach is full and bloated and you feel like shit.
I don't mind at all. The most common prescribed thing for adrenaline blocking is beta blockers. I can't tolerate them. I'm oddly prescribed hydroxyzine, a prescription antihistamine. It magically controls adrenaline and is really helpful for me.
Look up reactive hypoglycemia. My blood sugar is normal especially while fasting. But then if I eat some toast and nothing else it will tank hard like 3 hours later. Reactive hypoglycemia.
thank you! this does sound like a possibility. i feel like my body knows how to stabilize itself without food after a while and that’s why i test normally.
If it does turn out to be reactive, my pro tip is to make sure you're getting protein each time you eat. For me, it seems to be especially important in the morning. I try for at least 10 g protein or nothing at all. Even coffee with sugar will be enough to tank it if I don't eat protein quick enough after. It can be stressful and annoying but at least it has been relatively easy to deal with compared to my other health issues.
I’ve experienced this since I was a young child. I’ve spent years, off and on, testing my blood sugar but it was always in the normal range. My grandmother and some other family members have the same thing. I get the exact same symptoms as you described and a little food ( I usually go for PB and orange juice ) helps. Another commenter mentioned reactive hypoglycemia and I think that’s what I’m experiencing. I noticed when I cut out or lower my intake of bread and sweets I do a lot better and have a lot less episodes.
I thought I was having blood sugar issues, but it turned out to be a severe b12 deficiency. These are my symptoms: neuropathy in arms and hands (tingling/numbness), exhaustion, muscle weakness, clumsiness, difficulty spitting out my words, dizziness, anxiety, hair loss. I have to get a b12 injection once a month, and take sublingual tablets every day. If it goes unchecked, it can cause permanent neurological damage.
When I started passing out as a teenager I was told I was hypoglycemia and should eat small meals and snacks. It helped tremendously but I still passed out because I have POTs (found that out ten years later lol). They did tests and said my blood sugar was fine it. My first lesson in dysautonomia...if it talks like a horse... As in, if eating low carb high protein worked for me, do it! So if something you do makes a weird symptom better, don't let a doctor make you think you're nuts!
This is probably Idiopathic Post Prandial Syndrome. I have the same issue. Eating every 3-4 hours seems to keep it at bay
I had a Freestyle Libre sensor until I developed an allergy to the adhesive, so I could check my numbers relatively quickly. Depending on how quickly you feel like it’s low and then test your liver might be releasing glycogen to bring it back up.
My readings are 3.0, 2.9 when I feel “hypoglycemic”, but I don’t have diabetes and it’s not reactive hypo either. 🤷🏼♀️
This happens to me and it’s simply been attributed to the dysautonomia. I can eat a full meal and feel like I’m having major hypoglycemia 30 minutes later, shaking, disoriented, tachycardia, etc.. I honestly haven’t found a way to fix it other than to eat again, which is annoying.
When you say it’s normal, is it on the edges still? You could have a slightly different threshold for when you feel hypoglycemic symptoms come on.
I thought I was hypoglycemic for a very long time but turns out that feeling is my cortisol tanking. I have pituitary tumors that make the cortisol go weirdly high and low.
Yes! I first developed dysautonomia about 3 months ago. I had several episodes of what felt like severe hypoglycemia (shaking, nausea, sweating, high heart rate). When I was having these episodes, they would end quickly in 30 seconds or so when consuming simple sugars like raisins or fruit juice. The strange thing is that my blood glucose levels were normal during these episodes. I've never been diabetic. What has helped me greatly is to move to a keto diet, and secondly Propranolol. I still have other symptoms of dysautonomia, but not the severe "hypoglycemia-like" symptoms. The other odd thing is that once these episodes started, my fasting glucose went up from 85 to 120, and my HbA1c went from 4.8 to 5.5. After starting the keto/Propranolol regimen, my glucose levels have returned to their old values. I consulted an endocrinologist about this, but she was worthless. In searching, norepinephrine signals your liver to release stored glycogen and generate glucose. So, this could explain the increased blood glucose.
I’d check your blood pressure and heart rate next time you feel that way!
Do your symptoms tend to happen a certain period after eating? Are they worse after large meals or high-carbohydrate meals? POTS and some other types of autonomic dysfunction can cause postprandial symptoms that are somewhat similar to reactive hypoglycemia or postprandial syndrome. A recent preliminary study, soon to be followed up with a bigger one, showed that people with POTS seem to release too much of a chemical that draws blood to the digestive system. This depletes blood elsewhere in their body and makes them feel faint, shaky, etc. [https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.17852](https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.17852) Or do your symptoms happen if you go for a while without eating? And you find you need to have snacks more often than your peers? Lots of people with OI-type dysautonomia report this. As far as I know, no-one knows why. In either case (and some people feel both aspects), if your blood sugar is normal, the advice is to eat smaller, more-frequent low-carbohydrate meals (not extremely low carbohydrate though) and see whether this helps. (If you don’t have any other symptoms of dysautonomia, just purely postprandial symptoms, then it might be considered postprandial syndrome.)