Hypoglycemia, which is underestimated, you need to know about it!

People often discuss blood sugar problems, especially being worried about hyperglycemia. Diabetes has attracted widespread attention in society due to its increasing prevalence and high disability and mortality rates. However, many people may not be aware that hypoglycemia is also an extremely dangerous disease. Occasional hypoglycemia can cause even more severe harm to the human body than hyperglycemia. Severe hypoglycemia may even cause permanent and irreversible damage to the brain and even lead to brain death. Therefore, the rescue of hypoglycemia can be described as "racing against the clock".

The following will introduce in detail the harm of hypoglycemia to the human body and the corresponding treatment methods, hoping to provide you with help at critical moments.

How to determine the occurrence of hypoglycemia?

For non-diabetic patients, a blood sugar level lower than 2.8mmol/L can be considered as hypoglycemia. For diabetic patients, a blood sugar level lower than 3.9mmol/L can be judged as hypoglycemia.

What are the symptoms of hypoglycemia?

Mild hypoglycemia: Usually, one will feel hungry and may also experience symptoms such as palpitation, tremor, dizziness, weakness, sweating, pale complexion, and difficulty concentrating.

Moderate hypoglycemia: In addition to the above symptoms, some strange behaviors may also be manifested, such as emotional instability, urinating or defecating everywhere, being unreasonable, and mental confusion.

Severe hypoglycemia: Coma, convulsions, limb spasms, urinary incontinence, arrhythmia, cerebrovascular accident and other symptoms may occur, and even endanger life.

What situations are likely to lead to hypoglycemia?

Hunger, insufficient intake and strenuous exercise are likely to cause hypoglycemia. Generally speaking, the population prone to hypoglycemia is mainly diabetic patients, especially type 1 diabetic patients. Type 2 diabetic patients using insulin are also prone to hypoglycemia.

In addition to the possible occurrence of hypoglycemia caused by diseases such as liver and kidney function decline, the following factors also need to be vigilant:

2 to 4 hours after a meal: Especially after ingesting too much high-sugar food, the body may secrete and release too much insulin in order to cope with the sudden large amount of sugar, resulting in a hypoglycemic effect.

Heavy drinking: Especially when drinking a large amount of alcohol on an empty stomach or in a hungry state, it may lead to hypoglycemia. Because in this case, the glycogen reserve in the liver is insufficient and the body needs to mobilize fat and protein. However, a large amount of alcohol will inhibit the liver's function of converting fat and protein into glucose, thus triggering a hypoglycemic distress signal.

Nocturnal hypoglycemia: Nocturnal hypoglycemia usually occurs between 12:00 am and 2:00 am. Patients are prone to symptoms such as night sweats and nightmares. When waking up in the morning, they may feel poor sleep quality and often accompanied by headache and fatigue. Especially for diabetic patients, nocturnal hypoglycemia often starts with nightmares. Therefore, diabetic patients must strengthen blood sugar monitoring and, if necessary, conduct 24-hour continuous blood sugar monitoring.

Elderly population: The elderly, especially elderly diabetic patients, have a weak perception ability of hypoglycemia. Sometimes when symptoms such as palpitation and dizziness occur, they are often misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease and hypertension and ignored. If similar hypoglycemic symptoms recur and the body gradually adapts, it may no longer send out warnings. In the long run, it may cause irreversible harm to the patient and even quickly fall into a coma without any warning signs. Therefore, the elderly population especially needs to pay attention to avoiding the occurrence of hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemic drugs: The use of hypoglycemic drugs is also a risk factor for the occurrence of hypoglycemia. Insulin and sulfonylurea hypoglycemic drugs are prone to cause hypoglycemia during the use process. Other hypoglycemic drugs such as metformin, pioglitazone and acarbose generally do not easily cause hypoglycemia when used alone. Therefore, patients using such drugs must be under the guidance of a doctor or pharmacist when changing drugs or adjusting the dosage.

How to rescue oneself from hypoglycemia?

Many diabetic patients may choose staple foods such as snacks and steamed buns to relieve symptoms when hypoglycemic symptoms occur. Although this practice is not completely wrong, it is not the most appropriate choice. Because for the treatment of hypoglycemia, time is crucial and one should quickly ingest foods such as sucrose, honey and fruit juice. These foods can be quickly absorbed by the intestine and relieve hypoglycemic symptoms as soon as possible. Starchy foods such as steamed buns belong to polysaccharides and need to be metabolized and decomposed into monosaccharides before they can be absorbed and utilized by the human body. Therefore, the speed of correcting hypoglycemia is relatively slow. In addition, for diabetic patients taking acarbose, voglibose and miglitol, when hypoglycemia occurs, sucrose should not be used and glucose should be supplemented instead, because these three drugs will slow down the speed of sucrose decomposition into glucose and fructose and prevent the blood sugar from rising rapidly.

The first aid methods for diabetic hypoglycemia are as follows: After the patient shows hypoglycemic symptoms, he should immediately lie down and rest. Orally take 15-20 grams of carbohydrate food (preferably glucose). Monitor the blood sugar every 15 minutes. If the blood sugar is still lower than 3.9mmol/L, you can ingest carbohydrate food again; if it is higher than 3.9mmol/L, you can eat starchy or protein foods such as milk, bananas or sandwiches.

Finally, a reminder: Hypoglycemia caused by long-acting insulin or sulfonylurea drugs is not easy to correct. It is recommended to seek medical attention in time after self-rescue and it may be necessary to infuse glucose for a long time. At least monitor the blood sugar for 24-48 hours after regaining consciousness.

For severe hypoglycemic attacks, timely and correct treatment measures are crucial. Diabetic patients should regularly monitor their blood sugar to avoid the occurrence of hypoglycemia and avoid strenuous exercise on an empty stomach or in a hungry state. If moderate or severe hypoglycemia occurs and self-rescue is ineffective, the patient should be immediately sent to the hospital for medical treatment.

If hypoglycemia recurs and the cause is unknown, do not handle it at home by yourself and be sure to go to the hospital to seek medical help. For severely hypoglycemic patients with consciousness disorders, immediately call the 120 emergency rescue number and send them to the hospital for treatment.