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CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF HYPOGLYCAEMIA

April 23, 2009

What causes it?

• If the brain is starved of blood sugar, it may appear that the answer must be to eat more sugar and sweet foods. The answer is in fact exactly the opposite. Hypoglycaemia is caused by overindulgence in sugary foods. The average westerner eats or drinks more than forty teaspoons-full of sugar a day. He or she also eats large amounts of refined carbohydrate foods-all of which are converted into sugar by the body. The pancreas, faced with this overload, is forced to produce abnormally large peaks of insulin. This effectively sweeps away the excess glucose from the blood but often there is an over-supply of insulin, which causes the blood glucose to plummet. The result is low blood sugar-hypoglycaemia with all its symptoms.

• Two interesting studies bear this out. In the first a doctor researcher in the field gave a glucose-tolerance test to 220 neurotic patients with obvious symptoms of low blood sugar, such as fatigue. In fact 205 of them had low blood sugar. When these depressed, anxiety-ridden people were put on to a sensible diet, both their physical and psychological symptoms disappeared.

Next, the same researcher did a hypoglycaemia blood test on 700 people who had no physical symptoms of hypoglycaemia yet had all kinds of odd psychological signs and symptoms. The test showed that 600 had the condition! When put on to the right diet they all regained their mental health.

A study of 144 children with Teaming disability’ found that 78 per cent had hypoglycaemia, and many other studies have produced similar findings.

Many experts in this field now see hypoglycaemia as a source of marital and family problems that is almost entirely overlooked.

When the blood sugar drops, the adrenal glands pour out their hormones to release sugar from the body’s stores, but unfortunately caffeine, alcohol and nicotine also stimulate the adrenal glands in this way, so triggering the pancreas to produce more insulin. This produces hypoglycaemia. The cigarette or drink of coffee makes the person feel good for a while but once the blood sugar plummets they are forced to go back to the cigarettes and coffee to give them a lift again. And so it goes on.

Chronic stress seems to predispose people to hypoglycaemia.

There is now evidence that certain specific foods can produce an abnormally low, or indeed high, blood sugar, irrespective of their actual carbohydrate content.

Given that wheat and dairy products are two of the most commonly offending foods in adults; it is hardly surprising that a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet is of provable value in managing hypoglycaemia.

• Deficiencies of certain nutrients, such as magnesium, chromium, potassium, manganese, zinc and the Â vitamins can all produce the condition.

• Certain drugs, notably metronidazole (Flagyl) used to treat vaginal thrichomoniasis and parasitic infestations of the gut, can cause hypoglycaemia.

• Missed meals are a common cause, in children especially. Tea and coffee increase the release of insulin from the pancreas and can produce hypoglycaemic symptoms.

• Smoking causes both insulin and glucagon to be released with resulting hypoglycaemia. Often a smoker then needs to ‘top up’ his blood sugar with another cigarette.

• Alcohol can produce profound hypoglycaemia and alcoholics coming off alcohol should always be given an anti-hypolglycaemic diet.

Prevention

• Change your diet to remove all added sugar and unrefined carbohydrates.

• Eat six small meals a day rather than three large ones. Don’t eat more food-simply eat the same amount spread out more evenly.

• Eat more unrefined, complex carbohydrate foods and plenty of fruit and vegetables.

• Take brewers’ yeast tablets-the chromium these contain helps sugar metabolism.

• Cut right down on caffeine-containing drinks, alcohol and cigarettes.

• Be sure to keep up your level of animal-protein intake. This provides a substance known as carnitine – a deficiency of which can produce hypoglycaemia and heart disease.

• Take a vitamin and mineral supplement containing the following:

Vitamin Â complex, 100 mg daily

Tryptophan, 500-1500 mg daily

Chromium GTF, 200 mcg daily

Zinc, 15-25 mg daily

Manganese, 5-10 mg daily

Magnesium, 250-300 mg daily

Potassium, 500-1000 mg daily

Vitamin C, 2-3 g daily

• Talk to your doctor about stopping metronidazole if you are on it.

*176/72/5*

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