Low blood glucose levels / insulin sensitivity - experiencing hypoglycemic symptoms.

[espresso123]

Dear community,
during my weight lifting career I suffered severe hypoglycemic symptoms here and there. Especially during cutting keeping a complete clean non processed food diet my blood glucose levels ranged about 40-60mg/dl fasted.

Even during a period of months of eating not clean, ingesting garbage, not doing much cardio and no workouts (injuries, illness) my bloodwork never came back higher than 80mg/dl.

About a year ago starting my journey again I had dozens of situations suffering severe hypoglycemic symptoms. I am a non diabetic person and did never use insulin in any form.

During cuts going lower and lower on carbos it made sense to me but the frequency it occured increased. My last labs came out on 50mg/dl in the morning and my symptoms were as heavy as almost passing out at times, legs became shaky from calves, upper legs get slightly numb, followed by cold sweat (during summer soaked up shirts), not being able to communicate properly anymore and getting blurry vision and my brain just did not process information properly anymore.

I got worried a little bit. I do not know if my body just "overreacts" since I do not use any form of ultra fast carbos which collapse your blood glucose levels after a while (dextrose, maltodextrin or any other kind of fast carbs). Did another bloodwork this week to check for hbA1c levels and perhaps tomorrow I will get the results.
However, I am not an expert regarding issues with the pancreas at all.

Anyone out there with ideas what the reasons behind that could be?

Thanks very much in advance!

Cheers!

 

[aljowa]

Given the severity of your symptoms, this seems like an issue that should be discussed with a physician. I know for damn sure that if I were in your position, I would be taking this information to a medical doctor, not an online forum. I don't think anyone here is in a position to give you an adequate answer, and anyone who even attempts to do so is way out of their depth and is doing you a disservice.

Best of luck, though. I hope you can get access to proper care and resolve this. Stay safe.

 

[espresso123]

Absolutly agree on this. I did not take it seriously at the beginning. It might have started during cutting a few years ago, but not leading to those heavy symptoms.
I was just told by co workers I looked like a little "weak" but that was normal to me during cutting to be a little bit "off".

Then later I thought about it was due to intense workouts not ingesting too many carbs right after that. However, it started occuring more and more frequently and I still thought "well, it might can happen".

Even after eating a good amount of low fat chicken and rice meal + a little piece of cake a few months ago my blood glucose levels did not reach more than 125 mg/dl (was about 100-120g of carbos non fasted and eating during the day) which made me question my assumption it could be normal.

On my way to work last week it occured during driving and I had to ingest about 150g carbs to be perfectly fine again.

Will adress it definitly with my physician, thanks for your reply.

Rest of my bloodwork 4 weeks ago was literally perfect.

 

[aljowa]

Absolutly agree on this. I did not take it seriously at the beginning. It might have started during cutting a few years ago, but not leading to those heavy symptoms.
I was just told by co workers I looked like a little "weak" but that was normal to me during cutting to be a little bit "off".

Then later I thought about it was due to intense workouts not ingesting too many carbs right after that. However, it started occuring more and more frequently and I still thought "well, it might can happen".

Even after eating a good amount of low fat chicken and rice meal + a little piece of cake a few months ago my blood glucose levels did not reach more than 125 mg/dl (was about 100-120g of carbos non fasted and eating during the day) which made me question my assumption it could be normal.

On my way to work last week it occured during driving and I had to ingest about 150g carbs to be perfectly fine again.

Will adress it definitly with my physician, thanks for your reply.

Rest of my bloodwork 4 weeks ago was literally perfect.

Yeah, the severity and frequency of your symptoms definitely warrants medical attention. It's one thing to get an occasional bout of hypoglycemia during an aggressive, low-carb diet, but what you're describing is bordering on hypoglycemic shock.

But, hey, let's be optimistic and flip a negative into a positive. Maybe your physician will just prescribe you 15ius of GH per day to elevate your blood glucose and you'll transform into an absolute monster, haha.

For real, though, I'm sure your physician will be able to treat this, or at least refer you to someone who can.

 

[espresso123]

Yeah, the severity and frequency of your symptoms definitely warrants medical attention. It's one thing to get an occasional bout of hypoglycemia during an aggressive, low-carb diet, but what you're describing is bordering on hypoglycemic shock.

But, hey, let's be optimistic and flip a negative into a positive. Maybe your physician will just prescribe you 15ius of GH per day to elevate your blood glucose and you'll transform into an absolute monster, haha.

For real, though, I'm sure your physician will be able to treat this, or at least refer you to someone who can.

You are absolutly right, sadly, the lab messed up something and could not perform any analysis.
The symptoms are indeed pretty severe for regular low blood-glucose levels.

My last hbA1c test went out perfectly fine, but it was a few years ago. I do not regulary get that one checked because there has never been a true reason for that.
I tend to get into these situations more frequently in correlation with intense workouts, during last year also "slight" symptoms while doing cardio. But yea, we need data and no speculation.
But whats for sure is my thyroid levels are always too high, monitored years over years but no "worsening" occured and it is not that bad to treat it in the eyes of any doctor I have seen.

Will keep this thread up to date when I am back from my vacation and have re done the blood work.
GH on a script is not a problem, the price is. I do not know other countries prices but legit TRT medication/script vs. GH are entirely different universes and no insurance would ever cover that.

 

[aljowa]

You are absolutly right, sadly, the lab messed up something and could not perform any analysis.
The symptoms are indeed pretty severe for regular low blood-glucose levels.

My last hbA1c test went out perfectly fine, but it was a few years ago. I do not regulary get that one checked because there has never been a true reason for that.
I tend to get into these situations more frequently in correlation with intense workouts, during last year also "slight" symptoms while doing cardio. But yea, we need data and no speculation.
But whats for sure is my thyroid levels are always too high, monitored years over years but no "worsening" occured and it is not that bad to treat it in the eyes of any doctor I have seen.

Will keep this thread up to date when I am back from my vacation and have re done the blood work.
GH on a script is not a problem, the price is. I do not know other countries prices but legit TRT medication/script vs. GH are entirely different universes and no insurance would ever cover that.

Oh, I was being a sarcastic bastard with the GH comment. I don't believe a physician would ever prescribe that to treat hypoglycemia, lol. And yeah, pharma GH is insanely expensive, and most US health insurance plans offer very limited coverage (if any) of meds like that.

I'd schedule an appointment with a primary care physician and lay out your symptoms. Best course of action would be to follow a physician-supervised medical protocol for managing this. It may end up being a condition that is simple to manage.

 

[NewGuy756]

you might want to talk to a doctor

 

[CraneKraken]

Oh, I was being a sarcastic bastard with the GH comment. I don't believe a physician would ever prescribe that to treat hypoglycemia, lol. And yeah, pharma GH is insanely expensive, and most US health insurance plans offer very limited coverage (if any) of meds like that.

I'd schedule an appointment with a primary care physician and lay out your symptoms. Best course of action would be to follow a physician-supervised medical protocol for managing this. It may end up being a condition that is simple to manage.

Yeah, physicians and TRT/HRT clinics can prescribe secretagogues off label but as far as I understand it they cannot prescribe actual Growth Hormone beyond AIDS patients, wasting away type diseases, and children with growth issues. I'm not sure what it's like around the world but I'm fairly confident this is the case in the U.S.

 

[glpfun]

Yeah, physicians and TRT/HRT clinics can prescribe secretagogues off label but as far as I understand it they cannot prescribe actual Growth Hormone beyond AIDS patients, wasting away type diseases, and children with growth issues. I'm not sure what it's like around the world but I'm fairly confident this is the case in the U.S.

Wrong you can get hgh prescribed from clinics for HRT in the US. Nobody does it because it’s prohibitively expensive like we’re talking several grand a month