• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

theory on my blood sugar issues

S

sonic assassin

Nov 8, 2008
3,455
34
cincinnati
#1
doctor said i was hypoglycemic.. which if you've ever met one of us, you know thats a big word for pain in the ass that always needs a soda or some peanut butter.

ive fallen asleep while driving (a few times on the highway.. once in stop and go traffic. actually hit a guy doing 3 mph), i dropped a soldering iron on my hand because i was shaking too much to hold it still.

so i feel like this was brought on by the 2 year mountain dew binge i went on in my early teenhood. i worked at a grocery store and the soda machine was 35 cents (and thats cheaper than water). so i grew a fondness for the dew, and soon enough was easily drinking 5-8 cans a day. on new years eve, we had a contest to see who could put away the most.. i won at 12.

the soda binge hasnt ended, but i ditched the dew a long time ago. im still at 2-5 cans of orange soda or sprite a day. but without it, my blood sugar crashes.

so i doubt there are any blood sugar disorder specialists around here, but perhaps all the extra sugar i put in my body on a daily basis caused my body to NEED that much? never seemed to have a problem before that.
 
#2
I'm no biologist, but know that your body adjusts to whatever...

Try eating something that burns slower, like whole grain bread in the morning. Keep snacks, like raw almonds around and eat those every couple of hours. Try to replace the orange soda, loaded with corn syrup sugar, with something that satisfies your taste without the sugar. I bet you'll feel better, get rid of the shakes, improve your mental acuity and play bass better in no time.

-richard
 
#4
Protein, eat protein. If I have a bowl of cereal, or oatmeal, or toast for breakfast, my blood sugar crashes a few hours later. It is not a good feeling.

Cut back on the dew and eat more Bacon.
 
#5
Phalex said:
Protein, eat protein. If I have a bowl of cereal, or oatmeal, or toast for breakfast, my blood sugar crashes a few hours later. It is not a good feeling.

Cut back on the dew and eat more Bacon.
Click to expand...

Same here big time. It's a rotten feeling, I get shaky, weak and feel like crap. God help me if I eat a pop tart or something like that...
this is just another reason why bacon is a gift from the heavens.
 
#6
You hit it.
And you're getting hit by it - dropping a soldering iron into your hand or falling asleep at the wheel is big time serious stuff.

Time to nix the soda habit. Get out of sugar - as completely as you can.
It will suck for a while, because you've accustomed yourself to it.
But after a while it'll be easy, because you'll hate the rollercoaster of sugar-high/sugar-crash.
I know.

Frequent small snacks that include protien are your new best friend.
Meet peanuts. :D
 
#8
You can't get diabetes from eating too much sugar. It's an autoimmune disease. What happens is your white blood cells get confused and attack your pancreas until it can't produce insulin anymore. And after that, if you drink soda, you'll have high blood sugar. He's describing low blood sugar. (This is diabetes type 1 anyways. I suppose if you eat to much sugar and became too large you could get diabetes type 2.)

Also, drinking a lot of soda throws off your Potassium / Calcium balance. I'm pretty sure, but not 100% sure so you may wanna check, that soda raises potassium and lowers calcium. So your new best friend may be milk lol.
 
#9
diabetus.jpg
 
#10
Araillac said:
So your new best friend may be milk lol.
Click to expand...

EWWWW!

haha. i dont touch the stuff.

diabetes ended up claiming my grandma. my uncle has it pretty bad as well. its funny that i end up with the opposite..

someone mentioned getting rid of the dew. i havent touched the stuff in a couple years. not much into caffeine anymore.

i honestly owe my life to highway rumble strips. id have been a goner SEVERAL times otherwise. drove home from a show asleep once. woke up once every couple of minutes to get my car back on the road. that wasnt pretty.

and the soldering iron.. well the surrounding individuals likely heard a string of curse words they didnt know could go together.
 
#12
Araillac said:
You can't get diabetes from eating too much sugar. It's an autoimmune disease. What happens is your white blood cells get confused and attack your pancreas until it can't produce insulin anymore. And after that, if you drink soda, you'll have high blood sugar. He's describing low blood sugar. (This is diabetes type 1 anyways. I suppose if you eat to much sugar and became too large you could get diabetes type 2.)
Click to expand...

That's the whole point. You can't "get" type 1 diabetes at all, per se , you are born with it. You get type 2 diabetes from consuming massive amounts of unnecessary sugar.
 
#16
If you really want to know, then your doctor needs to put you through a glucose tolerance test.

Since I've already done it, about 11 years ago, I can tell you that your experiences and symptoms are very very similar to mine. After battling symptoms that I didn't know the cause of, I eventually had an incident where I passed out at a family dinner and when the medics showed up they did a field blood test that showed I was off the charts low.

My doctor set up the tolerance test, which works like this: You don't eat for 24 hours. You go to the doctor's office. They put in an IV so they can draw blood easily. They draw a baseline, then they give you a cup of glucose to drink. 30 minutes later, they draw blood and give you another cup. This goes on for about 5 hours.

When they graph your blood sugar levels, it shows how your body is reacting to the sugar intake and how it is producing insulin to deal with it.

I was diagnosed with "reactive hypoglycemia", which means that my body overreacts to sugar intake. I take in sugar, my body overproduces insulin, and then my blood sugar crashes.

The clinical treatment for this is to cut out all sugar. I can tell you from experience that cutting out all sugar when you're used to intaking sugar the way that you and I are is like taking heroin away from an addict. I detoxed for 3 weeks, at which point I was literally feeling suicidal I was so miserable. I promised my doctor 4 weeks, and at the end he gave me clearance to give up on the diet he had me on.

The non-clinical way to deal with it is exactly what you've been doing...keep countering the crashes with more sugar. It's horrible for us, but I still do this.

If you can cut back on sugar spikes and try to get on a diet that keeps a steady, low level flow, you will probably feel better. That's been a decade long battle for me and I still suck at it. I still drink Coke by the case.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back