Hypoglycemia Treatment

There are a number diseases or conditions that produce that same symptoms as hypoglycemia. Therefore you should always consult your physician first. Some of these other diseases or conditions are potentially life threatening.


  1. This Page
    1. Introduction
    2. Resources (Books)
    3. Thumbnail Sketch of Treatment
    4. Other Hypo Activities
    5. Navigation Aids
  2. Other Sections of this Site
    1. You may want to see some case studies.
    2. You may want to see some resources from the Hypoglycemia Association. This includes the HAI Diet and some bulletins


Definition of Hypoglycemia by an Endocrinologist: Click HERE to see a good definition of what hypoglycemia is, what the different forms of hypoglycemia are, and what forms of hypoglycemia are life threatening.

If you are like most sufferers of hypoglycemia, you have at this point seen at least two or three doctors and all of them tell you that nothing is wrong with you, that you are in perfect health. You feel like telling your doctor, "If I am so healthy, why do I feel so bad?" The basic problem is that the medical establishment does not recognize all of the manifestations of hypoglycemia. The generally accepted definition is that your blood glucose level has to drop below 50 mg per 100 ml in order for you to be deemed to have hypoglycemia. I was once told by an endocrinologist that I did not have hypoglycemia. He told me that he saw a lot of people like me, and that they did not have hypoglycemia either. I asked him that if so many people had similar symptoms, didn't that show that there was something there that needed to be investigated. That was about the point that he quit listening to me.

That's the bad news. The good news is that if you have reactive hypoglycemia, that is if your body has the same reactions as someone who has what the doctors classify as hypoglycemia (50mg per 100 ml blood glucose), the same treatment will help you. Let me give you some resources first and then give a thumbnail sketch of the treatment.



Internet Pages

Thumbnail Sketch of Treatment


The first basic treatment is to avoid all foods that contain elemental sugar. This includes almost all desserts and junk foods. (Actually that wouldn't be so bad for a "healthy" person would it?) It also includes all non diet soft drinks. A lot of people find that caffeine also stimulates the release of blood glucose and precipitates a reaction. That is the reason why caffeine helps keep people awake and "gives" them energy, it's really the increase in blood glucose giving them the extra energy. Beware of anything that comes in a box from the supermarket. The food industry loves to add sugar to things to entice you to eat their products. The worst offender you can think of are breakfast cereals. They not only put sugar in their product, but on their product. The cereal that I have ended up with is Shredded Wheat, which has no added sugar.

The second basic treatment is to give your body small doses of food at more frequent times during the day (the frequency people use varies from 6 times a day up to 11 or 12 times a day). These snacks should, of course, be smaller portions of things which are digested slowly. Things that are digested slowly include protein and complex carbohydrates. For comparison, simple carbohydrates are include things like sugar. Complex carbohydrates include whole grains and fresh vegetables. Beware of everything that has ingredients that end in -ose, which denotes a sugar. These include dextrose, glucose, maltose, sucrose, sorbital. Fruits are sort of in a gray area, with their fructose. If you have a fruit drink, such as apple juice, then the sugars can be absorbed quickly. If you have applesauce, then the body has to do some breaking down of the applesauce before it can get to the sugar. If you have a whole apple, then the body has a lot of breaking down to do. You have to read labels to see if the products have sugar in them.

To help me keep my weight down, a dietician prescribed non fat proteins for me to eat. These include nonfat string cheese, cream cheese, and bean dip. Surprisingly, if you cut out the simple carbohydrates, you probably won't gain weight eating all those snacks. In fact, you might even lose weight!

Other Hypo Activities

You may want to participate in a hypoglycemia email chat group.  This has the benefit of talking interactively to someone else who has hypoglycemia.  Let's face it, I can't cover every situation or condition. :-)    Anyway, there are two ways to join the email chat group:

Once again my links to the hypo chat group went out of date.  The last time I had contact with them they had the group in with the Yahoo groups.  You might want to do a search there for the  hypo chat group.  ComputServe used to have a group, but I do not know at all even if CompuServe is still serving.

Navigation Aids

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Last changed  18 June 2003