September 14, 2000
Hypoglycemia
Question from Plano, Texas, USA:
I heard recently that the longer a person has diabetes, the shorter the amount of time that person has to identify the symptoms of a “low” and treat it before having a seizure or passing out. Is this really true? My 14 year old daughter has had diabetes for almost three years now and luckily has not experienced either of these things.
Answer:
After a while, your pancreas stops making insulin, so you need more. Since shots are a poor substitute for a pancreas, it is easier to get the “mix” wrong and cause hypos.
Also, it does seem that the longer one has diabetes the more likely the development of hypoglycemic unawareness, where you don’t notice the lows as they are coming on. There has been a lot of literature on developing hypoglycemic awareness, actually training yourself to recognize your particular symptoms of lows. Seems a good idea to me to do this and I encourage my patients to learn all the signs of a low.
LD