June 11, 2004
Diagnosis and Symptoms, Hypoglycemia
Question from LaGrange, Georgia, USA:
After eating, I experience some bloating/gas. I start to get weak, tired, and sometimes headaches. I feel like I cannot put one foot in front of another. I experience flushing, too. I feel I need to rest, even sleep. At times, I get nervous, especially when I am hungry. The only thing I know to do is eat to take away the nervousness. It helps. My last check up for sugar was good. I checked my sugar level after eating today when this spell come on and it was 171 mg/dl [9.5 mmol/L].
The symptoms usually go away after an hour. I do have IBS (irritable bowl syndrome) and am on medication. I also have high blood pressure and take medication for both the upper and lower pressure. I have had a coronary bypass, one graft. Is it possible that I could be hypoglycemic or could it be a combination of other problems? My father had diabetes. My brother is borderline diabetic and my mother experiences the shaking as I do and has to eat to control it.
Answer:
Sorry to hear you are having the problems. I don’t think you are having hypoglycemia if your sugar is over 170 mg/dl [9.5 mmol/L] when you have symptoms. You may want to talk to your physician who treats you for irritable bowel. You can have flushing if you have a problem called dumping syndrome. After meals, you can have marked gastric emptying that can cause you to have symptoms, called dumping syndrome. You may want to add some more fiber to your diet to prevent any dumping. Please discuss this with your physician.
JTL
