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Home » Diabetes » Type 1 Diabetes » How to Treat a Low Blood Sugar (Without Eating Everything in Sight)

Integrated Diabetes ServicesBy Integrated Diabetes Services on June 4, 2020
Diabetes

How to Treat a Low Blood Sugar (Without Eating Everything in Sight)

We’ve all been in the position of having a bad low blood sugar, where all you want to do is eat everything in sight. There’s no reasoning with yourself. It’s like a demon has hijacked your self-control!

It makes perfect sense–your body just wants to get your blood sugar back up to a safe level, and it’s doing its best to ensure that the low is corrected.

But eating your weight in carbs is just going to result in high blood sugar, and then you are dealing with the opposite problem. What’s a person with diabetes to do?

Woman eating glucose tabs

First of all, fix the low. Get your blood glucose level above 70 mg/dl (4 mmol/L).

It’s best to use a dextrose-based treatment, like glucose tablets or gel, to get the BG up to a safe level. Using something high glycemic index is important when you are very low and need to quickly raise the blood glucose, especially if you have a lot of insulin on board.

Be careful to treat with the right amount of carb, as opposed to over-treating.

  • If you weigh less than 60 lbs, a gram of carb will raise your BG about 6 points.
  • If you weigh 100-160 lbs, a gram of carb should raise your BG about 4 points.
  • If you weigh 160-220 lbs, a gram of carb might raise you 3 points.

And give the carbohydrates 15-20 minutes to raise the BG. Do a follow-up fingerstick because there is a lag time with CGM sensors, and the BG you get with a fingerstick will be a more accurate reflection of your response to your treatment. If you are still low, repeat the treatment.

I remember a low where I munched my way through the pantry, and I neglected to count my carbs as I was doing it. I had absolutely no idea how much to bolus for! Boy, did I learn my lesson.

I never did that again – I’ve always made sure to carb count and take insulin to cover whatever I eat that’s in excess of what I needed to do to control the low blood glucose levels. Sometimes experience is the best teacher.

I was driving when I had the worst low I’ve ever had. Thank God I had glucose gel in the center console and glucose tablets on my key chain. I was sucking down the gel as I was pulling off the road.

Ordinarily, I would have wanted to eat (and eat and eat) after that. But I had to sit in my car and wait for my BG to come up, so food wasn’t readily available. And do you know what? By the time I got home, the desire to eat had passed! I was very surprised, but it did. That was a good lesson for me, too.

If your blood glucose is rising and getting higher than you’d like after you’ve treated your low, you can choose to exercise and get yourself away from your tempting kitchen.

Take a little walk to use up some of that food you ate for the low BG and avoid the need to take corrective insulin to bring it down again – vicious cycle, no?

Another strategy to avoid overeating after a low? Enlist the help of the people around you. Sometimes we all need a little support. Who knows, they might just be willing to sit with you while you wait for the low to come up or they may go on that walk with you.

Suggested next posts: How To Treat Low Blood Sugar At Night and What a Low Blood Sugar Feels Like

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Categories: Diabetes

Integrated Diabetes Services

About Integrated Diabetes Services

Post courtesy of Gary Scheiner MS, CDE and his clinical team at Integrated Diabetes Services. His practice provides individualized diabetes management and advanced education services for insulin users worldwide. For more information, visit Integrateddiabetes.com or call (877) 736-3648; outside N America, call +1 (610) 642-6055.

View all posts by Integrated Diabetes Services

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AvatarSandra Kerner says

    June 29, 2020 at 6:17 am

    I have had type 1 Diabetes since I was 6 (1987), now that I am 39 I occasionally think there is nothing I don’t know about it. This site has given me some “food for thought” and I thank you for it!

    Reply
    • Christel OerumChristel Oerum says

      June 29, 2020 at 10:57 am

      I find that living with diabetes is a constant learning experience. That can be exhausting but it also means that we can learn new perspectives that can make life a little easier. Glad you found us

      Reply
  2. Avatarmargaret mccurdy says

    September 3, 2019 at 6:34 pm

    i have type 1 diabetes i can eat 2 weetbix for breakfast and my BG goes up and can be to 20 that is in australia or i have fresh salmon and veggies and it can go way high was told to eat more carbs but the starchy carbs put my blood sugar way high no doctors can tell me why this is happening when i don,teat sugar and no take away or no processed food has this ever happened to you

    Reply
    • Christel OerumChristel Oerum says

      September 3, 2019 at 7:43 pm

      I can’t say exactely what’s going on but it sounds like you’re really insulin resistant in the morning. As time go by we change and so does our diabetes management. So although you’d never had an issue with these kinds of highs before now you do. I’d suggest you look into pre-bolusing as well as have a look at whether your carb ratio needs justing. If you don’t know how to do this your medical team should be able to support you if you give them the data to do so. The data would be a detailed blood sugar and carb log

      Reply
  3. AvatarGhazi alnajdi says

    January 4, 2019 at 7:26 pm

    Dry dates are awesome, not sure why they don’t spike my blood sugar after hypoglycemia like other types of foods. They make me feel full and it will be awesome if I have 1-2 dates with plain yogurt, then my stomach will be really full.

    Reply
  4. AvatarLeana Simione says

    August 20, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    thanks so much!! never knew it was based on your weight! !

    Reply
  5. AvatarShauna says

    July 3, 2017 at 4:22 am

    Sorry me, again! You said you were pulling off glucose tablets off your keychain/ WHAT are these and how do you get them on a key ring?

    Reply
    • Christel OerumChristel Oerum says

      July 3, 2017 at 11:19 am

      Try searching for “Glucose Tablet Key Chain” on Amazon and it should show up. They are around 4 USD and I would think you can get them from the Australian site as well

      Reply

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