Unknown Chronic Hypoglycemia/adrenaline Problem For 6+ Years

bcomplex

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Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
1
Hi all, I've been lurking for awhile and this forum seems like it knows it's stuff so I wanted to get some ideas from you guys about what might be going on with my body before I go spend a fortune on an endocrinologist trying to figure it out. I'm a 28 year old, 145 lbs, 6' male, if that matters. I'll get right to it:

About 30 minutes (sometimes 15 minutes or less) after eating a meal with any type of food the following happens:
  • Hypoglycemia symptoms (almost every one) and high adrenaline despite normal blood sugar readings (70-85)
  • Horrible brain fog / cannot focus
These symptoms are worse with any type of carbohydrate, especially refined carbs. Sometimes I will have hypoglycemic symptoms/adrenaline hit me before I'm even finished eating... This whole problem has gotten gradually worse over 7 years, a steady increase in symptoms to where I'm at now.

Important to note that symptoms are resolved by eating which does indicate a blood sugar problem, only for a short time though. The only things I've tried that extend how long I can last before symptoms hit are a b complex and vitamin D. Also, sometimes when the symptoms hit, it's immediate and I feel sort of a jolt (maybe hear palpitation?) and I go from feeling good after eating to abysmal in like a few minutes...

Other symptoms:
  • Often feel full after only a few bites of food
  • Often can't tell when i'm full or feel hungry and full at the same time
  • Often bloated
  • Foods that cause extreme bloating: fish, eggs, oatmeal, berries, bread, nuts & high protein meals
  • Bad insomnia because I can't go to sleep without eating every 30min/hour
Hypoglycemia is supposed to happen hours after eating after a meal high in carbs and supposed to be <60, yet my symptoms come less than an hour after eating and occur with normal glucose readings. How is that even possible? Could the problem be hormonal?

Attached is a page from my yearly blood test from my physical and the results from a recent stool test. Note the abnormally high secretory IgA and high zonulin indicating bad intestinal permeability problems. Also note the high levels of probiotics (possible SIBO?) Unknown if any of this is causing my symptoms...

I'm currently taking supplements for the gut lining and inflammation based on the few studies I've read (glutamine, quercetin, curcumin) but holding off on probiotics & prebiotics because of possible bacterial overgrowth.

Also, myself administered glucose tolerance test from January of this year (50g sugar from orange juice, 10hr fast):

Fasting - 85
30min - 134
1hr - 100
1 1/2 hr - 98
2hr - 88
2 1/2hr - 80
3 hr - 75
4hr - 80

Thanks very much for reading and for any thoughts and/or advice.
 

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Constatine

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Sep 28, 2016
Messages
1,781
Sounds like a gut and liver problem to me. Eating certain foods can rebalance the gut microbiome without many side effects if any. Eat plenty of blueberries, mushrooms (especially reishi), oranges (not just OJ but whole oranges), apples, and date fruits. Many other fruits will help as well but these are the ones I've seen research on rebalancing the gut microbiome. Coffee and tea can be helpful but some people find it hard to handle when they have liver problems (even though it improves liver health). The gut and liver are very interconnected so improving gut health will also improve liver health and hypoglycemic symptoms (and endotoxin symptoms).
 

Constatine

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Joined
Sep 28, 2016
Messages
1,781
Also your SCFA are so ridiculously low. You definitely have an imbalance of gut bacteria.
 

fradon

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Joined
Sep 23, 2017
Messages
605
you have several problems...have you tried digestive enzymes.

also do you have hives or any food allergies. It sounds like an over active pancreas to some degree with insulin but under active when it comes to digestive enzymes. try a digestive enzyme with betaine to increase stomach acid for protein.

  • Often feel full after only a few bites of food...
do you have a small stomach. have you been on any low calorie diets. this could also make you feel full after a few bites and also hard to digest protein

  • Often can't tell when i'm full or feel hungry and full at the same time
have your hypothalamus checked
  • Often bloated
again low stomach acid, low digestive enzymes, too much fiber, too much water when eating or before eating, too much sugar, junk food, grains etc., i had problems just like this two months ago.
zinc, chloride, help make stomach acid.
are you low in sodium that will also make you feel not hungry and make it hard to sleep.


  • Foods that cause extreme bloating: fish, eggs, oatmeal, berries, bread, nuts & high protein meals
fish, eggs are the most bioavailable proteins to eat...but high in sulphur, AA acid, polyunsaturated fats, and require adequate stomach acid to digest, they can be high in fat which also can cause bloating if you have low stomach acid or a weak or missing gall bladder. high in estrogens

oatmeal - grain bread grain high in phytates, high in fiber, or converto to rapidly to sugar. oatmeal will really make you bloat if you don't soak it first. high in estrogens

berries - i have issues with berries too...salycylates, and ketones and if you eat them frozen they have sulphites. berries are highly acidic, have a lot of fiber as well and will cause bloating. also high in phytoestrogens.

nuts - high fat, high fiber, estrogens, phytates, also high in potassium and will lower stomach acid because it kicks out sodium.

high protein meal - what kind of protein? but too much protein can lock you just like too much fiber from oatmeal, berries, seeds, and nuts...try to keep it down to 2 oz per serving. Add lots of salt to it and perhaps also a vinegar type condiment like A1 or worchester which help digestion by raising stomach acid. A1 has tamarind and that's good for something.

  • Bad insomnia because I can't go to sleep without eating every 30min/hour
eat more fat.

have you tried the keto diet. also you should try gelatin. it is also very good to help with digestion. it has glycine which helps restore liver, kidney, and increase stomach acid. People have reported sleeping better with the use of gelatin.
 

managing

Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2014
Messages
2,262
Sounds like a gut and liver problem to me. Eating certain foods can rebalance the gut microbiome without many side effects if any. Eat plenty of blueberries, mushrooms (especially reishi), oranges (not just OJ but whole oranges), apples, and date fruits. Many other fruits will help as well but these are the ones I've seen research on rebalancing the gut microbiome. Coffee and tea can be helpful but some people find it hard to handle when they have liver problems (even though it improves liver health). The gut and liver are very interconnected so improving gut health will also improve liver health and hypoglycemic symptoms (and endotoxin symptoms).

Can you say more about dates balancing microbiome?
 

RatRancher

Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2017
Messages
41
Sorry for the late entry,but I have the same issue. For me it took years of reading to try and figure out what's going on before I got any kind of hope to fix this. Everything from heart attack to POTS to allergies to panic disorder were the avenues I researched.
And it was bad. I would go to bed fearing I would not live to wakeup. How's that for added stress and fear.
Background. I did low/zero carb for years before finding RP. I believe my low carb routine is what started this.

You will read about hypoglycemia,and then reactive hypoglycemia.
In R Hypo,it's not so much the amount of drop in blood sugar as it is the rate of drop.
The symptoms sound like the body is pumping out adrenaline to stop the drop in blood sugar. That means the body is eating itself. Taking from X to feed Y.....Y being the brain.

In that adrenaline induced state, certain functions slow down,or stop. One is digestion. The body does not have the spare energy to work at digestion. What you ate just sits there, and turns into a feast for any bacteria ....and they multiply. And get into places they should not be....like your small intestine. And you get Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And that increases histamine,and serotonin.

What gives me relief- famotidine(Pepcid) cyproheptadine , small doses of progesterone,and peptobismal .
I also have GERD and IBS.

Your weight to height ratio make me think you are not eating enough. Which can cause elevated stress hormones. At your weight you do not have much fat to use as emergency fuel i assume.So your body has to burn protein to make ends meet....very simplified, hopefully someone will expand on that.

The carrot salad idea is very helpful, in that it helps expell estrogen and endotoxins from the digestive tract. But for me it works best with virtually no fiber in my diet and cyproheptadine .

There are studies out there that research H2 receptor antagonists and cardiac health regarding arrhythmia, tachycardia. The gist is that histamine affects heart rate. Hence the FAMOTIDINE and Cyproheptadine. The bacterial endotoxin waste in our guts seeps out and also causes a histamine/ stress response in me. So that's why I limit fiber,and have started limiting carbs,and going to sugar.

I am still searching ,but I realized that my sugar consumption was way too low. And if I let my sugar consumption drop I get an adrenaline spike.
With protein meals I take digestive enzymes and have learned to eat sugar with protein.

GERD and the resulting esophageal damage can be ameliorated with glycine. Which I get in my collagen powder. It's also a great protein source per RP. As we get past the growing ages of youth we need less tryptophan based protein and more collagen based protein.
I say esophageal damage because I never had heart burn pain. Went in for the endoscope and I had strictures. Those strictures are very close to the vagus nerve. When that gets irritated I feel it right in my heart..a warbling thump. My posture is not the best,and realizing that the esophagus is not firm or all that long,I knew that my posture helped cause an area where it may not allow for proper swallowing. So now I also do a stretching exercise for the esophagus. It seems to help.
This what I am doing. And the tachycardia, stress and fear that occurred after eating anything is no longer occurring after every meal.
It still happens, but probably once a week now. Unless I go out to eat,in which case it's really restaurant dependant. (PUFA? Aged meat/histamine?)
Sorry for the rambling.
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
64
Hi all, I've been lurking for awhile and this forum seems like it knows it's stuff so I wanted to get some ideas from you guys about what might be going on with my body before I go spend a fortune on an endocrinologist trying to figure it out. I'm a 28 year old, 145 lbs, 6' male, if that matters. I'll get right to it:

About 30 minutes (sometimes 15 minutes or less) after eating a meal with any type of food the following happens:
  • Hypoglycemia symptoms (almost every one) and high adrenaline despite normal blood sugar readings (70-85)
  • Horrible brain fog / cannot focus
These symptoms are worse with any type of carbohydrate, especially refined carbs. Sometimes I will have hypoglycemic symptoms/adrenaline hit me before I'm even finished eating... This whole problem has gotten gradually worse over 7 years, a steady increase in symptoms to where I'm at now.

Important to note that symptoms are resolved by eating which does indicate a blood sugar problem, only for a short time though. The only things I've tried that extend how long I can last before symptoms hit are a b complex and vitamin D. Also, sometimes when the symptoms hit, it's immediate and I feel sort of a jolt (maybe hear palpitation?) and I go from feeling good after eating to abysmal in like a few minutes...

Other symptoms:
  • Often feel full after only a few bites of food
  • Often can't tell when i'm full or feel hungry and full at the same time
  • Often bloated
  • Foods that cause extreme bloating: fish, eggs, oatmeal, berries, bread, nuts & high protein meals
  • Bad insomnia because I can't go to sleep without eating every 30min/hour
Hypoglycemia is supposed to happen hours after eating after a meal high in carbs and supposed to be <60, yet my symptoms come less than an hour after eating and occur with normal glucose readings. How is that even possible? Could the problem be hormonal?

Attached is a page from my yearly blood test from my physical and the results from a recent stool test. Note the abnormally high secretory IgA and high zonulin indicating bad intestinal permeability problems. Also note the high levels of probiotics (possible SIBO?) Unknown if any of this is causing my symptoms...

I'm currently taking supplements for the gut lining and inflammation based on the few studies I've read (glutamine, quercetin, curcumin) but holding off on probiotics & prebiotics because of possible bacterial overgrowth.

Also, myself administered glucose tolerance test from January of this year (50g sugar from orange juice, 10hr fast):

Fasting - 85
30min - 134
1hr - 100
1 1/2 hr - 98
2hr - 88
2 1/2hr - 80
3 hr - 75
4hr - 80

Thanks very much for reading and for any thoughts and/or advice.
I know it's years later, but in case anyone else is reading this, the OP is 100% suffering from reactive hypoglycemia.

You can tell by getting a continual blood glucose monitor (data).

Guess what the solution is?

https://goop.com/wellness/health/how-to-balance-low-blood-sugar/


"I have often seen reactive hypoglycemia and thyroid issues go hand in hand"


"One of the reasons that the thyroid is so important is that it impacts the body’s ability to handle low blood sugar,"

"This breaks down proteins in the muscle, and that tends to be impaired in people with an underactive thyroid. The other aspect is that digestion’s slower, and so you’re more likely to have constipation with an underactive thyroid"

"That said, I have found that many people react more strongly to and have intolerance issues with complex carbohydrates like flour and other starches. It may be because of the complex digestive issues that go along with this."
 

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