Hypoglycemia While Running

GmC

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Good evening everyone.

Hope someone can help understand what is happening here.

Ok, so something very strange happened in my last four running sessions.

This week, and before my running session, I get some food rich in sugar, like fructose, or other type of sugar.
What happens next remain very unclear to me.
After 30 minutes ( never before ) of running ( a relaxed jogging ) my legs begin to lose tonicity, my vision become bluried, a lot of fatigue happen too, and I start sweat a lot, and I feel heart increasing BPM and hypoglycemia develop from nowhere.
Hypoglycemia happen ONLY when I eat somekind of simple sugar before training.
For example, if I eat a slice of bread, I don't have any kind of hypoglycemia, and I finish my train without any big issues.
What makes me even confused, is the fact that my blood sugar levels are all good, before and after running.
I don't have diabetes, or any metabolic disease.
Only thing that doctor diagnosed me, was reactive hypoglycemia, a few months ago.
But in this case, I only have hypoglycemia if I run, if I stay at home doing nothing, even if I eat some fruit or food rich in simple sugar I don't have any symptoms of hypoglycemia.

What is happening here ? Those hypoglycemia happens only when my blood have a lot of sugar and when Cortisol is produced to feed the muscles ?
I have a diet rich in carbohydrates, such as bread etc, sugar, so my glycogen storages should have a pretty good amount level to feed my muscles... theorically it's almost impossible to run out of glicose only with a 30 minutes jogging.
Is my body sending too much insulin to compensate something that i don't quite understand what is it, send my Blood sugar to low values ?
I'm coming to the conclusion, that is best to run without any kind of sugar in blood to avoid hypoglycemia...but that in long term will create problems, because my muscle mass will be used instead of my glicose.
Is there anyone with a good explanation, or idea of what is causing this ?
Never in my life I had something similar.

Thank you so much.

Best regards.

G.C.
 
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yerrag

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a lot of fatigue happen too

Hypoglycemia happen ONLY when I eat somekind of simple sugar before training.


Only thing that doctor diagnosed me, was reactive hypoglycemia, a few months ago.

But in this case, I only have hypoglycemia if I run, if I stay at home doing nothing, even if I eat some fruit or food rich in simple sugar I don't have any symptoms of hypoglycemia.

Fatigue - lactic acid buildup maybe?

Hypoglycemia - describe what hypoglycemia means to you, so we're on the same page.

How did the doctor determine you have reactive hypoglycemia?

If you stay at home doing nothing, even eating foods rich in simple, you don't have hypoglycemia - as you say. So you don't feel low in energy, or sleepy, or hungry, in between meals at home?

What makes me even confused, is the fact that my blood sugar levels are all good, before and after running.

What is the basis for saying blood sugar is all good? How do you test for this?
 
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GmC

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Fatigue - lactic acid buildup maybe?

Hypoglycemia - describe what hypoglycemia means to you, so we're on the same page.

Bluried vision, weakness, dizziness, a lot of sweat, shakiness.

How did the doctor determine you have reactive hypoglycemia?
A Few months ago, after a few episodes of hypoglycemia, e went to an endocrinologist and i was diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemeia.But i discovered too, that hypo only happens after a meal full of gluten, what is even more strange. Because of that, i stoped eating foods with gluten, and the low blood sugar subside.

If you stay at home doing nothing, even eating foods rich in simple, you don't have hypoglycemia - as you say. So you don't feel low in energy, or sleepy, or hungry, in between meals at home?

No at all.


What is the basis for saying blood sugar is all good? How do you test for this?

I have a glucometer. First in the morning, i check my fasting blood glucose, 2 hours after lunch, and 2 hours after dinner.

In my opinion my running hypoglicemia are related with cortisol, or something similar. Maybe a deficit in some hormone, or too much insulin being released to compensate to help the body getting more energy, but when it does that, there isn´t any counter regulatory hormone like Glucagon that stop the blood sugar to go so low.
I read that hypos are not very common between athelets ( with a balanced diet ), except for those with some undiagnosed conditions.

Do you think it can be only from food, with simple sugars ?

Best regards.

G.C
 
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yerrag

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Bluried vision, weakness, dizziness, a lot of sweat, shakiness.
Do you know what blood glucose level you're at when this occurs?
Few months ago, after a few episodes of hypoglycemia, e went to an endocrinologist and i was diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemeia.But i discovered too, that hypo only happens after a meal full of gluten, what is even more strange. Because of that, i stoped eating foods with gluten, and the low blood sugar subside.
How did your endocrinologist make that diagnosis? What tests did he run? Can you provide the values? I'm hoping you have a copy of each test result.

So eating white rice won't make you hypoglycemic? Since it doesn't contain gluten.
No at all
Not sure why that is if you have hypoglycemia. In my case before, I would get hungry or sleepy 3 hours after each meal where my carb is white rice. Eating brown rice helped.

have a glucometer. First in the morning, i check my fasting blood glucose, 2 hours after lunch, and 2 hours after dinner
What are the values?

Have you tried taking blood sugar values over 5 hours, every hour after say, lunch? A time vs blood glucose curve gives a better snapshot of your blood glucose regulation.

In my opinion my running hypoglicemia are related with cortisol, or something similar. Maybe a deficit in some hormone, or too much insulin being released to compensate to help the body getting more energy, but when it does that, there isn´t any counter regulatory hormone like Glucagon that stop the blood sugar to go so low.
I read that hypos are not very common between athelets ( with a balanced diet ), except for those with some undiagnosed conditions.
If gluten is a cause, perhaps you're not able digest the carb, and this impedes the assimilation of glucose into your blood.

I assume you avoided eating gluten before running. Yet you still experience exhaustion quickly after a short run. Could it be you're low on oxygen, either thru low tissue oxygenation (hypoxia) or low oxygen transport (hypoxemic) involving problems with the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood. If any of the two is true, you could be running on glycolysis and producing a lot of lactic acid.
 

InChristAlone

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Jogging and running is catabolic and stressful. Ray Peat does not recommend these activities to be "healthy". Also causes you to hyperventilate which can cause all of those symptoms all by itself. Fueling with sugar means you will need to keep fueling during the run because it is burned very rapidly. I prefer balanced meals due to this issue of not going long on just sugar. High fat and high carb meals work best for me. High protein makes me reactive hypoglycemic.
 

stpa92

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Your wording is a little confusing to me. Have you actually checked your blood sugar during one of these episodes, and seen it to be low? Or do you only feel that it is low, but on testing it is normal?
 
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GmC

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Your wording is a little confusing to me. Have you actually checked your blood sugar during one of these episodes, and seen it to be low? Or do you only feel that it is low, but on testing it is normal?

Affirmative... I have always my glucometer with me because. It gave me 71 mg/ dl in my last episode, about 2 days ago.
Fasting blood glucose is between 88 - 92 mg/dl.
 

InChristAlone

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BTW cortisol is the cause of reactive hypoglycemia...and the precursor to type 2 diabetes. Stress=cortisol.
 
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Running rises free fatty acids, they mess with Randle cycle.
 

yerrag

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Affirmative... I have always my glucometer with me because. It gave me 71 mg/ dl in my last episode, about 2 days ago.
Fasting blood glucose is between 88 - 92 mg/dl.
These values are not low blood sugar values. Seems more to me you're a hypochondriac
 

yerrag

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BTW cortisol is the cause of reactive hypoglycemia...and the precursor to type 2 diabetes. Stress=cortisol.
No way. How can cortisol cause hypoglycemia? Please explain. Stress =cortisol is not a good explanation.
 
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GmC

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These values are not low blood sugar values. Seems more to me you're a hypochondriac

71 mg/dl is on the fence, <= 70 mg/ dl is considered hypoglicemia...so with the symptoms i had i´m positive sure that i had a hypoglicemia episode. I had to eat 15g of sugar to "wake up". After 5 minutes +/- i was able to continue my running session. So absolutely i´m not hypochondriac.
 

InChristAlone

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71 mg/dl is on the fence, <= 70 mg/ dl is considered hypoglicemia...so with the symptoms i had i´m positive sure that i had a hypoglicemia episode. I had to eat 15g of sugar to "wake up". After 5 minutes +/- i was able to continue my running session. So absolutely i´m not hypochondriac.
You aren't a hypochondriac I have had these symptoms and check my blood sugar and it was normal because by the time you experience the shakiness, adrenaline has kicked in to make sure your brain receives the glucose it needs to not go in a coma. Reactive hypoglycemia is more likely after breakfast and any time you are stressing yourself out. I went through it for years. Sugars are used up rapidly.
 

yerrag

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You aren't a hypochondriac I have had these symptoms and check my blood sugar and it was normal because by the time you experience the shakiness, adrenaline has kicked in to make sure your brain receives the glucose it needs to not go in a coma. Reactive hypoglycemia is more likely after breakfast and any time you are stressing yourself out. I went through it for years. Sugars are used up rapidly.
"By the time" isn't any different even if the blood sugar is 81 or 91.

And how is cortisol the cause of reactive hypoglycemia?

Seems like if we're in a discussion we respond to valid questions. OP seems to have cat bite his tongue as well.
 

yerrag

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By the way, my saying hypochondriac wasn't really warranted, but it was answer-bait.
 
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GmC

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"By the time" isn't any different even if the blood sugar is 81 or 91.

And how is cortisol the cause of reactive hypoglycemia?

Seems like if we're in a discussion we respond to valid questions. OP seems to have cat bite his tongue as well.

I'm looking for answers, and ideas, what do you want me to say ? if I already knew what was going on with me I wasn't asking for collaboration.

Infact I agree that cortisol can have a nasty effect... because when we are on a stressful situation, cortisol is released to get sugar from liver, so if insulin is released at the same time, things can get nasty very fast.
Does this make sense ?
 

yerrag

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What do you want to prove ?
Just seeing if you're actually interested in answering probing questions.

Cortisol can have a nasty effect, but not causative to hypoglycemia.
 

yerrag

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Do you know what blood glucose level you're at when this occurs?

How did your endocrinologist make that diagnosis? What tests did he run? Can you provide the values? I'm hoping you have a copy of each test result.

So eating white rice won't make you hypoglycemic? Since it doesn't contain gluten.

Not sure why that is if you have hypoglycemia. In my case before, I would get hungry or sleepy 3 hours after each meal where my carb is white rice. Eating brown rice helped.


What are the values?

Have you tried taking blood sugar values over 5 hours, every hour after say, lunch? A time vs blood glucose curve gives a better snapshot of your blood glucose regulation.


If gluten is a cause, perhaps you're not able digest the carb, and this impedes the assimilation of glucose into your blood.

I assume you avoided eating gluten before running. Yet you still experience exhaustion quickly after a short run. Could it be you're low on oxygen, either thru low tissue oxygenation (hypoxia) or low oxygen transport (hypoxemic) involving problems with the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood. If any of the two is true, you could be running on glycolysis and producing a lot of lactic acid.
Like these?
 

InChristAlone

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Just seeing if you're actually interested in answering probing questions.

Cortisol can have a nasty effect, but not causative to hypoglycemia.
No need to be aggressive. I know the world is in chaos but we don't need to be. Cortisol has effects on insulin and then when you eat a meal or take something that finally lowers the cortisol you can get a reactive episode. I can bring this on over and over and over just by eating too little calories. I will get reactive after breakfast. Sometimes after dinner too depending on how long I waited to eat. I don't have the studies handy to show you the insulin stuff at the moment.
 

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