Pseudohypoglycemia

Opioidus

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So lately during exercise I get light-headed, my vision gets blurry, my muscles start to shake under any amount of stress, I feel faint and a little dizzy. I tire rapidly and can't recover easily. My blood glucose has never been under 80, and usually it is in upper 90s. When I consume an excessive amount of sugars however this problem seems to go away. I ate two large table spoons of honey the other day and it solved my issue. The problem is I have to keep eating every two hours or my blood sugar crashes again. Also I'm slightly overweight so I can't be eating 40 grams of sugar every two hours.

What could be causing this problem? I have an unrelated blood disorder, but my doctor said it can't cause any of these issues. My liver is healthy, pancreas enzymes don't help, thyoird levels are very good.. I have slightly elevated cholesterol which is probably from eating 6 eggs a day.
 

Miguel

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"So lately during exercise I get light-headed, my vision gets blurry, my muscles start to shake under any amount of stress, I feel faint and a little dizzy. I tire rapidly and can't recover easily. My blood glucose has never been under 80, and usually it is in upper 90s. When I consume an excessive amount of sugars however this problem seems to go away. I ate two large table spoons of honey the other day and it solved my issue. The problem is I have to keep eating every two hours or my blood sugar crashes again.

Couple of questions:
1. If I understand correctly, you're saying that if you take 2T of honey before exercising you are fine, but then after you are finished exercising, you still have to keep eating every two hours or else you start to experience these symptoms?

2. On days you do not exercise, do you still experience these symptoms if you do not eat every two hours?
 
OP
Opioidus

Opioidus

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Couple of questions:
1. If I understand correctly, you're saying that if you take 2T of honey before exercising you are fine, but then after you are finished exercising, you still have to keep eating every two hours or else you start to experience these symptoms?

2. On days you do not exercise, do you still experience these symptoms if you do not eat every two hours?
1. Yes, and sometimes even before the session is finished.
2. Yes but to a smaller degree, it's usually just general fatigue on rest days.
 

Miguel

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Looking over your other thread you mentioned that you exercise a lot and that taking thyroid can increase your appetite quite a bit. It sounds like you are overdoing it on the training. If you tend to feel exhausted all the time and need to workout to feel good, then that's a sign of you overdoing it and relying on stress hormones to pick you up.
  • Try taking it easy on the exercise, you can still lift, but don't do super short rest periods (try 1.5-3min between sets) and maybe cut down on your volume to just 10 sets per muscle group per week (Have you ever done a deload?)
  • Take a break from the kickboxing
  • On top of the weight training, you can do walking for some cardio that isn't excessive (If you find walking boring, you can try listening to some of the Generative Energy Youtube Streams with Danny Roddy and Georgi aka Haidut which might further help you figure things out with your health.)
You mentioned your diet was standard but didn't specify further. It's possible your ravenous appetite is caused by you missing out on something. Do you have a ballpark of how much of each macro (protein, carbs, fat) you are getting on a daily basis? If would be beneficial if you could be a little more specific on your diet and the foods you tend to eat.

Sounds like you have primary polycythemia? Was your white blood cell and platelet count also elevated? Also, any update on how often you get blood removed for this?

A couple more suggestions that will seem a little unconventional:
1. See if you can get some pH paper that tests between a pH of 6-8 and test your urine pH every time you pee and log it for 2-3 days (You should see a pattern emerge by then)
2. You might try doing the whole NoFap thing for a month (avoid looking at porn even if you're not masturbating to it). Most people tend to notice improvements in a month. You mentioned issues with confidence so taking a break from that is an inexpensive way to try to improve your health and help break a potentially negative habit if this is something you do too frequently.

Hard to say anything else without knowing more about your diet, medications, and medical condition.
 
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Opioidus

Opioidus

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Hey man thank you for your help and input I really appreciate it. If I stop working out then I get really depressed and everything in my life starts to go awry. But I don't think it's exercise exhaustion because even if I don't go for a week I will still have symptoms the first day I go back.

My diet is 40% protein, 35% carbs and 25% fats. I eat whatever I can get my hands on because I'm too busy to cook proper food so I eat a lot of take out and junk food. Interestingly enough I used to hate sugar and sugary snacks, but the last couple of years I've been getting sugar cravings. I also crave a lot of salty snacks, but I have tried supplementing iodine to no avail.

My diagnosis of primary polycythemia is just a week old, I was diagnosed by a simple blood test and a general practitioner, I have an appointment with an oncologist two weeks from now, unfortunate side effects of socialized health care. But my white blood cells were low, not unhealthy low but the lowest "healthy" levels possible. My platelets and red blood cells were elevated and the doctor said in the absence of smoking, hiking or medication it's 99% polycythemia cancer. He took half a litre of my blood and said I should feel better right away, which I didn't. He told me to come back every 3 months. But I decided to book an appointment with an oncologist because he seemed a bit wacky tbh.

I don't fap that much, actually now that I think about it I haven't had much sex drive in these last couple of months, I have sex with my girlfriend once or twice a week and that's it. In my blood work I had very high testosterone but low Estradiol, I thought that was a good thing but apparently not.

Do you think it's possible that I have some sort of glycogen dysfunction? How would I test this myself does Glycine help? Today I ate some cinnamom powder because I read here somewhere that it improves glucose uptake or glycogen release(?), I felt a little better in the gym.
 
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Opioidus

Opioidus

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So I thought I'd update this thread, I went to four other doctors and did at least 30 more tests, my final diagnosis is obstructive sleep apnea which has caused a host of problems for me, so no cancer thank God. My doctor prescribed a cpap(?) machine but I cannot use it at all, I never fall sleep. I continue to take my daily 12.5mcgs of t4 despite normal lab results. My energy level has improved somewhat. I personally suspect liver problems as well even though the tests are normal because redlight on the liver makes me ten times more energetic for about an hour.

I've started taking Piracetam before sleep because it has proven to protect the brain from hypoxic injury.
 

olive

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Poor glycogen retention is a symptom of dysfunctional liver health, usually fatty liver caused by excess SFA and fructose and insufficient vitamin e and choline. It can also be caused by electrolyte imbalances; lack of sodium, potassium or magnesium are likely culprits. Aim for 3g sodium, 9+g potassium and 1g magnesium per day. Taurine and glycine will also help, take 5g 3x per day of each.
 

mujuro

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This would happen to me in my bodybuilding days, and it would only happen when I was taking exogenous T3. Second set into my workout I’d start tremoring, feeling weak, dizzy. Blood glucose was normal. Some kind of adrenergic response. You could say I was overtraining as well. Overtraining is underappreciated as a systemic, neurological phenomenon and you can’t eat, supplement or sleep your way out of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a link between overtraining (CNS) and apnea (autonomic).
 
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Hans

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What foods do you eat and what's your macros like? 40% protein with 2500-3000 calories would be 250-300g and carbs at 35% would be 220-262g. That's a high protein to carb ratio. I'd drop the protein to 150 and 200g at the most and then increase carbs to 300-400g.

You said you eat sugary things, what kind? Is it through whole foods?
 
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Opioidus

Opioidus

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What foods do you eat and what's your macros like? 40% protein with 2500-3000 calories would be 250-300g and carbs at 35% would be 220-262g. That's a high protein to carb ratio. I'd drop the protein to 150 and 200g at the most and then increase carbs to 300-400g.

You said you eat sugary things, what kind? Is it through whole foods?
I eat lean chicken every day, red meat twice or thrice a week, liver once or twice a month. I rarely eat fish possibly once or twice a year. I like biscuits and I crave pizzas and crisps. I don't eat any fruits other than one or two oranges a day. The more carbs I eat the worse I feel.

One supplement that really makes a different with "light headedness" is 5000 mcgs of Biotin, which I think helps with blood sugar? I suspect this may also be a problem with my pancreas not producing enough or too much insulin.
 
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Opioidus

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This would happen to me in my bodybuilding days, and it would only happen when I was taking exogenous T3. Second set into my workout I’d start tremoring, feeling weak, dizzy. Blood glucose was normal. Some kind of adrenergic response. You could say I was overtraining as well. Overtraining is underappreciated as a systemic, neurological phenomenon and you can’t eat, supplement or sleep your way out of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a link between overtraining (CNS) and apnea (autonomic).

How does one know whether they're over training or not? As I mentioned before rest doesn't make me feel better, in fact the more I rest the worse I feel, and almost all my symptoms start to disappear towards the end of my workouts(and they're worst in the beginning of the workout). Also the quality of my workout has suffered significantly, I used to train much more rigorously and intensely for much longer periods of time say, five years ago. What helped you in the end or do you still suffer?
 
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Opioidus

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Poor glycogen retention is a symptom of dysfunctional liver health, usually fatty liver caused by excess SFA and fructose and insufficient vitamin e and choline. It can also be caused by electrolyte imbalances; lack of sodium, potassium or magnesium are likely culprits. Aim for 3g sodium, 9+g potassium and 1g magnesium per day. Taurine and glycine will also help, take 5g 3x per day of each.
I too suspect poor glycogen retention as a cause, what is "SFA"? I don't consume fructose and I supplement vitamin e regularly, but an electrolyte imbalance is not impossible. I can't really supplement them though since they all cause intolerable symptoms at clinical doses, sodium gives me dry mouth and a headache, potassium induces severe anxiety and all forms of magnesium give me stomach cramps. I supplement them in micro doses, around 500 mg of sodium, less than 150 mgs of potassium and 150 mgs of magnesium.

Taurine does indeed help very much, but I'm afraid of tolerance so I take like 1 gram once or twice a week. I haven't tried glycin and for the life of me I can't find it anywhere in Switzerland. I took a little bit of gelatin as per Peat and Haidut's advice and it gave me the most severe anxiety I have ever experienced.
 

olive

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I too suspect poor glycogen retention as a cause, what is "SFA"? I don't consume fructose and I supplement vitamin e regularly, but an electrolyte imbalance is not impossible. I can't really supplement them though since they all cause intolerable symptoms at clinical doses, sodium gives me dry mouth and a headache, potassium induces severe anxiety and all forms of magnesium give me stomach cramps. I supplement them in micro doses, around 500 mg of sodium, less than 150 mgs of potassium and 150 mgs of magnesium.

Taurine does indeed help very much, but I'm afraid of tolerance so I take like 1 gram once or twice a week. I haven't tried glycin and for the life of me I can't find it anywhere in Switzerland. I took a little bit of gelatin as per Peat and Haidut's advice and it gave me the most severe anxiety I have ever experienced.
SFA is saturated fat; aka fatty red meat, dairy.

Be careful with vitamin e supp - it can leave you worse off by depleting other isoforms. Better to get vitamin e from food.

You won’t build a tolerance to taurine.

No need to supp sodium, potassium, vitamin e and magnesium. You can get plenty from the diet. Tomato paste, sweet potato, spinach, coconut water should make up the majority of your diet. Track via cronometer.

Check eBay for glycine? I’m not sure.
 
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Opioidus

Opioidus

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SFA is saturated fat; aka fatty red meat, dairy.

Be careful with vitamin e supp - it can leave you worse off by depleting other isoforms. Better to get vitamin e from food.

You won’t build a tolerance to taurine.

No need to supp sodium, potassium, vitamin e and magnesium. You can get plenty from the diet. Tomato paste, sweet potato, spinach, coconut water should make up the majority of your diet. Track via cronometer.

Check eBay for glycine? I’m not sure.
Okay, thanks for the help, I will add tomato paste, spinach and sweet potato to my diet and increase my taurine intake frequency to daily. Is 400 IU of vitamin e too much? That's the set daily allowance, it does wonders for my skin.
 

olive

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Okay, thanks for the help, I will add tomato paste, spinach and sweet potato to my diet and increase my taurine intake frequency to daily. Is 400 IU of vitamin e too much? That's the set daily allowance, it does wonders for my skin.
It depends on the isoform. Most vitamin e supps are just d-alpha which depletes other isoforms like gamma, shown in studies to actually lead to worse health outcomes than not taking vitamin e at all.
 

Hans

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I eat lean chicken every day, red meat twice or thrice a week, liver once or twice a month. I rarely eat fish possibly once or twice a year. I like biscuits and I crave pizzas and crisps. I don't eat any fruits other than one or two oranges a day. The more carbs I eat the worse I feel.

One supplement that really makes a different with "light headedness" is 5000 mcgs of Biotin, which I think helps with blood sugar? I suspect this may also be a problem with my pancreas not producing enough or too much insulin.
The reason you feel bad eating carbs and why you feel better with biotin, is that you might be insulin resistant and/or creating too much lactate. Pyruvate carboxylase is a biotin-dependent enzyme which shuttles pyruvate into the mitochondria. If you benefit from biotin, you might benefit from vitamin B1 as well as pyruvate dehydrogenase is B1 dependent. B1 promotes glucose oxidation, ATP and CO2 production and lowers lactate formation. If you have a deficiency you might have to start with a high dose, like 300-500mg daily.
According to Dr Derrick Lonsdale, vitamin B1 requirements are significantly increased during ANY stressful event and when eating carbs. It's very common for people to deplete B1 when they go through even a small trauma or stressor, or even a flu/fever. I think in our increased stressful life, B1 requirements are higher than what it was. I must say that since taking 100mg B1 daily for the last 2 months, I have never felt this centred and calm.
How does one know whether they're over training or not? As I mentioned before rest doesn't make me feel better, in fact the more I rest the worse I feel, and almost all my symptoms start to disappear towards the end of my workouts(and they're worst in the beginning of the workout). Also the quality of my workout has suffered significantly, I used to train much more rigorously and intensely for much longer periods of time say, five years ago. What helped you in the end or do you still suffer?
Rest usually shows what's really going on in the body. Training dampens that. Overtraining can show up as chronic fatigue, flu symptoms, brain fog, achy muscles, irritation, feeling agitated, apathetic, feeling like you're gaining fat and feeling soft, etc.
It depends on how long you have been overtraining and how much you eat now that will determine your recovery rate. Taking off from training for a week or two is a good start even if you feel terrible. Staying active, like walking, is still something you can do, but nothing intense. When I deload for 1 week, I'm stronger and better the next week. Deloading should make you better, not worse.
 
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Opioidus

Opioidus

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It depends on the isoform. Most vitamin e supps are just d-alpha which depletes other isoforms like gamma, shown in studies to actually lead to worse health outcomes than not taking vitamin e at all.
I will reduce vitamin e intake to three 400 ius per week. Thank you for your help.

vitamin B1
Unfortunately that does not work, I've taken 300 mgs of b1 as regular thiamine for a week and it did next to nothing for me. It does feel like Insulin resistance but that's so messed up because I'm not overweight at all and I don't indulge in sweets, I guess I have a defective pancreas or something.

Staying active, like walking, is still something you can do, but nothing intense. When I deload for 1 week, I'm stronger and better the next week. Deloading should make you better, not worse.
I don't think it's over training, I have taken longish rests from a week to ten days but that only makes me feel worse.

I've been contemplating fasting, but I hear Peat advices against it as it messed with your hormones too much. But there are many studies showing it helps insulin resistance.
 
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mbachiu

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I don't think it's over training, I have taken longish rests from a week to ten days but that only makes me feel worse.[/QUOTE]

This sounds like overtraining to me
 

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