Woah. Reactive Hypoglycemia.

messtafarian

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I just had the worst attack of reactive hypoglycemia I've had in over a year. Scary. I was pouring sweat, shaking, and thinking I was going to pass out and die -- but I knew what it was and just attacked half a bag of gummy bears and a package of corn tostada shells, lying on my back in my bed until I got the sugar rush and it passed.

I know, I know about the corn but if this has ever happened to you know that regardless of the actual clinical picture the impending sense of absolute doom makes it impossible to think straight or pick any other option but whatever food there is, in you, right now.

I ate half a small package of haribo gummy bears on the way back from the grocery store thinking they'd be passably okay if I didn't eat too many. Then about an hour later my brother offered me a glass of Rioja which I drank cut in half with selzer water. I drank that, poured another one and then suddenly felt outrageously drunk. I thought I was going to pass out from the alcohol which made absolutely no sense considering it was probably about three ounces over more than an hour.

Then I got hit with the shakes and the sweats, serious blood sugar drop.

Now I'm bummed. I ate 2885 calories today and ate way too much PUFA due to the corn. They were the old fashioned kind fried in coconut oil so at least there wasn't any canola oil in them or something.

What do you think happened there? The gummy bears?
 

Peata

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I had some terrible bouts of hypoglycemia when starting this woe. After 2 or 3 weeks, I adjusted. But before I did, I sometimes forgot to take something with me in case I got caught out like that. I just wasn't used to it.

I didn't worry about calories for a good while when starting this woe. I did track them in cronometer, but I just ate as much food as I needed.

Here's info from medicinenet: Alcohol is considered a poison by your body, and all efforts are made to excrete it, including the cessation of maintaining healthy blood glucose levels. Studies have shown that alcohol interferes with all three sources of glucose and the hormones needed to maintain healthy blood glucose levels. The greatest impact is seen in those who drink heavily on a frequent basis. Heavy drinkers deplete their glycogen stores within a few hours when their diet does not provide a sufficient amount of carbohydrates. Over time, excessive alcohol consumption can decrease insulin's effectiveness, resulting in high blood sugar levels. One study showed that 45% to 70% of people with alcoholic liver disease had either glucose intolerance or diabetes.

Alcohol can also negatively impact blood sugar levels each time that it is consumed, regardless of the frequency of consumption. Research has shown that acute consumption increases insulin secretion, causing low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), and can also impair the hormonal response that would normally rectify the low blood sugar. Drinking as little as 2 ounces of alcohol on an empty stomach can lead to very low blood sugar levels. http://www.medicinenet.com/alcohol_and_ ... /page4.htm
 
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messtafarian

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Wow, man.

Nothing like that from drinking alcohol has *ever* happened to me. I am not sure if it's a good or bad sign overall -- I am used to being able to put away at least half a bottle of wine on a school night. My thought about it was that if I was eating a diet this high in sugar I would naturally be less inclined to drink alcohol, and drink less overall, just because I would have enough sugar to burn.

So I was half right. I did drink less, but I obviously did not have enough sugar to burn to process three ounces of alcohol. Weird!!!!! A little scary, interesting -- also weird.
 

charlie

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This is just speculation. Maybe your liver if firing up and working better now, and was working extra hard to detox the alcohol and ran out of fuel pretty fast. Again, just speculation.
 
J

j.

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Yeah, Peat drank beer for a while and he enjoyed it. Then he got cancer. (cured it with DHEA)
 
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messtafarian

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Beer is a little different though. It has a lot of carbohydrate to go along with the ethanol. Even light beer has some. It's -- as they say -- liquid bread. The issue with beer is that massive estrogenic effect over time because of its strain on the liver. Actually you'd probably get just about the same effect as with any alcohol.

I have never actually said hello to my liver quite as definitively. It was *unhappy*.
 

charlie

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A message from your liver regarding alcohol:

timthumb.php


:rolling
 

HDD

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I had similar reaction with a Key Lime Martini. I couldn't handle one drink. Everyone made fun of me and now consider me a light weight. When I have a drink now it is usually wine or vodka with OJ or rum with coke and food.

The positive is I am a cheap date. ;)
 

charlie

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:rolling
 
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messtafarian

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Yeah, that's interesting.

See if you come from the Soccer Mom Diet background, which instructs you to cut simple carbs wherever you can, the *wine* is considered just fine because it's "lowcarb". So I'm used to drinking straight wine, white, and quite a bit of it.

But I kept looking at that glass with my wine in it; cut it with selzer because it seemed really strong to me - and then what I really wanted to do is mix it with sugar. I wanted to put sugar in the wine; grape juice, sugar packets, something. So about 10 minutes in my internal feedback loop was already asking for glucose.
 
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ratcheer

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The wine thing is weird. Back in my low-carb days, one result was that after almost a year I started drinking wine at night. I mean I'd buy a bottle of dry red wine and drink almost the whole thing. Every night. Alone. It was really bugging me - because why suddenly am I addicted when I never was before? The other thing was that it felt REALLY GOOD. I mean, dancing around the room with joy good - it was beautiful, even. And I rarely got hangovers either. Probably the only bad was that my sleep wasn't as refreshing.

When I started experimenting with Peat, and adding fruit and sugars back in, I realized that I hadn't had any wine at all for the previous couple weeks - actually I hadn't even thought about it! Nowadays I drink less than I ever did - only maybe a glass of wine a week average, and only socially. Wine just doesn't feel as good as it used to - certainly doesn't produce that intense joy - and I feel the hangover more.

Makes me wonder just what wine DOES in the body. I think my addiction was because alcohol was a source of sugar - inefficient definitely, but a source. And I believe from my reading was that the process was keto related - i.e. my "more efficient fat burning" made alcohol metabolism more efficient too (alcohol goes through a 'keto' step when breaking down). I dunno - it's all still a mystery for me.
 
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messtafarian

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I've had exactly the same experience, on and off. I used to really like light beer, and then went into a long phase of lowcarb teetotaling because as you know, Beer Makes You Fat Because of The Estrogen.

Then -- lowcarb moving down the foodchain to an extremely low-sugar high PUFA diet - man did I want that wine. It made me sooooo happy! I've come to the same conclusion as you did -- it was sugar depletion/low glycogen. The wine gave my liver *something* to do and *something* to burn, and that was big drugs to my system.

Three days ago I opened a bottle of chardonnay with my brother and tried to drink it as I normally would. It was just kind of gross and I lost interest fairly quickly. Big difference. Absolutely no doubt about it.
 

HDD

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j. said:
Yeah, Peat drank beer for a while and he enjoyed it. Then he got cancer. (cured it with DHEA)

Do you know what type of cancer?

My dad was a big drinker and beer was his all time favorite. He had prostate cancer and Alzheimer's.

All of his siblings had Alzheimer's but all were not drinkers. They grew up on a dairy farm which was one of my reasons for not consuming milk thinking it might be reason for AD.
 

HDD

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Sorry, didn't mean to change topic.

Wine always caused a blood sugar reaction with me unless I have it with a meal. Puts me to sleep. In fact, I have gotten up in the night to get a glass to try and knock me out. Probably not a healthy choice.
 
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messtafarian

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The big problem with that strategy is that you need a whole lot more than a glass to knock yourself. Of this I am quite sure :)
 
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j.

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He wrote about it. I think the article is on the forum. Moles, etc.
 

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