I was diagnosed about three months ago. I am having reactive hypo.'s pretty consistently. My roommate found me in the floor yesterday morning. My bg was 40. I had a hard time rebounding. Last night, I was at 257 and scared to go to bed for fear of RH. I guess I'm having two problems, besides the obvious. First, my bg doesn't "perform" for the doctors with 2 or 5 hour GTT's. Second, with RH, I don't know what medications would be reasonable for me anyway. So I guess my questions are: how should I proceed in helping my endo. see what I see? how high is "too high"?

Regarding diet, I am limiting carbs almost to the point of Atkins style at the suggestion of my endo. I've played with increasing carbs and such, but I still see my highs get higher and my lows get lower. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

When you say "reactive hypos", are they as a result of medication for the diabetes? What are you taking, when are you taking it, and how often are you checking your blood glucose?

Ruth

When you say "reactive hypos", are they as a result of medication for the diabetes? What are you taking, when are you taking it, and how often are you checking your blood glucose?

Ruth

I am not on any medication. I check my bg in the morning, and about an hour after eating. If it is abnormally high, I check again about an hour later to anticipate the rate at which I will fall. I also check at bedtime to see if it feels "safe" for me to go to sleep.

It sounds as if you have RH, not diabetes, is that correct? RH can be a precursor to diabetes, but this is not always the case.

At any rate, the diet for RH is usually a high-protein, low carb diet (Atkins, South Beach, etc.). Also, you should never eat carbs without also eating protein.

In RH, the pancreas actually produces too much insulin. So, when you ingest carbs, the body over-responds, producing too much insulin. The body converts the carbs quickly into sugar and is able to utilize that for energy, but so much insulin has been produced that the carbs are used up but there is still insulin floating around. It's almost like an insulin-dependent diabetic who is experiencing insulin shock. The way to prevent this is to make sure you have protein in your system, because protein takes much longer to convert into glucose, so there's something for the insulin to work on once the carbs are gone.

You might want to ask your doctor for a referral to a Registered Dietician for advice on diet for RH.

Ruth