How to Fight Hypoglycemia?

Hypoglycemia occurs when plasma glucose is lower than 70 mg/dl. There are three stages of hypoglycemia:

• Mild hypoglycemia - Symptoms like tingling sensation, dizziness, hunger, weakness, etc
• Severe hypoglycemia - Loss of consciousness
• Moderate hypoglycemia - Palpitation, tremors, confusion, disorientation etc

Causes for Hypoglycemia:

Hypoglycemia is common in patients who are taking insulins, oral hypoglycemic drugs like sulfonylureas, meglitinides, erratic dietary habits which considerable mismatch between food intake and drug intake, fasting state.

How to Combat Hypoglycemia?

• Hypoglycemia can be treated according to severity, mild hypoglycemias can be treated by oral ingestion of dextrose tablets which are available in strengths of 25 gms. Patients can be advised to take the tablets repeatedly till the symptoms subsides.

• Secondly if the hypoglycemia is severe, they can be injected with glucagon 1mg intramuscularly. Even then if he does not recover then immediate hospitalization might be needed along with intravenous dextrose injection 25%. Bed side glucose monitoring is a must to assess the condition and to decide the further course of treatment.

CAUTION - If patient is taking any alpha-glucosidase inhibitor like acarbose or voglibose then taking complex carbohydrates to get relieved from hypoglycemia might not work.