What are the reasons for hypoglycemia?

Question

Hi doctor,

My mother has been suffering from diabetes for three years. She is 61 years old and weighs 88 pounds. She was on Gemer-1. Early morning around 5 AM, she often complains of excessive sweating and weakness. Sweating stops after taking tea, biscuit or sugar. She has stopped taking medication for the last 15 days. Due to personal loss, she has been undergoing stress and tension. Please suggest the required medical tests that she should undergo. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Your mother is getting hypoglycemic attacks during early morning hours. Hypoglycemic attacks are episodes of low blood sugar values occurring in blood. Due to this she is having excessive sweating and weakness. Taking a sweet item is the correct treatment for such an attack. The reason for such attacks may be because of many as follows such as skipping meals, incorrect medicine dose, kidney problems, liver disease, inappropriate exertion and stress. So please do the following tests for her. Serum creatinine, FBS - fasting blood sugar, PPBS - postprandial blood sugar, SGOT (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase) and SGPT (serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase). You can either revert back with the results or can consult a physician. Please ask your mother not to skip meals and to take medicines regularly.

Answer 2

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

All the reports look fine except for the PPBS (postprandial blood sugar). It is very rare to have hypoglycemia with such high PPBS values. Probable reasons may be intentional fasting or skipping meals or not taking tablets regularly. The only way to prove it is hypoglycemia is to do glucometer testing during such episodes. I suggest tablet Metformin 500 mg tablets to be taken twice daily. Consult her specialist doctor, discuss with him or her and take the medicine with consent. Check blood sugars FBS (fasting blood sugar) and PPBS after two weeks and revert back.