Any lasting damage from hypoglycemia?

mike said:

That is my question.
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Yes. It depends on the extent. Extreme hypoglycemia can kill or cause brain damage, although it
takes rare genius to achieve this. Even for Type 1 diabetics who screw up and take the wrong dose of
insulin, I've only myself heard of one case of noticable brain damage over the last 35 years and
that was probably a suicide attempt. (She was comatose for the 3 months until I met her but the
fetus survived OK. Nasty, nasty situation!)

Far more likely is making a stupid mistakek with a power tool or driving a car or irritating someone
who punches you out for misbehaving, or scaring someone you care about by acting irrational.
Hypoglycemia is more of a *behavioral* risk for most of us than a dire medical risk: driving while
hypoglycemic is a particularly dangerous situation, since it can also alter your vision by changing
the focal length of your eyes (in my experience, which led me to pull over and test and eat some of
the groceries I was bringing home).

if there was I'd be dead by now! Seriously, I've been on insulin since 1978 and have experienced
numerous low bg's (under 40, usually when asleep). I used to get severely low between 2 and 6 times
a day for more than 15 years. I went on the pump in 1996 and now have a lot fewer episodes, but
occasionally I'll get low due to miscalculating a bolus or two. It's not fun, but unless you are
going down to near zero, I can't imagine why you will have LASTING damage. It sure isn't fun, and I
try to avoid lows as much as possible, but I also try like heck to avoid highs, which tends to set
me up for a low by taking a little too much of a corrective bolus.

Worry more about lasting damage from highs. Like heart attack, blindness, kidney failure and
eventual death.

If you are a type 1 I urge you to see if you can get a pump.

dave

mike said:

That is my question.
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remove x's to reply

mike said:

That is my question.
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remove x's to reply

For several years I experience hypo's where I was unconscious, a raving maniac and all that goes
with it. I am still alive and functional. The severe type may do some harm but minor

Today I have found procedures that reduces the risk.

The truth is a lot of normal people do get low blood sugars but to them it is extreme hunger.

It is wise to keep working on it to find how to eat and medicate. Read the FAQ's posted here
bi weekly.

The simple truth is that I went low on sugar for a while today. For me that is minor. The big issue
is driving or operating equipment.

When I start to feeling light, I pop a couple of glucose pills and rest for a bit. There is such a
difference in people that a GOOD doc is the way to go.

Am I functional? Some here do not think so.

Guy

mike said:

That is my question.
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remove x's to reply

The general answer is, usually not from the hypoglycemia itself, however the cascade of events
set in motion can be deadly. Most hypoglycemic episodes, even when they require medical
intervention to terminate do not have medical or neurological sequale. This is not say that they
cannot produce lasting damage, but usually the damage is the result of something else that
happens as a result of the hypoglycemic epsisode, such as falling down the stairs, having an
automobile accident, falling off a ladder. Not strictly hypoglycemic, but none the less potential
deadly. This was noted in the DCCT.

Long running, extreme hypoglycemia can lead to brain damage, but it isn't common.

Let me put it that way, an occiasional high BG leading is likely to be far less hazardous then an
occiasional low.

Nico Kadel-Garcia said:

driving while hypoglycemic is a particularly dangerous situation, since it can also alter your
vision by changing the focal length of your eyes (in my experience, which led me to pull over and
test and eat some of

Long, long ago, I was pulled over because I appeared to be driving drunk. I explained to the cop
that I was hypoglycemic and needed to get somewhere to get some food. She didn't even bother to get
out the breathalyzer, just said, "Well, OK, be careful."

Unfortunately, neither I nor the cop had enough sense to realize that putting me back on the highway
was not the safest way to solve the problem!

--
Wes Groleau Heroes, Heritage, and History freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com~wgroleauOpen ↗

I suffered many many hypo's accompanied by severe hypothermia (body core temp of 85). My son used to
keep track of my hypo's and counted 67 in about 18 months, The ones he kept track of were only the
ones during the day. He lives with me and we worked together so he was always aware during the day.
I know I had several during the night or early morning because I would wake up freezing and having
cold sweats from the hypothermia. I have been diagnosed with "short term memory lose" because of the
number of documented and undocumented hypoglycemia/hypothermic reactions. I was also told that my
retinopathy was exaserbated and made worse by these episodes

Lauri

Wes Groleau said:

Nico Kadel-Garcia said:

driving while hypoglycemic is a particularly dangerous situation, since it can also alter your
vision by changing the focal length of your eyes (in my experience, which led me to pull over and
test and eat some of

Long, long ago, I was pulled over because I appeared to be driving drunk. I explained to the cop
that I was hypoglycemic and needed to get somewhere to get some food. She didn't even bother to
get out the breathalyzer, just said, "Well, OK, be careful."

Unfortunately, neither I nor the cop had enough sense to realize that putting me back on the
highway was not the safest way to solve the problem!

*GAHHH*. Absolutely true: the cop should not have let you back on the road.

Where was your glucometer? If you were that impaired, you should have tested it and not gone back on
the road until you had a *safe* reading.....

Nico Kadel-Garcia said:

Where was your glucometer? If you were that impaired, you should have tested it and not gone back
on the road until you had a *safe* reading.....

"Should have" -- but besides the impaired judgment, I had little knowledge of the situation.

I had never heard of a glucometer back then (late 1970s). I became diabetic about two years ago.
Back then I was frequently hypoglycemic due to a combination of being reactive and having only 9%
body fat. That was when "hypoglycemia" was a fad disease that many doctors said did not exist. That
plus the fact that half the fruitcakes were claiming to have it when they didn't made it hard for me
to get any education on it. I knew how to avoid it and how to treat it when I failed to avoid it.
But I did not understand it could be dangerous.

Fortunately that driving occasion was the only time it was low enough to be dangerous.

--
Wes Groleau Heroes, Heritage, and History freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com~wgroleauOpen ↗