The German "Health Information" portal reported that low blood sugar means that the blood sugar level is less than 3.3 mmol/L (60 mg/dL).
The
portal pointed out that low blood sugar occurs in people who take insulin or some blood-sugar-lowering tablets, for example, due to intense physical exertion or eating very little food.
Symptoms of low blood sugar are:
rapid heartbeat
cold sweat
pale skin
shivering
extreme hunger
severe headache
poor focus
nervous
worry
mental confusion
Too low blood sugar can cause you to lose consciousness and be life-threatening.
To counteract low blood sugar, patients should quickly eat a food or drink that contains sugar, such as candy or drink a sugar-sweetened juice.
In order to avoid severe hypoglycemia, people with type 1 diabetes often have a pre-filled syringe of the hormone "glucagon" with them for emergency;
The hormone ensures that the liver releases sugar into the blood.
When low blood sugar level occurs frequently, it is then necessary to inform the doctor;
Then it may be helpful to modify lifestyle or medication.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a metabolic disease - metabolism is also known as metabolism, which is the process of converting food into energy and other substances used by the body - caused by a lack of the hormone insulin, or the weakness of the normal response of the body's cells to insulin, which enters the sugar in the blood (glucose) to the cells, and in both cases The result is similar, as the levels of glucose in the blood rise above the normal limit, and this leads to negative effects on the body sooner and later.
Insulin is a hormone made by the "beta" cells of the pancreas, which secrete insulin into the bloodstream after eating, in response to a spike in sugar in the bloodstream.
Glucose forms the energy into which food that a person eats, and it is excreted in the blood, so that the cells of the body take it and burn it to produce the energy needed for its vital processes.
To do this, they need the hormone insulin, which makes glucose move from the bloodstream into the cells.
Whenever the level of glucose in the blood rises, the pancreas secretes a greater amount of insulin to reduce it, but if it decreases, the pancreas reduces or stops secretion of insulin, and the body in turn secretes four other hormones to raise its level in the blood, namely: glucagon, cortisol, adrenaline and growth hormone, which causes the liver to release glucose to blood stream.
In normal conditions, the body maintains the level of glucose in the blood in a range between 70 and 120 milligrams per deciliter, through a mechanism that ensures that its level is maintained even if a person fasts for a long period of time from food, or (conversely) eating a large amount of it;
In diabetes, glucose rises above the normal limit.
Types of diabetes
1- Type 1 diabetes mellitus
It is also called insulin-dependent diabetes and juvenile diabetes.
It is an autoimmune disease, in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells in the pancreas, which leads to a gradual decrease in the amount of insulin secreted by the pancreas.
This process of destruction extends for months or years, and eventually the amount of insulin becomes too low, which leads to high blood glucose and the emergence of diabetes symptoms.
The disease develops before the age of 35, and the ages of those affected are usually between 10 and 16 years.
It constitutes 5% to 10% of people with diabetes.
Treatment of type 1 diabetes requires the patient to be given insulin by injection or by pump, and this leads to a decrease in blood glucose and control.
There is no cure for this type yet, but scientists hope to develop a mechanism to produce new beta cells in people with this type of diabetes, through stem cell research and regenerative medicine.
2- Type 2 diabetes mellitus
It is called non-insulin-dependent diabetes and adult diabetes, in which the sensitivity of cells to insulin decreases, that is, the degree of response of the body's cells to it decreases, and this is called "insulin resistance", as cells resist the hormone insulin, whose function is to introduce glucose into them.
In normal conditions, insulin sticks to the cell, giving off a signal within it that commands a type of vector to carry glucose from the cell surface to the inside. In the case of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance occurs, which is the obstruction of the signal that it sends into the cell, which leads to glucose not entering, accumulating and rising in the cell. blood stream.
To solve this problem, the pancreas increases its production of insulin, in order to reverse the effect of its resistance, and this may continue for months or years, but eventually insulin resistance grows, the pancreas becomes tired and glucose levels rise in the blood.
People with this type are usually obese, and therefore weight reduction and dietary modification are the first mechanisms of treatment, in addition to medications, some of which stimulate insulin secretion from the pancreas, and some of them increase the sensitivity of cells to the hormone.
This type usually affects people over the age of forty, and constitutes 90% of the percentage of people with diabetes, and genetics contributes to it more than type 1 diabetes, and obesity is one of the most important factors in its incidence.
But if a diabetic does not respond to the required changes in food and movement, or glucose levels remain high, this may lead to an exacerbation of the disease, which prompts the doctor to move in later stages to treatment with insulin injections.
The second type of diabetes, like the first, does not have a curative treatment so far, but reducing weight and changing the pattern of food and movement leads to better control of the level of glucose in the blood, and may reduce the person's need for treatments such as anti-diabetic drugs or insulin injections.
3- gestational diabetes
Also called gestational diabetes, blood glucose levels rise in some pregnant women, and usually return to their normal level after giving birth.
Women who have developed gestational diabetes are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in the future.