I'm Christel from Diabetes Strong and we can probably all agree that low blood
sugars suck it's the worst feeling and the
quicker we can get that feeling to disappear the better
the key is to choose a high glycemic carb
so a pretty pure carb in the sense that it shouldn't have a lot of fibers and
protein in it let me walk you through a few examples
so I listed some here and some this is actually one of my
favorites it's like a fruit puree or fruit juice
so that will raise blood sugars really quickly the trick
I think is to choose a kid size so this one has 14 grams of carbs
and same thing with juice boxes you can get these tiny juice boxes that only has
15 grams of carbs other options some people like to use
like coca-cola which is a straight-up carb my issue with that
is that even the smallest can has 25 grams of carbs that might be too much
for you and this bad boy has 65
and if you have a really low blood sugar will you really be measuring up so you
only get the amount of carbs that you need i
don't know another option is gummy bears
it's a pretty good carb for treating low blood sugars
I don't keep gummy bears in my house because I would go through the bag
also if you have a low blood sugar you're shaking will you only eat the
amount of carbs that you need same deal as with the coke you know you
might want to measure out your gummy bears beforehand
if you want to go that route or buy the little snack sized ones
and then there's fruit like an apple or a banana
great carbohydrates again however they do have a lot of fibers that means that
they won't raise your blood sugars as quickly as some of these other
carbohydrates
candy bars I actually hear a lot of people who treat with chocolate
and I do not recommend it whatsoever reason for that is this is really high
in fat fat fat slows down the absorption of
glucose into the bloodstream that means that this won't raise your
blood sugars quickly so if you're in that shaky state
or where you just don't feel well it might taste good
but it'll take a lot of time to raise your blood sugars my
favorite is glucose tabs and I know a lot of people are like
glucose taps but I think the key is to find glucose tabs
that you actually like so this one is called chocolate marshmallow
and I really like that that's from the CVS Pharmacy you can only get it in
store though I'll leave a link to some other
glucose tabs what I like about glucose tabs why this
is my favorite is that the one tap has 4 to 5 grams of carbohydrates
per taps it's really easy to measure out
and you know you can get the right amount for whatever low blood sugar you
have because that's the thing yes the
guidelines say that you should eat 15 grams of carbohydrates
wait 15 minutes measure your blood sugar again and see if you need more
first of all most people don't do that because when you have the low blood
sugar a lot of us just we eat we just inhale all
the food around us right but if you do take a structured approach to it
and I would say after 23 years of diabetes I have
found finally learned how to do that so I actually really over treat
a low blood sugar now my trick again is glucose tabs so first of all how many
glucose tabs you'll need or how many grams of carbohydrates you'll need
will depend on a lot of things so if I do have a low blood sugar some of the
things that I'll start to look at so I do wear a continuous glucose monitor
now right here on my arm I know it's FDA approved for the stomach I like it on my
arm if my alarms go off and tell me
hey I have a low blood sugar so low
blood sugar is generally defined as 70 milligrams per
deciliter but you might feel it higher or you might not feel at all
but I've set my alarm so it will alert me when I hit 70 milligrams per deciliter
first thing I look at is well what time
of day is it what am I doing for example I know that
my hormones will start to raise my blood sugars early in the morning
so let's say 6 AM and I hear that alarm I might take one glucose tab for these
it's five grams of carbohydrates some of the other glucose types have have less
carbohydrates but that's maybe five grams and that'll be enough for me
because I know my hormones will start elevating my blood sugars
let's say that I'm out for a hike I'm only maybe halfway into my
hike I have another half hour another hour
left and my blood sugar is 70. one glucose tab won't be
enough I might take two and maybe half a banana right so you
need to start thinking about what situation are you in how many
carbohydrates will you actually need other things that impact how many
carbohydrates you need is well again the 15 grams
general recommendation it will also depend on your body size
so if you have a child that you're treating a low blood sugar for
they might need less than an adult male also again I said what are you doing
what time of day is it what activity are you doing and another
thing for us who wear a glucose monitor would be are your blood sugars actually
dropping quickly are they stable or they may be
already on the way up to all these things you need to take
into consideration so this is all about how you yourself
treat a low blood sugar and again for some people it's around
the 70 milligrams per deciliter for some people it's less or higher
this is not however how you necessarily treat a
severe low blood sugar so let's talk a little bit about that
so severe low blood sugar is a situation where you'll need help from somebody
else to treat your low blood sugar you might
be passed out you might be unresponsive if you're in a situation like that
somebody around you will need to call 9-1-1 but if you have a glucagon kit
they can inject that into your body so glucagon basically what it does
is that it makes your liver release glucose into your bloodstream thereby
raising your blood sugars back to
healthy levels again you should still seek out medical
attention but that could be a way of basically saving you so there's some
different options on the market here in the U.S, there is something
called Gvoke which is a pre-mixed glucagon
this is a traditional glucagon kit that you probably see the red box
and then there is a new nasal glucagon as well it's called Baqsimi
Baqsimi that's hard to say but those are the three ones that are
available here in the U.S. whereas the red glucagon kit I believe
it's from Lilly it's available pretty much worldwide but
that is how you treat a low blood sugar you choose a carbohydrate with very
little fiber very little fat that way you can raise
your blood sugars quickly and get back to living your life thank
you so much for watching