I am Christel from Diabetes Strong
and this video is going to be all about what is a low blood sugar
and what can you do about it
in a non-diabetic body blood sugars rarely dip below 70 mg/dl
but if you're managing your diabetes with insulin or other blood sugar-lowering drugs
and if you have too much insulin on board
blood sugars might dip below those normal levels
and that is called hyperglycemia or low blood sugar
without enough glucose which is the type of sugar in your bloodstream
your brain and your whole body will struggle to function
and most people will start to feel the symptoms of low blood sugars
if a low blood sugar is not treated with glucose
blood sugars can continue to drop
which can ultimately lead to a severe low blood sugar
a severe low blood sugar is a situation where you need help from somebody else
to raise your blood sugars up to a safe level
so that could for example be a situation where you can't eat any more carbohydrates
or where you can't swallow
low blood sugars can feel very different to different people
both when it comes to when do we start to feel low
and also how the low symptoms manifest
and if your blood sugars tend to run a little bit on the high side
you might already start to feel low symptoms at 100 mg/dl
or maybe even higher
I can usually feel my low blood sugars
and most often I’ll start to feel symptoms when I hit 60 mg/dl
so most often I’ll just it's a feeling
and it's impossible for me to describe but I’ll feel low
if it drops lower I’ll start to become a little more confused,
I often describe it as I’m a little slow,
I don't really, I’m not really understanding what's going on around me
and then if I do dip below 50 mg/dl I will usually start to shake, I will start to sweat,
and one of my newer symptoms which is a little odd
but I know others have this as well is that my mouth will go numb
if I have a low blood sugar while sleeping I’ll often have what I call stress dreams,
so it's dreams where everything is very convoluted goes in circles,
everything just goes faster and faster and faster and faster and faster
and whenever I wake up from these dreams now I immediately know I know that I’m low
and I have to go treat it
if you've been living with diabetes for a while you might know your low symptoms
or you might not
unfortunately, some people do have hypo unawareness
which simply means that they don't feel their low blood sugars
the only way to truly know if you're having a low blood sugar
is to measure your blood sugar using a glucometer or glucose meter like this one
I did make a whole video on how to measure your blood sugar
I will link to that up here
so if you don't know how to do that I suggest you check that out
but most of the meters out there they work the same way
so you have your meter you start out by washing your hands with warm water
and soap dry your hands completely get out a test strip,
place the test strip in the meter, it will then turn on,
and then poke your finger with a finger pricker, press out a little blood drop,
place a blood drop on the test strip,
and depending on which meter you have it'll count down maybe a minute or
down to five seconds and it will tell you a blood sugar reading right here
when it comes to treating low blood sugars
it's recommended that you follow the 15-15 rule so what that means is
consume 15 grams of carbohydrates, I’ll talk about what those would be in a minute,
and then wait for 15 minutes
after the 15 minutes, your blood sugar should be back into range,
if they're not then you repeat the process
so 15 grams of carbohydrates more and wait for 15 minutes
my trick for actually adhering to the 15 minutes
is to simply set an alarm on my phone, so I’ll consume my carbohydrates,
I’ll set an alarm for 15 minutes, I’ll go do something else outside the kitchen,
so I don't overeat and then after 15 minutes I’ll check in with my blood sugars again
for treating a low blood sugar, optimally you should reach for a high glycemic carb
preferably without any fats
the reason for that is that fat can actually slow down digestion,
so that means that the sugar won't hit your bloodstream as fast,
so unfortunately chocolate is not really an optimal way of treating low blood sugars,
sorry, my preferred way of treating a low blood sugar is either glucose tabs,
see some different ones here, or applesauce or juice
I have done a full video on other ways of treating low blood sugar,
so check that out up here,
but today let's start out by talking about glucose tabs
I know a lot of you guys are hating on glucose tabs,
you don't like them, you find them chalky,
and all that good stuff, but what I really like about tabs is first of all
each tab is 4-5 grams of carbohydrates so it's really easy to dose
also, they're portable, so check this out,
I have this little case see if I can't even open it, here we go, and it holds 4 tabs,
this can go directly in my back pocket
and I always have glucose with me when I’m out and about
and the fact that each tab is only 4 or 5 grams of carbs is really beneficial
especially for me because I don't always need 15 grams of carbohydrates
to treat a low
so one example is if I have a morning low
so let's say I have a low blood sugar around 6 AM 5 AM in the morning
in a situation like that I actually only need one glucose tab,
so I only need 4 or 5 grams of carbohydrates
to raise my blood sugars up to normal levels
I know this based on experience
and I know this because like most of us I’m more insulin resistant in the morning,
I also have a hormone surge around 5-6 AM in the morning
so if I take more than one glucose tab
my blood sugars will go way high and I’ll have to treat that high with more insulin,
which quite frankly is just an unnecessary situation
so for those of you who are like, no Christel, no, no, no, no, glucose taps are super chalky,
you're probably eating these
actually I don't mind these I like these I think these are strawberry,
but if you don't like these
and you have a hard time, you know eating them, especially with a low blood
sugar check these out, so these are chocolate marshmallows
I really think they're yummy
and they're soft taps so let me just show you, so these come in four,
in packages of four, you might want to open it before,
but you see each tap it's a little thicker, but these are soft taps
see, yeah, see you can actually break them into two fairly easy,
so that means that even at night when you don't want to be chewing
just pop one into the mouth and you'll basically dissolve in your mouth
and then there's an option of juice or applesauce that I mentioned before
so my trick to this is to pick the juice boxes or the fruit pouches that are meant for kids
and only have 15 grams of carbs,
so if you choose the larger juice boxes or if you choose a carton of juice
you actually have to measure it out
and I bet you that you can't eyeball 15 grams of carbs in the middle of the night
while you're shaking and trying to treat your low blood sugar
should you be in a situation where you cannot consume any more carbohydrates
or the situation is turning into urgent low blood sugar
where you need help from somebody else you need to utilize a glucagon kit
so I will link to some different videos I did on glucagon,
because there are some different options available now,
and I’ll link to that down in the video description
I hope you learned something from this video at least found it interesting,
if you did please give it a like below
and let me know in comments how do you prefer to treat your low blood sugars,
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thank you so much for watching