reactive hypoglycemia? page

[ribbles]

I have been primal for about 3 weeks now. I have reactive hypoglycemia. I was diagnosed with it when I was 7. I was having up to 100 mini seizures a day from it and some full blown seizures. It was horrible. My parents had me eating healthy for a while after I was diagnosed and supposably it "went away" but didn't really. All through my life I've had anxiety, depression and felt like people were out to get me. Not attack me.. but I felt like I was always in fight or flight mode. I also felt something best described as an "electric buzz" feeling in my head periodically.. it wasn't painful.. but now that I look back I think I was still having mini seizures throughout my life. I'm 23 now and it started becoming unbearable about 2 years ago. I started messing around with different diets before I tried eating high fat and realized it made me feel the best. After 3 weeks I feel MUCH better. No more depression, anxiety, freak outs, etc.

On top of my hypoglycemia getting better, my acne, eczema, and dandruff have 90% cleared up. My stomach is also much better as well. I used to get stomach pain so bad that I'd feel like my solar plexus was about to pop. Then the pain would transfer to my right shoulder blade for some reason. I've only had a couple minor problems since going primal and it's still improving.

I've been 100% strict the past 21 days so I don't get bad food cravings. Once I hit 30 days on the Primal Diet I want to introduce red wine and dark chocolate as an indulgence, maybe twice a week. Just one glass of red wine and a couple pieces of dark chocolate.

Conventional Wisdom had me staying away from all alcohol, added sugars, chocolate, etc and eating complex carbs every 3 hrs. It helped, but not nearly enough. I still had lots of digestive issues. I also can't handle milk. I can handle butter, heavy cream, but even too much full fat plain greek yogurt makes my stools noticably soft and I used to get yogurt cravings so I stopped that for now.

What I want to really know and understand is..

Is reactive hypoglycemia a legitimate disease where I can't handle a little sugar and alcohol at all? When I eat good I have no symptoms. I can even eat lots of fruit and sweet potatoes just fine. I can't eat fruit with anything else though or I get stomach bloating and pain. I'm really active. I'm on the thin side, at 165 lbs and 6'2". I've heard insulin resistance and reactive hypoglycemia are the same or similar? but I have no problem with excess body fat and never have. I was definitely a sugar burner before switching though couldn't go long without eating before I felt like I wanted to murder someone. Since going primal my body clearly fat dropped a lot and I rarely have any junk food cravings now. I don't want to try this out if it's not gonna go well..

I guess I'll find out.. Just thinking about it and researching it first. Any advice?

EDIT: Just wanted to throw it out there that this lifestyle change is one of the best things I've done for myself. I feel like I've upgraded my brain and body.. I can think clearly now without feeling like the world is ending all the time. Thanks Mark.

[Artichoke]

Hi Mark

There's a video on YouTube with Meryl Streep talking about the use of low carb diets to treat childhood epilepsy and I know the childrens' hospital in London, Great Ormond Street Hospital aka GOSH has been doing research on this recently. So the idea of a lower carb higher fat diet working for seizures isn't completely off-piste.

Insulin resistance and reactive hypoglycemia are not the same. Insulin resistance develops over time as cell receptors become increasingly resistant to the amount of glucose the insulin is trying to shove into them. Hyperglycemia is high blood sugar and hypoglycemia, low blood sugar.

When Naomi Campbell was in court here, she had to be allowed time for treatment as she has a low blood sugar condition. Whether she has diabetes and the low was caused by medication, or whether she has a low blood sugar condition wasn't specified.

I'd find it hard to understand why high sugar food would send an individual's blood sugar lower, normally it's the reverse.

However, it is possible to get faux hypos when your body is used to high amounts of sugar. The body sends out all the hypo signals to demand sugar but when tested with a BG meter the sugar level will be normal. Medical advice I received was NOT to eat sugary stuff if BG was normal because it would just feed the problem.

It does seem like your body reacts though when you don't eat well. Mine does that as well so I've learned to avoid problems by sticking to the good stuff.

Hopefully, someone who knows whether reactive hypoglycemia actually exists will be along in a minute..

[ribbles]

Hi Mark

There's a video on YouTube with Meryl Streep talking about the use of low carb diets to treat childhood epilepsy and I know the childrens' hospital in London, Great Ormond Street Hospital aka GOSH has been doing research on this recently. So the idea of a lower carb higher fat diet working for seizures isn't completely off-piste.

Insulin resistance and reactive hypoglycemia are not the same. Insulin resistance develops over time as cell receptors become increasingly resistant to the amount of glucose the insulin is trying to shove into them. Hyperglycemia is high blood sugar and hypoglycemia, low blood sugar.

When Naomi Campbell was in court here, she had to be allowed time for treatment as she has a low blood sugar condition. Whether she has diabetes and the low was caused by medication, or whether she has a low blood sugar condition wasn't specified.

I'd find it hard to understand why high sugar food would send an individual's blood sugar lower, normally it's the reverse.

However, it is possible to get faux hypos when your body is used to high amounts of sugar. The body sends out all the hypo signals to demand sugar but when tested with a BG meter the sugar level will be normal. Medical advice I received was NOT to eat sugary stuff if BG was normal because it would just feed the problem.

It does seem like your body reacts though when you don't eat well. Mine does that as well so I've learned to avoid problems by sticking to the good stuff.

Hopefully, someone who knows whether reactive hypoglycemia actually exists will be along in a minute..

Thanks... The reason I started experimenting with a high fat diet (and eventually stumbled on this site) was because I also read how it helps seizures. Anyways.. Just wishing there was more info on this out there. I feel great now but I know my brain and body have a lot of healing to do... especially my digestive system. I think I'll give wine a shot in a week or so and see how it fares. Then I'll have some dark chocolate a few days later by itself.

[ribbles]

Oh yeah, 4 years ago when I was 19 I had my total cholesterol checked and it was under 100. A year or so later I had it checked again and it was 120 so it raised a bit but I never had the ratios checked. I think it raised cause of increased milk intake. I never ate a lot of animal peoducts then.. just tons of grains and crap. I know low cholesterol is bad... I wonder if it could be caused by that. I want to get my cholesterol checked after I've been eating primal for about 6 months.

[JohannaAnderson]

I definitely understand that part about wanting to murder someone if you go too long without food. I am a sugar burner, and I, too, have a lot of problems with hypoglycemia. It has been worse since I started eating paleo/primal about a month ago. I am feeling afraid to leave the house, because I think I'll have an attack. Someone said, however, to eliminate fruit and sweet potatoes. I'm trying that, and it seems to be helping. Bacon is my new best friend!