tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5314151432937673162.post2330160911717927107..comments2022-03-27T05:09:20.391-04:00Comments on Eating to Live: I'm back!Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09594381740577426919noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5314151432937673162.post-24695064915236727742012-06-12T02:05:59.943-04:002012-06-12T02:05:59.943-04:00Hi Alex,
I'm not sure you'll read this, a...Hi Alex,<br /><br />I'm not sure you'll read this, as you posted this about 4 years ago (and I haven't yet checked to see if you're still blogging because I'm searching the web on my phone)!<br /><br />My is Rachel, I'm 24 years old, and I have reactive hypoglycemia. Like you, I've had to discover it myself and I'm now attempting to treat it myself. I'm only 105lbs, 5'2" and have been fairly active my whole life. I had a few bouts of pancreatitis 3 years ago that doctors can't explain, and since then I've had tons of digestive issues, again unexplained. These symptoms of hypoglycemia have been occurring even before the pancreatitis, I just didn't know what it was yet, and it wasn't yet so severe.<br /><br />My doc found I had PCOS and suggested my symptoms sounded like low blood sugar. I started eliminating most sugars and glutens, and this seemed to help somewhat. I then ate mac & cheese and some toast one day when I was feeling blah, and realized my symptoms were quite bad afterwards.<br /><br />I became more strict cutting out all carbs, but my only weakness was fruit. I ate too many cherries one night and had anxiety, surges of adrenaline as my body was stimulating my liver to up my blood sugar- I was in really bad shape. I found all these articles telling me to eat sugar, drink juice - This wasn't logical to me but I was starting to panic. I drank a few sips of pedialyte (has sugar) and started to relax... Until an hour later my symptoms were even worse, and I was trembling.<br /><br />I got really strict after that, not eating fruits or veggies without protein, and my diet became 60% fat 35% protein and 5% carbs, sometimes 0 carbs.<br /><br />Oh boy... I started to feel more and more insulin resistant the more carbs I cut out! I eat so much meat in an attempt to maintain my weight, I can't eat any more fat than I am because of digestive issues, and I'm starting to feel nauseated at the thought of food.<br /><br />My food allergies seem to be ever-increasing (whereas before all this I had no allergies to anything). <br /><br />I've been taking supplements (Metabolic Synergy - with chromium, magnesium, zinc and lipoic acid among others known to help with insulin resistance) and Omega 3 and a few others. It's gotten so bad my doctor has put me on Metformin in the hopes that I can put some weight back on and feel some relief.<br /><br />The eating every 2 hours thing has not been very helpful, particularly because I (who used to eat at least twice as much as my 200lb brother) can hardly stomach the foods I can eat. And even then, I still experience symptoms.<br /><br />I somehow came across Stargazey's blog and found your story. I'm going to try the 5-6 hour meal idea since it worked for you. <br /><br />I'd like to know - how many grams of carbs do you eat a day (roughly)? Or, more specifically, what percentage of your daily intake is carbs? I have been eating about 120g fat, 90g protein and 40-50g carbs (on days that I work up the courage to eat some veggies/berries). <br /><br />I've only been on the Metformin for 2-3 days so it's not taken effect on my system yet. I'm hoping it helps, but there's a possibility that it may not, depending on the underlying cause of my insulin resistance. Any advice, especially about diet, would be greatly appreciated.<br /><br />Thanks for posting your story.<br /><br />RachelRachelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5314151432937673162.post-26245426785955376582012-03-06T13:19:28.330-05:002012-03-06T13:19:28.330-05:00Alex, congratulations on your success! If you don...Alex, congratulations on your success! If you don't mind a couple of questions, are you still on the same eating schedule? And, what level of carb intake did you find works the best for you?<br /><br />I am finding that eating very small amounts is helping. VLC, HF and reduced food intake, per Dr. Richard Bernstein's law of small numbers, and Dr. Kwasniewski's food recommendations.<br /><br />Hope you are doing really well. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5314151432937673162.post-11506731717752271412008-10-26T22:14:00.000-04:002008-10-26T22:14:00.000-04:00Hi, Alex!I don't have reactive hypoglycemia myself...Hi, Alex!<BR/><BR/>I don't have reactive hypoglycemia myself, but I'm interested in it because so many people suffer from it, and because it's frequently one of the stages people go through on their way to type II diabetes. Both conditions involve insulin resistance, so I guess that's not too surprising.<BR/><BR/>I appreciate your thorough account of what did and did not work for you. A few years ago I would have guessed that low carb or zero carb would have been the answer, since carbs can cause insulin resistance and the body can make all the carbs it needs from protein.<BR/><BR/>But now that I've been reviewing some of my biochemistry and physiology, I've realized that eating protein also causes insulin release, and (unlike cutting out carbs) cutting out protein isn't compatible with life.<BR/><BR/>What to do? As your personal experiments showed you, you have to eat enough protein to meet your body's daily needs, but not much more than that, in order to minimize the amount of necessary insulin secretion. Even at that, if you eat freqently (as your doctor instructed), there will always be some insulin present in the blood, and that will allow some degree of insulin resistance to persist. From your experience, it appears that it's also important to allow 5-6 hours to pass between meals, permitting insulin levels to return to baseline and enabling insulin-exhausted tissues to regain at least some of their insulin sensitivity.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for sharing your saga. I hope other people who have reactive hypoglycemia will consider this approach and see if it works for them. If it does, it might be possible for us to present our anecdotal experiences to a low-carb physician and see if it would be possible to set up a research protocol to test them in a formal way. What do you think?Stargazeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09566854038842118222noreply@blogger.com