What to Do When Your Blood Sugar Levels Drop Too Low

Insulin and sure oral diabetes drugs, resembling sulfonylureas and meglitinides, can enhance your danger of hypoglycemia. These drugs all stimulate the pancreas to supply extra insulin, which may contribute to low blood sugar ranges.

So, it’s vital to at all times have some rapid-acting sugar with you in case you’ll want to deal with your self.

When you expertise signs of hypoglycemia, take motion with these steps.

Take a look at your blood sugar. When you acknowledge any of those signs and consider your blood sugar could also be too low, check your ranges together with your glucose meter, Dr. Tan says, even if in case you have a private steady glucose monitor (CGM). Something lower than 70 mg/dL is taken into account low. However goal ranges are sometimes individualized, so speak together with your healthcare supplier about your optimum numbers, Tan provides.

Eat or drink fast-acting carbs. You probably have low blood sugar, you’ll want to take motion immediately. Your greatest wager is to devour about 15 grams (g) of carbohydrates. Some choices embody:

½ cup or 4 ounces (oz) of orange or apple juice
½ cup or 4 oz of normal soda (not food regimen)
1 tablespoon (tbsp) of sugar dissolved in water
1 tbsp of honey or maple syrup
3 exhausting candies
2 tbsp of raisins
½ cup of applesauce

You can too take three to 4 glucose tablets or a tube of glucose gel, Dr. Galindo says. It will be significant to not deal with low glucose with meals like chocolate or cake. These meals are excessive in fats and will not enable the sugar to be absorbed rapidly sufficient.

Wait quarter-hour, then retest. The subsequent step is to attend quarter-hour, then check your blood sugar once more. If it’s nonetheless lower than 70 mg/dL, repeat the steps: Eat one other 15 g of carbs, wait one other quarter-hour, and retest. “You want to repeat these steps till your blood sugar is corrected,” Galindo says.

What to do when your blood sugar is again to regular. As soon as you’re feeling higher, it’s vital to eat some protein and a carb to maintain your blood sugar inside regular vary, Tan says. “A sandwich with ham or turkey is an efficient alternative,” says Bruce Evans, a paramedic, a board member of the Nationwide Affiliation of Emergency Medical Technicians, and the chief of the Higher Pine River Fireplace Safety District in Bayfield, Colorado. You can too snack on cheese and crackers.

However as soon as your blood sugar ranges are steady once more, you may in any other case resume your actions, Tan says.

When to name your physician. When you’re having hassle conserving your blood sugar up, name your physician or go to the closest emergency room. You might also wish to use glucagon, a hormone that tells your liver to launch saved glucose. You may take it both as an injection (Gvoke) within the butt, thigh, or arm, or as an intranasal spray (Baqsimi). When you’re unable to manage it your self, your family and friends can do it for you. Untreated hypoglycemia may trigger you to have a seizure or lose consciousness.