Hypoglycemia
 

I have had reactive hypoglycemia for7 years, ever since stomach surgery, could reactive hypoglycemia cause my onset of symptoms, remember my symptoms stated in my feet in March or April of last year and spread to full body neuropathy in just a few months, is this typical of reactive hypoglycemia and the 7 years I've had it? Thanks, Jan

"By His Stripes I Am Healed"

It is possible. You should be testing yourself with a home glucometer to see how low and how often you get low and how long it lasts. Low blood sugar starves cells.

You can help control low sugars, by eating smaller more frequent meals....and for snacks use nuts. That is what I do.

You can test yourself every 2 hours for a day, every once in a while to see what is going on. Your normal A1C points to average postprandial (after meals) levels with no alarming spikes.
But the A1C can also be showing that your blood sugars are not high enough at times for your cells.

Alot of lows happen when you are sleeping. I have found a connection between having arms falling asleep at night and having lows. I keep Zone bars next to the bed and if I wake famished I have 1/2 of one. I just found a new Nature Valley snack bar this past week at WalMart. It has protein in it like the Zone bars and is same calories without the vitamins added and 1/2 the price. They are a little bitter (some dark chocolate)...but they work. I prefer the fruity Zone bars for night snacks...not the chocolate ones.

Reactive hypoglycemia means the insulin levels get too aggressive after eating and your blood sugar comes down too fast. So eating carefully controls that.
I had this for many years (almost 20), before I finally started with elevated morning sugars fasting.

Thanks MrsD, could you answer one more question, if this all is caused from reactive hypoglycemia and I keep tight control on this is it possible I will start feeling better, and what diet would you recommend, I think one time you told me the Zone diet was a good plan? I guess that's two questions. Thanks so much, Jan

The Zone is a good way to balance nutrients. It is sensible and has shown positive effects for diabetics.

Any diet that claims to be "metabolic" diet will work.
All that means is it has a bit more "good fats" in the ratio and a bit less carbs (sugar and starchy ones) and uses lower glycemic slower carbs like beans/lentils and other veggies instead.

The Mediterranean diet has these elements with olive oil used liberally. Eating smaller meals also helps alot. I find nuts to be very useful for snacking etc. Sometimes I just have nuts for lunch.

The extra "good fats" slow stomach emptying a bit and prevent
"dumping" which is when the stomach releases high sugar/high carb meals too quickly into the intestines. Dumping causes all sorts of trouble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric_dumping_syndrome

While this happens commonly in bariatric (bypass) patients, it can happen in others as well. So moderating meal size, and content are important.