For years, I had symptoms similar to yours (along with a lot of other problems that got progressively worse). I had been to several doctors with no success. Even though diabetes runs in my family, my blood sugar kept testing as normal.
It was just by chance that I stumbled across The Low Blood Sugar Handbook by Edward and Patricia Krimmel (http://www.amazon.com/Low-Blood-Sugar-Handbook-Suffer/dp/0916503046/sr=1-1/qid=1159650549/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8362035-2009740?ie=UTF8&s=books). It has a list of 58 symptoms that have been linked with low blood sugar problems. I was shocked to realize that I had almost all of them to some degree.
They are:
tiredness, headaches, drowsiness, concentration problems, irritability, sleeping difficulties, dizziness, anxiety, forgetfulness, visual disturbances, depression, fainting/blackouts, cold hands and/or feet, nervousness, exhaustion, shortness of breath, temper outbursts, sensitivity to light and/or noise, allergies, muscle pains, phobias (fears), crying spells, antisocial behavior, asocial behavior, unsocial behavior, suicidal thoughts and tendencies, staggering, craving for sweets, unnecessary and excessive worrying, mood swings (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde), nightmares, digesting problems, aching eye sockets, lack of sex drive, impotence, indecisiveness, heart palpitations, internal trembling, mental confusion, undue sweating, bad breath, negative thoughts and attitudes, feeling of going mad or insane, obesity, restlessness, back ache and muscle pain, sneezing, waking up tired and exhausted, arms and legs or body hurt when first rising in the morning, feel best after 7 p.m., gasping for breath, sighing and yawning, convulsions with no known cause, premenstrual tension, "motor mouth" (constant talking), hand tremors, and being accident prone.
It's an extensive list and everyone will have some of these to a certain degree. It's frequency and severity that are important.
As it turns out, I have hypoglycemia. It often starts to get much worse in the mid 20s (exactly when it started hitting me hard). The doctors didn't find it because they didn't do the right test and even if they did, they can't decide on a blood sugar threshhold for how low is too low. They also don't consider the speed at which the blood glucose level drops. People can still have symptoms while not meeting the medical criteria for the disease. My physician thinks I'm full of crap so I don't discuss it with him anymore. Quite frankly, I'm feeling so much better, I don't care if it's all placebo effect :)
Even though hypoglycemia is related to diabetes, insulin injections won't help. It can only be controlled through diet. Sufferers have to eat every one and a half to two hours and cut out all sources of refined sugar and simple carbohydrates. One of the things that scared me straight was finding out that hypoglycemia can turn into diabetes. I'm glad I found out early enough to do something about it because I've seen a family member go blind and deaf from diabetes.
My advice to you is to go to the doctor first. Get a checkup and make sure that there is nothing else wrong with you. If he can't find anything and you have several of the symptoms listed earlier, I would suggest you pick up a copy of that book. It's available used on Amazon for under $5. It has a 15 day diet you can try for quick results. It was very restrictive but by the second week, I was feeling much better.
I have been following the lifelong diet proscribed in the book for 7 months so far. There are times when it really sucks because there are a lot of things I'm not supposed to eat and finding something I can have at a restaraunt can be difficult. I had trouble keeping up with it one week when I was out of town and I was dog sick by the time I got back home. I couldn't get back on the diet fast enough. I even got a hunting watch that has five vibrating alarms on it to help remind me when I need to eat without disrupting everyone else.
Comments
Wow, maybe I am. I do burn calories realy fast and you do not want to see me after a few hours of having nothing to eat, I turn into a real monster.
by RFlagg on September 30th, 2006
My dad also has symptoms like this, does Hypo tend to run in families?
by RFlagg on September 30th, 2006
I've heard that being underweight or overweight can be a symptom of it. It seems to run in my family at least. My dad and his dad have diabetes and my uncle on that side has hypo. My mom has a touch of hypo and her cousin has a bad case of it.
by Darkling on September 30th, 2006
Very helpful
by Jodie44 on October 1st, 2006
Thanks, Jodie44!
by Darkling on October 1st, 2006
Darkling, I can not thank you enough for posting this. I always knew I had some kind of food problem, but I had no idea some of my other issues (sweating? heart palpitations? excessive worrying? phobias? negativity?) could be related. I always feel SO MUCH better when I'm properly fed, now I know to eat more often and avoid sugary stuff. You've done a great deed writing all this :)
by Megan_M5379 on December 15th, 2010