How do you deal with low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)?

Hi there, great to see this new community about diabetes! I am curious to know how others self-treat the occasional low blood sugar. My father usually takes the opportunity to eat candy or drink regular soda. Very rarely he also takes the glucose tablets that he carries around with him. I guess the result is the same, as long as you take the correct amount of simple carbs...

[DRWF Partner]

The immediate treatment for hypoglycaemia is to have some food or drink that contains sugar, such as dextrose tablets or fruit juice, to correct your blood glucose levels.

After having something sugary, you may need to have a longer-acting "starchy" carbohydrate food, such as a few biscuits or a sandwich.

[LibreLlama Volunteers]

Hi Sipp

Depending on how low my blood-glucose levels have dropped depends on how I treat the hypo. If I've dropped slightly to say 4.5mmol, I will usually have something like 1 chocolate digestive or a banana to bring it back up again to a sensible level. If it has dropped lower to the 2's or 3's I will have a fast acting sugary drink to bring my levels back up fast. I keep the little mixer cans of Coke in the car, at work and by my bed. They contain about 15g of carbs, which is perfect to bring your sugars up quickly enough to then stabilise them properly with some slow release carbs such as a piece of toast or a couple of digestives etc. I usually reverse carb-count too to make sure I don't have too much and put my blood-glucose levels up to far the other way. I also take into account the fact that my body will release Glycogen, which will also raise my sugars over the next few hours. Once I have corrected my hypo I will do a couple more blood-glucose tests over the next 1 - 2 hours to see how my sugar levels are and if I need to have more carbs or even do a corrective dose. I hope that helps :o)

[Activity2004 Administrator]

Drink juice and have a snack bar that has carbs. in it. I usually eat a Zone Perfect bar around 8:30 if my numbers are running a little lower than I want before my 9:30 snack and test with insulin.