As part of the Zoe Health Test I have a continuous blood glucose monitor for 2 weeks. I'm only on Day 3 of it but It's fascinating!
I have had several episodes of below range blood glucose. Most significantly last night from 2am until I had my morning brew with sugar and it's come back into range now.
I don't have any symptoms of hypoglycemia during these episodes but I don't understand why they're happening.
From what I can fathom there is a link between low blood glucose and hypothyroidism but I can't make head nor tail of why or how or how to prevent it happening.
I've spent 26% of the last 24 hours with low blood glucose which is concerning!
Thanks for that link! Thinking it over I've had the classic 'not-being-able-to-take-a-deep-breath-without-pain' symptoms several times over the last decade but always put it down to a pulled muscle or sleeping funny.
Cholesterol levels tested last week via Monitor My Health. Can't find the ranges but:
Total cholesterol: 4.4
"Your total cholesterol result is 5 or below, which is associated with a low risk of cardiovascular disease"
HDL: 1.61
"Your HDL cholesterol result is 1.2 or more, this is within the suggested target range for women"
Non-HDL: 2.74
"Your result is less than or equal to 4 which is within the suggested adult target range"
Triglyceride: 0.45
"Your non-fasting triglyceride concentration is 4.5 or less" Except it was fasting; didn't realise it was a non-fasting test!
I’ve always thought of hypoglycaemia as an adrenal issue, do you think it could be an adrenal issue that is resulting from poor thyroid levels or is that hoping for too much simplicity? 😅
I’m not an expert, but are all the lows at night when you are asleep? With some monitors, lying on them can affect readings. (I think if the monitor patch is on your arm.) Just a thought.
Having said that, there is more to hypoglycemia than the average doctor knows about!
Thanks for this - it was comforting! It hasn't happened again and I don't think I've been sleeping any differently so it could have been a night where I slept on the monitor all night.
I had been in A&E the night previously with gallbladder pain so now enough time has elapsed I wonder if it were connected to that.
The Zoe test is pricey - £299 for the test and £135 for 'coaching' but it's looking at overall gut health and how your body reacts to fats and sugar. It's fascinating! joinzoe.com currently there is a waiting list of 200,000 people! with pre-orders being filled by mid-year and new orders after that. I got lucky and took part in one of their studies and got instant access as a reward!
If you're just interested in your blood sugar levels though you can buy a continuous glucose monitor for around £50. They only last a fortnight though but it should be plenty of time to experiment and see how different foods effect you.
Just as hypothyrodism slows our energy levels, gut motility, etc, it also slows function of our glucose balancing mechanisms such as the adrenals cortisol and pancreas' insulin, glucagon, somatostatin, digestive enzymes, etc.
Even with healthy eating, we can become less tolerant and end up with hypoglycemia (too little sugar in the blood) and insulin resistance (too much sugar in the blood) which fuel each other, and every time your blood glucose levels drop your adrenals will be secreting more cortisol in an effort to tell your liver to make more glucose to normalise blood sugar levels.
In long term hypothyroidism during the initial years elevated cortisol results in negative repercussions such as an altered HPA signal, inhibited deidinase behaviours resulting in low T3, etc, before cortisol eventually drops low. We should be able to fast in a healthy state for 12-14 hours easily but when our bodies are broken low glucose levels can result during the night when we don’t have enough cortisol to raise/maintain blood sugar into the normal range.
Glucose is also a part of the ATP energy making process in our mitochondria and apart from possible imminent sleep issues you might already be feeling really tired. My own hypoglycaemia was so bad I used feel shaky with blurred vision. It completely reversed when I added T3 to my Levo and undertook a 6 month eating regime directed at keeping blood glucose levels within range using protein with more frequent and smaller meals each day. Cortisol levels rose with optimised thyroid hormone levels and now I can easily fast during the night.
Our poor bodies go through the mill and it is only understanding what is happening that we can prevent further negative progress which in this case would eventually be full blown diabetes.
Thank you, Radd. This was so helpful. I really appreciate it.
I was struggling to understand it from Google! It's so empowering to understand what is happening and how to manage it to prevent it getting worse. I've had more 'low glucose events' but thankfully none as prolonged as that initial one.
Wearing this CGM might be the thing that finally makes me give up sugar in my tea!
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