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Have you ever experienced symptoms of hypothermia caused by a hypoglycemic event (not due to environmental causes), such as body temperature below 95 F (35 C), shivering, and slow breathing?
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The worst occurred when I was a college student and working outdoors. I passed out on a day in the 80’s from hypoglycemia, was revived after 911 called- and then had chills like crazy on the way to the ER. It has happened other times, too. The reason is that sweating is a great way to diffuse heat. It works when it is hot. But when you have a normal temp, and are sweating because you have a low BG, your temp drops. Shivering is a way to generate heat to raise your temp.
Yes, in central Florida in late May, a quite warm time of the year. I temperatured in at 93 degrees ℉. I was recovering from a severe hypoglycemic incident wrapped in a scratchy, thick wool blanket trying to hold a half-full styrofoam cup of coffee still enough that I could sip it. The brain was straining to get all the glucose it could to keep the brain going, with little regard to the rest of the body and secondary concerns like warmth. ❄ ❄ ❄ There is nothing, absolutely nothing worse than internal cold, no matter what the surrounding conditions are outside ☃ ☃ ☃
I can’t answer definitively, but the only time I experienced hypoglycemia I was also shaking violently, but I don’t know what my temperature was. It was also 20 some years ago…
Maybe I’ve never been low enough for that. I was going to say that the opposite happens to me. Less than 55, and I get very hot and start sweating. My lowest was about 35 once. My brain felt stupid and my body felt weak, but I don’t remember feeling cold. I had been half dozing on the sofa and didn’t feel the low until I stood up, must have been pre-Dexcom. Or I was asleep enough the alarm didn’t sink in.
This has happened to my on many occasions over the past 43 years.
I’m not sure about hypothermia but I have broken out in a cold sweat with a bad low.
Being a T1D senior, I am old and cold a lot, living in a wintry cold state. Sometimes I get cold after injecting insulin, sometimes I wake up in the night cold, I have had chills with vaccines for flu, shingles, and now covid. I do my best to follow the numbers on my cgm and keep sugars above 70. I don’t sweat except sometimes with a low, then I sweat but not because of heat. I shivered a lot as a child and it had nothing to do with diabetes, my teeth would chatter. Bottom line is wear layers of clothes, always wear socks and gloves when needed, and now wear face masks!
It can definitely take me awhile to warm up – I’ll say an hour and a half, though I’ve never checked my temp and I don’t shiver or have slow breathing – just need extra layers to warm up.
I’ve had this happen when having extreme low blood glucose. This was before I started wearing an insulin pump.
When I get a severe (under 45 or so), I suffer from diaphoresis and get extremely cold. I suppose the EMTs have checked my temp when they’ve been called, but I have no idea what it was.
Never checked my temperature, but certainly feel cold!
After the heat and sweating from the adrenaline surge caused by blood sugar below 50, the recovery phase after eating is extreme cold and intense sleepiness.
I’ve never taken my temp but have been extremely cold in the middle of the night after a bad low. A couple of times I’ve taken a hot shower to help warm up. Now that I have dexcom, I’m woken up before a low gets that bad.
Shivering but not taken my temp. Also, since I’m hypoglycemic unaware, sometimes internal cold or sudden tiredness are the symptoms I get to tell me to check my bg. Dexcom helps, but it can be slower than my symptoms.
YES!!! Once, many years ago, I had a reaction and ended up in the ER. THERE WASN’T ANY TEMPERATURE READING on the thermometer!!! They had to do it rectally. And even then they had to treat my for hypoglycemia as well as hypothermia. That was the ONLY time that happened. Since then, I’m aware that my temp does decrease with low bgs.
Every time I have a low below 45 I get freezing cold with shivers, the drenching sweats, draining sleepiness for at least 4 hours after the episode and I usually get made fun of for some of the attitude I throw out there while my friend or roommate is trying to get me to drink my orange juice. I’m so glad it only happens once in a while, unlike so many I know, where hi’s & low’s happen multiple times per week.
Sometimes feel very cold. But when hypo and wouldn’t be priotising measuring my temperature or my breathing. I suspect that these are symptoms noted by carers, not diabetics.
Prior to using a CGM, I would often have severe lows that caused me to lose consciousness (if I wasn’t already asleep) and have seizures. When I would wake up I would be freezing cold and shivering uncontrollably. It could last for a long time. I was told this happens not because you’re low but because your BG is going back up, but I’m not sure what the science behind it is.
When I have had a few low lows I have sweating but don’t remember feeling chilled.
I had no idea your body temp could drop during a severe low. I’ve had many severe lows with intense shaking and feeling miserably cold and drenched in sweat. Many seizures too. It’s much better with CGM.
When my BG plummets in a severe downward spiral I perspire profusely, then as BG starts to recover and climb upwards I experience what I call “the cold shiver sweats”. If I am at home or at a hotel during travel I have to jump into a warm/hot shower for about 20 minutes to stabilize my body temp as BG level rises. Then I dry off, put on socks and flannel pjs and crawl under a down comforter to warm up and stop shivering. I usually sleep for an hour or two after an episode like that. Otherwise if I am at work or somewhere out in the world away from a home base and a warm shower, I walk around wearing soaking wet clothes feeling clammy, drenched, and chilled to the bone. Ugh – I hate the discomfort of feeling like that.