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When you're experiencing low blood glucose, what symptoms do you typically experience? Select all that apply!
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Heart palpitations
I start to feel what I call “that sinking feeling” when my BG is 75 and dropping. If at 70 > and dropping rapidly I experience progressive confusion, irritability, and profuse dampness from perspiration. It is worse if BG is less than 70 and trending downwards … once I treat a trending downwards low of <50 and BG is stabilizing ^^^ I get cold sweat chills and shivers as my body recovers. Sometimes I get a headache afterwards. When I get the sweaty cold shivers, I just want to take a warm hot shower (which I often do if I am at home) and dive into warm bedding under the covers and take a nap.
The symptom that I almost always experience is hunger.
I experience some of the other symptoms, but not regularly.
Feeling I can’t trust my legs to walk – knees buckle.
Teri Morris — This happened to me when I was 6, 7, or 8 years old walking home for lunch from early elementary school about 3 blocks. It is riveted in my mind so well I can remember it 70 years later. Sigh! 〽️🐹
Experiencing low blood glucose is like Noah experiencing plumbing problems on a grand scale. \(°Ω°)/
After 40 years, I suffer from hypoglycemic unawareness which is the main factor I began using Dexcom.
low blood sugar symptoms are not the same every time. the 780 has really helped me with that, as the alarm system and auto shut off of delivery are key features for me
Before I started CGM I didn’t feel any hypo sensations until I dropped to about 50-55. So now with CGM I get alarms at 75 and catch and react to most lows before I drop to 60. So the short answer is none of the above most of the time. I would feel hungry a bit jittery and tired (or any of the other symptoms) on the off chance I do get low.
Only occasionally do I feel bad on a low. I feel the low but sometimes get shaky and do not sweat but I get hot to the point where I will wake up if asleep. I feel fortunate after reading what happens to some people. Not proud of it but I have gone as low as 19 and stayed on my feet. Once, never again, did I ignore the feeling. I’m a LADA and not young diabetic. I wonder if that is the difference. I always feel that being a LADA is not as serious.
@Patricia I can relate to not feeling anything under 20. There have been times while working, that a co-worker will pull me aside and ask if I’m okay due to my behavior (that I don’t notice) or my eyes. Then it was either check your sugar or show my your CGM. I would of course ‘be low’ and have to treat it. Thankfully all my co-workers were understanding and cover my patients while I treated the low.
I haven’t felt a low sugar in close to 20 years.
1st symptom for me is numbness of my lips and tongue
Fatigue would be my #1 symptom.
All of the above, sometimes. What I feels differs upon what I am doing, how fast my blood glucose is dropping. Most often I feel a sense of weakness, and exhaustion. Often confused thoughts. Shakiness and sweating usually come with fast drops in blood glucose. Dizziness and heart palpitations sometimes. Almost always hunger following the onset or the event. I have to force myself to stop eating.
Weakness in chest
Typically asymptomatic, however, if I do, it’s tachycardia and confusion.
I haven’t felt a low sugar in 20 some years. It’s why a CGM and D.A.D. service dog. My dog alerts me when I have a rapid fall or climb much faster than my G7.
I get lights in my eyes, if I go low enough the light obstructs my vision for a bit.
I used to feel the low coming on maybe 30 years ago…but…it’s pretty much gone now
My issue has always been I drop like a rock fairly quickly, I kept my low reading at 90 with Medtronic because that was the highest, I could set it.
It’s gotten better since leaving Medtronic and now with the Tandem X2 and Dexcom….it’s much more controlled. I was on a business trip in Florida I remember the emt’s woke me up on the floor of my room….said I was 11. What’s really weird is I proceeded to get angry at them for breaking into my room!
That’s probably the worst part, it’s like I’m a bad drunk….but with my insulin, I’m a bad low…my personality completely changes and I get very rude, obstinate and combative.
Probably primary reason I’m no longer married, she never was educated on diabetes, really didn’t understand it, and I’ve been classified as a brittle diabetic by some; so was probably a lot of fun to live with….such is life…..
In addition to these, I experience severe chills once my bg starts to rise. It’s incredibly stressing and debilitating.
Weak, shaky, I get very quiet, slow responsiveness, hot body temp if very low.
Also seeing spots of light, loss of coordination.
I find it hard to focus
I haven’t felt any symptoms when having a hypoglycaemic [hypoglycemic, for my American cousins] event for about the last 20 years now.
Luckily, for me, I’ve been using a pump since 1999, and I now use a CGM that ‘talks’ to my pump and alerts me to when my blood glucose level is falling … or rising, giving me opportunity to take remedial action.
I’ve experienced those except uncontrolled hunger but the list didn’t include nausia. My systems weren’t consistent and I couldn’t always tell when I had aa low. So my doctor prescribes a CGM for me. I’ve been using DexCom since the G3. I find it hard to be with out one now.
Also, hard to focus.
Most of the Symptoms mentioned but since going on TSlim X2 w/Dexcom Control I have eliminated almost ALL Hypos, only 4 this past year and an A1c around 6 and low as 5.4 THIS is the Cure Promised me 60 years ago!
Mos of the above symptoms happen to me. Another problem I have found is that before the other symptoms appear, I lose the ability to work with numbers. Years ago, I was taking the GRE exam, and realized that I had been on the same, initial, question of the math section the entire time. This was way before glucose monitors existed, so my only confirmation was the ensuing shakiness as well ass the effectiveness of eating.
In 1974, while taking the GRE, I became aware that I quickly needed glucose. I raised my hand to get the attention of the monitor. She came over, I explained the situation and she told me that I ‘d have to turn in the exam if I reached for my purse with the glucose tabs. She refused to get them for me. “Sorry, can’t fo that.” So, I had to leave and apply again to retake the exam.
It happened to me during my GRE exam in 1975. I bombed the exam after spacing out half-way through the exam. I took the Miller Analogy Exam afterward to get into graduate school.
Now I rarely experience, or am aware of, any symptoms. Depending on how fast my bg is dropping , I might suddenly have vision issues with dark floating spots (laser scars from retinopathy treatments) and a blinding central light that obscures my vision. I can also get confused with difficulty putting thoughts together. The majority of the time I’m very surprised when my CGM alarms.
I checked “don’t have symptoms” and “jitters.” I don’t experience symptoms anymore until I’m below 50, and even then it’s mild unless I drop lower. Then I have the jitters and feel like I’m walking through water. With G-7 and Tandem, the lows are rare now 🙂
My strongest symptom is insatiable hunger. This has led to the corollary problem of overtreating overeating reactions. The other powerful symptom is lack of focus, inability to concentrate. If I’m reading something I can spend 1/2 hour on the same paragraph or sentence.
I’m not very hypo sensitive, and it needs me to be <3 mmol to get any symptoms. If I get confusion or dizziness I know I'm REALLY low.
One symptom not mentioned is a visual artefact like a big partial bright circle in front of my vision.
The “flashbulb effect.” It’s funny, lots of people report that (me too) but it isn’t on the list here. Unless that’s what they mean by “blurred vision,” but that’s not what it’s like. It’s not blurred, it’s BLANK.
I also sometimes experience a white shape in my vision like a blob. Oocurs at 55 or lower BS.
My wife says I begin to turn gray when my BG is dropping.
My stomach drops.
Fatigue, hunger, difficulty focusing OR hyper focusing on one task, decreased responsiveness to others and irritability. Often it’s just a subtle change in cognition – I can’t explain but can sense my bg is low. On rare occasions I may get sweaty or shaky. There’ve been only a couple of times when my vision changes to a yellow hue or with spots – I’ve been extremely low when this occurred. So 58 years of T1D with excellent bg control- this is why I wear a cgm/Tandem pump.
I appreciate you mentioning the hyperfocus aspect … I get that way too. It’s as if I get on a narrow task loop and can’t get off. This symptom isn’t listed above and it isn’t commonly addressed in health care diabetes literature, yet it is commonly reported by PWDs who experience those wicked lows caused by too much insulin.
Many things impact my hypo symptoms, but one thing is consistent and has been for 53 yrs. At about 75 my cognitive functions change and I get over focused. Changes are settle and I’ve had to lean to ID them. Recall memory lapses, struggle with calculations or focus, emotional, and verbal skills are off. It’s shuttle but if you learn to watch for it you can see it every time.
I rarely feel symptoms. When I do it’s more of just feeling “off” or very tired.
When I get below 60, my tongue starts to feel weird….like it’s larger than normal.
I just feel very uncomfortable, like I can’t wait till the sensation goes away. I’ve probably have had all of the mentioned symptoms and more before getting a CGM, but now I very rarely get any symptom beside feeling very uncomfortable.
My extreme lows are absolutely terrifying. I feel like I’m teetering on the edge of somewhere, about to fall. The best thing I can do is chug liquid glucose sitting on the floor behind an open door, in as small a place as I can make. I’ve literally lay in the floor, feeling like my house is collapsing. There’s nothing I can do to make these situations stop until my blood sugar starts to go back up. My mind knows it’s not really happening, but my body is sure that it is, and the feeling is able to take control of my brain. It feel like my heart is beating out of my chest. And that part’s very real.
“Blurred vision” isn’t correct. Like many others have said, it’s a white spot, like a flashbulb after-image, and if untreated it grows and blots out the center of my vision. For me it’s a sure sign of being <60 and precedes other symptoms when I'm having a really bad one. Pretty rare now that CGM is a thing, maybe 3-5 times a year. Much more common back in the old R/NPH days. I learned to recognize it as a signal to get carbs in me stat or I was about to be incapacitated.
If BG falls slowly, I do not experience symptoms until I am below 50. T1D for 57 years now, so I have some hypoglycemic unawareness. If it drops fast though, I do have symptoms. I tend to talk faster, phrases instead of sentences, get jittery as I try to continue with my tasks. Manual dexterity usually slows first, then eventually sweating.