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Re: Yet another question about insulin sensitizers - Dr. SamFrom: Sue (anonymous@obgyn.net)Tue, 26 Jun 2001 12:08:28 -0500 (CDT)
>If they do not lower the blood sugar, then why would reactions to them be explained as hypoglycemia? I know exactly what hypoglycemia feels like, and what happened to me when I took Metformin was NOT the same thing. I'm just confused (again).< Don't worry about being confused; it happens to all of us. Basically, met, avandia, or actos are safe and don't lower the blood sugar. What lowers your blood sugar is the overproduction of insulin. When you first go on an insulin sensitizer, your body hasn't acclamated to the medication and continues to overproduce insulin--your pancreas hasn't "received the message" to quit squirting out too much. So symptoms of hypoglycemia are somewhat common in the beginning stages of insulin sensitizing treatment. I had it with met and later when I switched to actos. It went away within a few days for me--but it may take longer for some to respond favourably. Remember the mechanisms of blood sugar and hunger are like a fuel gauge in a car--when your sugar levels reach 80 d/L, you feel hungry--the lower sugar levels send a signal to different parts of your brain to get the rumbling going and the acid in your stomach churning, in hopes that you will feed it and rectify the situation. When you have eaten and are comfortably full (not stuffed), your blood sugar is usually around 120 d/L. When you overproduce insulin (the hormone that controls what your blood sugar levels are), your sugar can drop quickly and unnecessarily--making you feel hungry again, even though you might've eaten within the last 2 hours or so. Technically, you don't NEED food, but your sugar levels have crashed, and if you don't eat something, you'll have some adverse reactions (faintness, nausea, exhaustion, etc.). This is why we need insulin sensitizers. When our insulin levels are under control, we can eat like normal people (small amts, about every 4 hrs) and not have to worry about crashes or hypoglycemia. Hope this makes sense--my brain seems a little foggy at the moment.
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