THIS IS MY HYPOGLYCEMIA STORY, IF YOU CAN BE BOTHERD TO READ IT

i am a 19 yr old male from london.
since january 2001, my whole life changed for the worse.thats when my extreme hunger started. i rember coming home from work and being realy hungry, i fought nothing of it and ate almost a whole box of rice krispies cereal. everyday my hunger was getting more and more extreme. i put it down to a growth spurt because i had grown and also was gettin thiner around the waist.

for a month i continued to eat high amounts of cereals, chips, pasta, mac donalds, anything that would fill my stomach,i would eat and then feel hungry 2 hours or three hours later.

then my next problem started. i noticed i would begin 2 sweat extremely for no reason, it was embarrising, i would wash in the mornings before school, by the time it was miday i had 2 use the school bathroom to freshen up because of my extreme sweating. it was winter and i had 2 wear a t-shirt to stay even rometely cool.

i went to my local GP and he ran a blood test on me, i was given the ok, he told me it was just a phaze, that reasured me.

a few months down the line my hunger was stronger than ever, i had moved on to eating a cooking bowl of rice per day, i would eat the amount ten people would eat in 1 day. i would come home at lunch and eat a plate full of pasta or chips and as soon as i ate i would fall asleep, about 40 minutes later i would wake up and go back to school.

i went to the gp again, this time she sent me to get a fasting blood test at the hospital, a few days later it came back negative.
i was reasused again.

last year around april, my syptoms started getting worse, i wasnt sleeping at night, i wasnt able to get to sleep because i felt 2 hyper and when i finally did get to sleep, i would wake up in the middlle of the night about 5.00am feeling hungry, so 2 deal with that i would simply eat some cereal, bread or watever i could find, that would do the trick and i would fall back to sleep.

i would have days were i would walk around like a zombie if i didnt eat enough, i would be confused and people fought i was weird.

my hair was starting recede at the front and side of my hair line(i am only 19). i was gaining weight very fast.

i went to my GP and as usual, she told me i was a growing boy and my body needed al that food to grow, but i hadnt grown a centimere for alomst a year.

these problems continued for a long time, i felt like i was going crazy, i began to stay at home all the time, i didnt want to be around other people because i felt weird all the time, i was sweating 24/7, wether it was hot or cold, sleeping for 10 hours used 2 be no problem for me, now night time was something i dreaded. i would spend hours looking at the celling not being able to sleep, my heart would be pulsating, just like the feeling you get when u go on a scary rollacoaster ride.

i recently started the atkins diet. about a week ago, and it seems to helping abit, i sleep now at night, but still wake up once a night, i just eat some peanuts or corned beef and go back to sleep, my sleeping has improved alot. my hair seems to be growing back were it was starting to reccede but very slowly. and the weight gain has definetly declined. the extreme sweating is still there in the morning or whenever it eat carbs and thats the thing that upsets me the most. but im ganna stick at it, because i dont want to let this continue and possibly develop diabetes.

Welcome to the forum!

It is good that you have determined what excessive carbohydrtaes do to your body early on - it will definately help you in the long run. I see you've only read on the web about these low carb plans - it would be best if you could get ahold of a copy of Dr. Atkins book and read it cover to cover - in it he explains things in a way that tie things together quite nicely.

Are you drinking all the water you need? Taking a multi-vitamin supplement?

You might want to get hold of a blood glucose meter and track your blood sugars after different types of meals, at the same time logging your symptoms to see if they correspond to sugar highs or lows.
The cost of test strips is high, but they would only be needed until you have tracked down the cause of the swings and the relationship between foods and your symptoms.

Congratulations on taking charge of your health and no longer listening to the carb and pill crazy medical profession.

hi Talon, nah i havent got around to buying Dr atkins book yet, i was not planning to either as i have got alot of information from the internet and forums such as these.

i fought that Dr Atkins book was published in 1978 or something like that so i fought it would be a bit outdated. i am very new 2 low carbing. everywere i look it says something different. but i have narrowed my diet down to basicly:-

raw peanuts as a snack
lean meat
chicken
eggs
mixed vegetables
sometimes if i have to wholemeal bread

but i cant see my self living on this kind of diet its very limited and also time consuming, i have to juggle all this with my school work aswell. all my life i have been eating cereals in large quantities, like rice krispies, cornflakes,shreedies, those have been my main sources of food.

but i have heard what has happend to people who ignored it, my problems are wosre enough as it is, so im ganna stick 2 it

Hi Danny,

well done for getting it sorted out so soon. i started with reactive hypoglycaemia, just like you describe, aged 20.
And like you, I found doctors who didn't know about it, patronised me and told me things which made it worse.

I was eating a Mars bar an hour to keep going - the worse thing I could have done I know now, but I had no information to know any better. Like you, I got the sweats and the shivers, the confused brain, like I was on something and when my blood sugar was low I got really depressed and blue too.

I lived with it for 18 years, got overweight and also insulin resistant because I'd been causing permanently high insulin levels by eating sugar and starch every 2 hours to stop the bad symptoms.

Fortunately, before I reached the next step, type II diabetes, I found LowCarb. I've been eating like this for 6 months now and my hypoglycaemia has completely sorted itelf out. The weight has gone and my energy levels and everything else are normal all the time.

I do find that caffeine and too much alcohol bring back the symptoms, so I have to watch them, but otherwise, I'm well at last, which after 18 years feels like a miracle.

Like I said, well done for sorting it out so soon, you'll have to eat like this for good, but its better than becoming diabetic.

There's loads of information here and you can ask all the questions you need to. You may find it takes a while for your body to adjust to LC eating (took me about a month, but then I was older and had had the problem for longer).

All the best, Jay

Dr Atkins original book was published in 1972; however he has an updated version that just came out in within the last year. With lots of update information - a great read!

thanks everyone for your replies, its good to know i am finally on the right track, if i would have listened to my doctors im sure that my life would end up a disaster.

reaearching about hypoglycemia, diabettes and other peoples stories has finally gave me an awnser. now i am hoping to return as close to how i was b4 i developed hypoglycemia

Hi Danny boi!

Do those mixed vegetables you've been eating contain carrots, corn, peas and lima beans? If so, they are probably too high in carbs for you to be eating at this stage.
Dr. Atkins has published a couple of newer versions of his book with updated information, the newest one was released this year. I'd really encourage you to get it. The internet is a great source of information, but it can also be a great source if MISinformation and nothing can replace having the author's own words to refer to when needed and it's really a lot quicker to look something up in the index of the book than to have to sort through pages and pages of posts to find what you're looking for.
The veggies you eat should be low glycemic; things like green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, spinach and all types of salad greens. This diet is only as limited as the veggies you choose. All types of fresh meats, eggs and cheeses are permitted along with a wide variety of veggies. Fats are not limited either except for hydrogenated and transfats. Later on, you can also add some low glycemic fruits such as berries and some melons.
Old Salty gave you some great advice on the blood glucose meeter; as you progress on this WOE it will be very valuable to help you assess what certain foods do to your blood sugars. Not everyone reacts the same way to the same foods; what causes me to spike and crash might not do the same thing to you and vice-versa.
I'm glad to hear that you are already seeing improvement. Stick with it and keep researching and testing.

I'm hesitant to mention this because you're already changing so much, but peanuts aren't an Induction-level food, either. If you could eat some nut that is a real nut, not a pea/bean, you'd lower your carbs even more. Examples: walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, almonds. Dr. Atkins doesn't really encourage any form of nut for the first two weeks, but real nuts would be better for you than peanuts.

With his problem induction might not be the right level for him either.
Peanuts are a very inexpensive and low glycemic food.
For someone not necessarily needing to be in Ketosis, as they are not losing weight.. but do need to level out.
Induction might not be necessary.. I think it just depends on the goals our new member has :-)
Poofie!

good evenin everyone, its 11.30pm over here in london.

my goals are not realy to lose weight only, my main goals are for me to just be normal again, i want the sweating to go, i want to be able to sleep at night, i want the panic attacks to go and the shakes. i hate the feeling of always being hungry, low carbing has been helping me but its been making me broke, im also scared it will intefere with my course i am studying, thats y i am desperate to get better.

i like raw peanuts as they are cheap and i can carry them around with me when i go out. they contain 12.5g of carbs per 100g but 46.1 grams of fat mostly monosaturated and 6.2 grams of fibre.

i think once i sleep a ful nights sleep with out waking up i am on the rite track.

i have noticed that since i have bee on a low carb diet, i dont feel real hunger pains any more, and when i am hungry it doesnt seem to affeact my arms and legs like it used 2, i dont feel weak instead i get headaches and neck pains, i dont no wat is worse