Low Blood Sugar & Your Cranky Inner Child

Have you ever been around a child who is Really hungry? It’s not pretty, is it?

The kid probably has low blood sugar and as an adult you can have low blood sugar (functional hypoglycemia) too. And if you do, you’re probably just as unaware of the cause of your distress as the child.

Although diabetes and high blood sugar get all the attention, low blood sugar can drastically affect the way you think and feel every day. You may be blithely unaware of the role low blood sugar is playing in your emotional and intellectual life, not to mention your waist line. Because the great majority of people don’t know the symptoms that are associated with functional hypoglycemia, they think instead that it’s normal to feel that way. Sometimes a patient will say to me, “Oh, I thought thats just the way I am.”

Functional Hypoglycemia can be defined as a fasting blood sugar between 65 and 85. This isn’t a disease state, however it can greatly impact your health both now and in the future due to the stresses it places on the hormonal system. About 50% of the people that I see who wish to lose weight have low blood sugar.

Here are some symptoms associated with functional hypoglycemia:

- Craving sweets
- Irritability if meals are missed or delayed
- Dependence upon caffeine (coffee/tea) to keep yourself going
- Getting lightheaded if meals are missed
- Eating relieves fatigue
- Feeling shaky, jittery, tremors
- Being agitated, easily upset, nervous, anxious
- Poor memory, forgetful, confusion upon wakening
- Blurred vision
- Bad temper, mood swings

The good news is that functional hypoglycemia is usually easy to treat. You don’t need a medication, which is probably why you haven’t heard of it. Otherwise, there would be commercials all over the TV. However, if there were more public information about functional hypoglycemia you may have a different perception of what normal is.

So the first step is recognize why your inner child is cranky. More about your blood sugar and what to do about it later.