Hypoglycemia - Conventional Treatment
Treating hypoglycemia involves attacking the disorder on two levels. First, your health care practitioner needs to attend to eliminating the initial symptoms in order to bring your body under control. Then, he'll treat the underlying condition which causes the problem.
the first part of the treatment rests on the type of symptoms you're displaying. Alleviating your symptoms may be as simple as taking glucose tablets or eating foods or even a little candy in order to raise your blood sugar level. If your symptoms are severe, however, and your ability to take sugar by the mouth is impaired, he may be forced to administer glucose intravenously or through an injection of glucagons.
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Hypoglycemia, as we have seen, has a potential myriad of causes. Because of this, indentifying the underlying condition and preventing recurrent episodes as not a simple process. If he has eliminated other factors, your health care practitioner may search for a tumor in your pancreas or other area of your body which is causing this disruption. If that's the case, you may have to undergo surgery.
If on the other hand, the hypoglycemia is caused by the medications you're taking, then he'll work closely with you to help change your prescriptions.
The key to effectively controlling this problem is for you to be extremely aware of any changes in the way your body is acting. You also need to be alert to any alterations in the way you're feeling. You need to pay attention to such symptoms that especially deal with the mind ? disorientation, the inability to complete normal everyday tasks. The moment you notice these symptoms, you need to begin to elevate your blood sugar level.
Ignoring these telltale signs can be dangerous, as the most severe forms of hypoglycemia eventually take the forms of seizures and unconsciousness.
And it's not as difficult as you may think. A serving of hard candy equal to approximately five Life Savers can be effective, according to the medical experts at the Mayo Clinic.
If hard candy is not available drink either a soft drink ? but not the diet version ? or four ounces of orange juice. If you're at home when these symptoms first occur or in a restaurant with sugar packets at the table, you can consume two large teaspoons of sugar to help alleviate the symptoms and prevent them from progressing.
There's also a glucose gel you can take. This is a form of sugar that you can buy at the pharmacy without a prescription that your system can rapidly absorb and use. This is especially effective on the early symptoms.
You may also take glucose tablets when you feel those symptoms initially coming on. These are also a non-prescription form of sugar that's created specifically for this purpose. It's readily available at your pharmacy.
You'll obviously want to alert your friends and family to your condition, so should you exhibit severe symptoms of this disorder, they can help should you be unconscious or, in some cases, unwilling to cooperate. Remember to let your co-workers and any immediate supervisors at work know of this problem as well. If you carry glucose gel with you, inform these people that should you lose consciousness, that they should place some of this gel under your tongue. And make sure they know where you keep the gel.
If you're one of the individuals who suffers from Type I diabetes, consider instructing someone close to you how to inject you with glucagon. This is a hormone that stimulates the release of glucose from your liver while at the same time inhibiting the release of insulin. Ask your health care practitioner is this is an option for you. This is available only through prescription.
