Athletic Cyster

Hi Ladies,

Low blood sugar is something I've been struggling with for just over a year now. It's actually one of the things that made me finally go to the doctors. Here's how I understand things (in really basic wording):

When we eat sugar(or carbs) the sugar goes into our bloodstream. This causes our body to release insulin because our cells can't absorb the sugar without insulin attached to it. Once insulin attaches to the sugar, beta receptors on our cells connect to the insulin/sugar combo and are supposed to help our cells absorb the sugar for energy. When someone is insulin resistant the beta receptors are weak. This means they don't sense the lower doses of insulin in our blood stream. Hence, our body releases more insulin and eventually the beta receptors realize what's going on, connect to the insulin, and absorb the sugar from our blood.

Now, what a friend (a dietition) told me is that when the beta receptors do finally realize that there is insulin in our blood it absorbs the sugar really quickly, thus potentially leading to low sugar levels.

Especially when I'm working out, (at which time our bodies are actually releasing a chemical that causes our beta receptors to instantly be more receptive to insulin) I get really dizzy. There have been several time where I've been doing endurance workouts (lasting more than a few hours) and I've actually had to stop to force myself to eat becuse my blood sugar gets so low that I can feel myself starting to pass out.

Let me know if you have any more questions about this. I've spent the past year really trying to figure this one out because it has been a huge frustration point for me. The Metformin has helped a little but I've still had several instances where I get almost to the point of passing out from low blood sugar.

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