IR or low blood sugar?

friskilyn · 09-13-2002, 10:24 PM

hi I was wondering if you can help me out. i know i have something wrong and I know i have to go get a blood test to further explore and diagnose what is wrong. but lately, i have noticed that when i dont' eat right away, i get kind of blurry vision, muscles get achey and feel lightheaded. i do not have the desire to drink water or any other liquid all the time but i do pee often. I have been trying to stay off the sugar, no more soda, candy, but i have little bits of choclate once in a while. and I am trying to eat more protein. I am a thin cyster.
I can not figure out if this is IR or low blood sugar. I am going to get blood tests done soon to see. but when i was first diagnosed back in july 2001, my endo did tests and said i am pretty much in normal range as far as blood work goes. but this is before I knew what pcos was and didn't really know what she was testing. but I am assuming that she knew what to test for. can anyone help?

Maureen77 · 10-02-2002, 06:15 PM

Those symptoms could definately describe low blood sugar... or dehydration... how much water do you drink?

IR can also cause low blood sugar. Excess insulin in your blood stream can make your sugar dip very low.

My rec. to you is to get your blood test numbers yourself and compare them to normal ranges. Did you have a fasting blood sugar test done? (ideally when you are having these symptoms to find out what is going on) Fasting insulin?

Here are lab ranges for tests: http://www.inciid.org/faq/pcos2.html#2.10

Also your thyroid should be checked. Blurry vision is not normal, something is going on there.

Good luck and be sure to report back to us!

Bridget · 10-02-2002, 10:16 PM

If I don't eat a good breakfast, I'm shaky, vision problems, etc. I feel like I've GOT to eat something right away or I may faint. I'm IR and have low blood sugar. As long as I eat "right" I'm fine.

Bridget

MyJourney · 10-03-2002, 09:59 AM

Hey,

I'm a thin cyster too. I did a 3 hour GTT to see if anything was indicative of IR (I was desperate to get an Rx for Met at the time). Anyway, the results came back in the normal range, except for my sugar levels going lower than expected.
My PCP didn't attribute anything to that and we continued to do nothing. Then I had the chance to show the results to an endo, and what she said is that I am hypglycemic (i.e. low blood sugar).
I went on a low carb diet, broken down into 6 meals a day, and if I don't cheat, I feel great. When I cheat with carbs I feel all fuzzy and tired, and when I cheat by not having my bedtime snack I have the wildest dreams.

HTH,
Oshrat

friskilyn · 10-03-2002, 08:11 PM

thanks for replying. i haven't gotten tested yet but when i did 1 1/2 year ago my doc said i was in normal range. i might suspect i am hypogylcemic. can you explain further what that is????

MyJourney · 10-03-2002, 08:53 PM

Well, I'm not really good at explaing hypoglycemia. But, I'll try.
From what I understood, your body overreacts to Insulin, and that makes the blood sugar drop.
The point of my diet is to avoid those blood sugar drops and kind of keep it steady. So during the day I eat about every 3 hours, and before I go to sleep I have half a portion of complex carbs (I know that's diabetic talk. A whole prtion is 12 grams).
If any body would like to jump in here, she would be welcome, because I'm floundering.

HTH,
Oshrat

friskilyn · 10-03-2002, 08:58 PM

no you are doing fine. sometimes people, with the best intentions, use really technical terms or send me to links that are written for doctors. i have strong cravings for carbs and sugar often. i like to try to battle them but i give in sometimes. i find that i too feel out of it after lots of carbs. so my craving for sugar would make me think i am not getting enough of it in my system???

Erin31CA · 10-06-2002, 08:57 AM

Hi,

It sounds to me like you more likely suffer from high blood sugar than from low. In any event, both are associated with being IR. When you are IR, your blood sugar levels tend to fluctuate drastically between high and low levels. That is because your body isn't using insulin correctly. Our bodies use insulin to move glucose (sugar) into our cells for energy and metabolic processes. When you are IR, your cells are "resistant" to this function of insulin, so often our blood sugar levels can go up because the insulin isn't working to push the sugar into our cells, and it accumulates in the blood stream. In response to high blood sugar levels, our pancreas pumps out more and more insulin, essentially flooding our bodies with insulin until we finally have so much that the sugar is able to get pushed into the cells, but at this point we have so much insulin in the system that our blood sugar actually crashes the other direction and now we have low blood sugar....this is what leads to the cravings for carbs. Anyway, when you are at the level where your blood sugar is high, it can be very damaging to your cells, because glucose binds to many of the proteins in our body. This includes proteins in our eyes and muscles.... So, if you are having blurry vision, I would be very concerned. Have you mentioned this to your doctor? Blurry vision and extreme thirst are classic symptoms of diabetes. Most people who are IR eventually develop diabetes if they don't treat their IR, because after years and years of the pancreas working double time, it just wears out. At that point, it can actually no longer produce enough insulin to keep blood glucose at stable levels. Anyway, I would definitely mention this to your doctor. Good luck.