Diabetic hypoglycemia is because of either overdose of insulin and other diabetic medicine or because of the skip of the meal by a diabetic patient. Sometimes more exercise without adjusting medicine dose and diet also leads to diabetic hypoglycemia that is low in blood sugar level.
It includes immediate initial treatment to raise your sugar level in blood.
Another method of treatment is the treatment of an underlying condition that causes hypoglycemia which will prevent it from recurring.
Treatment goals for diabetes:
- Help the patient to achieve normal physical and emotional growth and development.
- Try to prevent short and long term health problems.
- Patients with type 1st diabetes need to:
- Take insulin according to prescription.
- You need to eat a healthy and balanced diet with accurate carbohydrate count.
- You must check blood sugar regularly.
- You must take regular physical activity.
Immediate Initial treatment of Diabetes
Initial treatment depends on the severity of symptoms and it can be controlled by consuming 15 to 20 grams of fast-acting carbohydrate. Fast-acting carbohydrates are those foods that can easily convert into sugar in the body like glucose tablets, fruit juice. Food containing a high level of fat and protein is not considered as a good treatment for hypoglycemia. As soon as your blood sugar levels back to normal, you must not forget to take a snack and meal which will help you stabilize your blood sugar. This will help your body to replenish glycogen stores and it may have been depleted during hypoglycemia.
In case of severe symptoms which may impair your ability to take sugar by mouth, in that case, you may need some ingestion of glucagon and intravenous glucose. Avoid offering food and drink to a patient who is unconscious as he or she may aspirate these substances into the lung.
In case when you or your any friend or family member is prone to severe episodes of hypoglycemia, you must switch for a glucagon kit. This glucagon kit is very essential for people with diabetes who are on treatment with insulin must possess this kit for low sugar emergencies.
Diabetes treatment of the underlying cause
The diabetic patients should check their blood glucose and need to treat the hypoglycemia and then wait for 15 to 20 minutes and then you should check their blood sugar again.
In case, when the blood sugar level is still low, you must repeat the process. You must eat some glucose and then wait for 15 to 20 minutes and then check their blood sugar again.
A diabetic patient needs to eat regularly and this will help your blood glucose level stable.
Treatment: In case severe symptoms
In case of severe symptoms when an individual cannot treat themselves, somebody must apply honey, treacle, glucagon, and jam to the inside of the cheeks and wait for the person to start feeling better.
Treatment: Losing consciousness
In case when a person loses consciousness, the qualified health professional must administer a glucagon injection. Avoid offering food and drink to the unconscious person as it could block the airways.
Basics Treatment for Type 1 diabetes.
Hypoglycemia means a decrease in the amount of glucose in the blood. Glucose is the most important and main source of energy in the human body. Insulin is important which allows glucose to get in the cells. In the case of type 1st diabetes, the body remains no longer able to make insulin and thus glucose cannot get into the body cells. This leads to an increase in blood glucose levels.
Treatment of severe diabetic hypoglycemia with the help of glucagon:
Tight glycemic control is very essential to reduce and delay vascular complications in type 1st diabetes. But the benefits achieved by tight metabolic control have great demerit of increased risk of hypoglycemia. Glucagon is a very beneficial and effective therapy for treating severe hypoglycemia. This glucagon is an available emergency kit for diabetic patients in case of diabetes-associated hypoglycemia. It is an essential kit for rapid response.
You can also read: Emergency Hypoglycemia in case of Type 1 Diabetes.
Prevention strategies
The incidence of episodes of hypoglycemia and the likelihood of suffering from severe episodes can be reduced by the help of effective education not only to an individual but also to his or her parents, spouse or caretaker. Education for preventing hypoglycemia includes the main cause of hypoglycemia and self-management of diabetes and way to recognize early symptoms. One important educational aspect is a recommendation that individuals must have an immediate source of glucose for mild and moderate hypoglycaemic symptoms and glucagon kit for severe hypoglycaemic symptoms.
Management strategies
Hypoglycemia treatment depends on the duration and severity of hypoglycemia episodes. You can easily treat mild to moderate hypoglycemia with oral intake of rapid-acting sugars like glucose, tablets, and snacks. While severe hypoglycemia needs external help.
Dextrose: It is for those patients who are not able to swallow oral glucose because of unconsciousness, seizures and altered mental status. In the case of Emergency, professionals can administer peripheral and central I/V solution which contains dextrose.
Glucagon: It is the main hormone in counter-regulatory mechanisms against insulin and it as first-line treatment for severe hypoglycemia in insulin-treated patients with type 1st diabetes. This injection can be injected subcutaneously and intramuscularly by trained parents and caregivers while dextrose injection can only be administered by professionals I/V. This will help you to prevent the delay in commencing treatment which might be a delay in waiting for qualified professionals and it will reduce the need for hospitalization and it will provide reassurance for patients and their caregivers.
These Prevention tips will help you to prevent diabetic hypoglycemia:
- Never skip or delay your regular meal and snack. In case you are taking diabetic medicines and insulin, take care of the amount you eat and the timing of your meals and snacks.
- You must monitor your blood sugar. You must check and record your blood sugar level depending on your treatment plan several times a week or day. Monitoring your blood sugar is the best way to make sure that your blood sugar is in the target range.
- Never take a high dose of diabetic medicines and insulin. Take care that you always consume measured medicines and take them on time as prescribed by your doctor.
- You must adjust your medicines or take extra snacks if you increase your physical activity.
- Alcohol will cause hypoglycemia. But in case, you need alcohol, eat a meal or snack with alcohol as alcohol is more deleterious with an empty stomach.
Future goals:
Currently, insulin replacements are far from perfect and they can not replicate normal insulin secretion. The ideal solution to prevent diabetes-associated hypoglycemia is an autonomous closed-loop system that can maintain the desired blood glucose levels and prevent hypoglycemia. There is need of development of artificial pancreas which must have three elements: Safe insulin delivery device which have ability to store and release insulin accurately and reliably, a sensitive and accurate biocompatible glucose sensing unit which is capable of frequent and continuous sampling and a control system which can modulates the delivery of insulin, glucagon, glucose and amylin according to blood glucose levels. Many researchers and scientists are working in this field and looking forward to new technologies advancement which will improve insulin replacement therapy and will make this goal possible.
Summary
As hypoglycemia is common in a patient taking insulin treatment, caregivers must take care to build a match between insulin action and circulating glucose availability at all times and this is the only way to avoid severe hypoglycaemia., intolerable hypoglycaemic symptoms and hypoglycemia unawareness while maintaining a worth full degree of glycemic control.