Hypoglycaemia Unawareness

Dr Pratik Chaudhary explains how regular monitoring can help notice and prevent hypoglycaemia in time

- Dr Pratik Chaudhary

Hypoglycaemia explained

Hypoglycaemia or low blood sugar level, as explained by the American Diabetes Association, occurs as a result of high insulin level in the body in proportion to the blood sugar level. Insulin is a hormone that lowers blood sugar levels and is used for managing Diabetes.

High insulin level in the body may occur because of some medication or external insulin being injected in the body or due to high calorie food intake or because of thebody's changing response to insulin. This produces symptoms such as shaking sweating, dizziness, difficulty speaking and blurred vision.

Hypoglycaemia is defined as blood sugar level at or below 70 mg/dL and serious hypoglycaemia is defined as blood sugar level below 50 mg/dL. In healthy people, blood sugar levels may dip down to 50-55 mg/dL at times but because it does not dip further than that, they are protected from any risk. Blood sugar levels may lower occasionally which does not possess a risk but it is recommended to avoid blood sugar level going below 50 mg/dL as far as possible.

Hypoglycaemia unawareness

Hypoglycaemia is a kind of stress and if the body gets stressed repeatedly, it decides to ignore that stress. During hypoglycaemia, the body produces warning signs but if events of hypoglycaemia occur repeatedly, over many years, one may lose the ability to recognise hypoglycaemia. This is called hypoglycaemia unawareness.