Hypoglycemia is rarely an anxiety cause
By definition, hypoglycemia is a medical term used to describe the condition resulting from a lower than normal level of blood glucose. Literally, the term hypoglycemia means “low blood sugar” wherein hypo = low, glyc (or glycerin) = sugar, and emia = blood. The link between the two can be explained by the sudden release of adrenaline into the system.
Adrenaline is a hormone that converts glycogen (the stored glucose in the body) back into glucose (the fuel of the body) in order to nourish the brain. When the body is low in glucose, adrenaline is secreted to bring the glucose level up so that brain starvation, which might lead to coma, will be prevented. With the release of excess adrenaline in the body, the sympathetic nervous system is triggered causing increased heart rate, muscle tension, faster breathing pattern, shakiness, nervousness, palpitations, abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomiting and sweating – all symptoms of anxiety attacks.
Hypoglycemia can cause a variety of emotional and physical anxiety symptoms. These include anxiety as well as headache, light-headedness, palpitations, sweating, shakiness, weakness, hunger, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. It is important to realize that most people with anxiety disorder do not have hypoglycemia, despite the over tendency of some health care “professionals” to blame many physical and emotional problems on low blood sugar.
The unfortunate tendency to over diagnose hypoglycemia may in fact hide the correct diagnosis and lead to inappropriate treatment. The diagnosis of hypoglycemia can be made conclusively only by actually finding abnormally low levels of sugar in several blood samples when symptoms are present. Clear relief of symptoms when blood sugar is raised to normal helps to confirm the diagnosis. In the rare instances in which anxiety is due to hypoglycemia, there are specific, effective medical treatments that are available to correct hypoglycemia. The use of glucagon is one such treatment. It is administered intramuscularly for patients who cannot take glucose orally. It helps maintain glucose levels in their normal range. This is, of course, given only on severe situations. For immediate remedy, easily absorbed sources of sugar can be given, such as regular soda, juice or table sugar.
If you feel anxiety on a regular basis and you can say to yourself that you indeed have some problems in social situations or out of the ordinary anxiety issues, then clearly there is some cause that’s making you feel this way. Hypoglycemia can simply be a by-product of what you are doing that is causing you anxiety. Anxiety is a much stronger symptom because it shows that there are areas in your life that are not taken care of.
