I’m hypoglycemic. This tends to be a pretty minor facet of my life. Every once in a while, I’ll go too long between meals and get fuzzy and confused (lucky manhattan got to see this in action at ChiDope last weekend), but usually correct the problem quickly with some food.
However, on two occasions, I’ve had serious attacks. Once, when I was 13 years old, I temporarily lost my color vision. Everything went black and white, and being 13 years old, I was absolutely hysterical with panic. Fortunately, my dad was nearby and he got me some food quickly and my color vision came back within a few minutes.
Last summer, I went temporarily blind during an attack. This time I knew what was happening, and I was able to handle the situation a little better. It helped that my mom was nearby and got me something quickly. Again, I was able to see within a few minutes.
I don’t understand what causes this. Could someone explain what the relation between low blood sugar and temporary vision problems is, in stupid person terms?
I am a real doctor. 1st, unless you have some diabetic related problem, “hypoglycemia” is/was the chronic fatigue syndrome of its day,now fibromyalgemia has taken over- really a somatoform disorder- emotional problem shows up as physical. Now as for vision: there is a condition that diabetics get called retinopathy- doesn’t sound like you-need severe diabetes for years & it causes blindness. AFAIK, no relationship between color vision & blood sugar anyway. Kyla, you correctly diagnosed yourself when you said hysterical, with no disrespect intended.
Nah, hypoglycemia is very real. I know because I have it. And it makes sense if you think about it. Diabetics do not produce enough insulin, why would there not be people who produce too much? That’s what it really is, according to my studies.
Anyone with low blood sugar will get a little dizzy, perhaps experience blurred vision. Most people do not experience low blood sugar very often, because their bodies are designed to process their food fairly well. One meal can keep you going for a few hours with no need to eat much between meals. Hypoglycemic people process the sugar in their food too quickly because their bodies make too much insulin to compensate for the amount of sugar they have consumed. The more sugar, the more insulin. This is why we should avoid very sugary foods. (M&M’s make me shake head-to-toe.) The shaky reaction is called insulin shock. This reaction can be dangerous if misinterpretted as a diabetic reaction (the two look very similar), as a hypoglycemic person can die if given insulin. And since our bodies process the sugar very quickly, we need to eat smaller meals more often and we often experience low blood sugar if we are not careful.
That’s about all I know about hypoglycemia. That, and that there is some conjecture about the link between hypoglycemia and alcoholism. Seems we have a bit of a roller-coaster reaction to the sugar in alcohol and many of us keep drinking to try to level it out. What this all has to do with vision problems, I don’t know. But I know that when my blood sugar is low and I stand up too quickly my vision goes black, but only for the second it takes me to fall down. I also get migranes occasionally, which have a big effect on vision. If the low blood sugar causes bad headaches, that may be your cause right there.
And if hypoglycemia is bunk, why the heck is there a blood test for it, smart guy?
Small bit of info: Hereditary achromatopsia or “black-and-white vision” is discussed in the Sacks’ book ISLAND OF THE COLORBLIND, but this version involves loss of cones in the retina. http://www.achromat.org
In an essay in HIDDEN HISTORIES OF SCIENCE, Sacks does mention a case where a wartime brain injury produced achromat vision. So, would low blood sugar cause brain malfunction? Or would it first affect color sensors (cones) in your retina?
Yes, hypoglycemia is very real. How else do you explain the OP’s symptons, or Faerie’s, or my own for that matter? When I was 15 I skipped breakfast one morning before going to get fitted for a suit. While I was standing there getting fitted, I started feeling really fatigued and my vision started graying out. A few minutes later, I started getting tunnel vision, like when you stand up after sitting down for a long time, but much much worse. I excused myself, sat down, and promptly passed out. It was…not a pleasant experience
I’ve had several similar attacks since then, every time after skipping one or more meals. I don’t know how else you could explain the symptoms…
It’s silly to say hypoglycemia is a somatoform disorder when it is easily quantified by measuring blood glucose levels.
Also, when you consider that about 25% of glucose metabolism occurs in the brain, it’s not too surprising that there would be visual disturbances along with other CNS disturbances.
Oh yes, and to actually answer the OP, there’s not enough sugar for your sensory nerves to function properly.
St. Urho
EMT
The problem with “functional disorders” caused by hysteria is that there is usually no test to reliably diagnose them. Hypoglycemia is easy to test for. I don’t think hypoglycemia is overdiagnosed as a popular catch-all – I see almost no one in my emergency who says they are hypoglycemic. I suspect hypoglycemia, like diabetes, is very much underdiagnosed. I don’t have enough info to diagnose the patient and consider the differential to include a lot more than diabetes and hysteria. I’m not sure you do, either, which is why Internet-Nintendo medicine needs to be taken with ample salt.
I’m a Type 1 diabetic. I’ve had a few hypoglycemic incidents where my vision has been affected, by two separate mechanisms. In my experience, your blood sugar needs to be pretty low before this will happen, and it’s typically preceded by other hypoglycemic symptoms (sudden weakness, fatigue, trembling, pallor, clumsiness, numbness in lips/tongue/fingers, etc.).
The more common/less serious type usually happens to me when I’m outside during the daytime and I feel my blood glucose dropping, so I head inside to treat it. Once I’m inside, I have trouble seeing because everything appears so dim. Apparently, this is because my pupils won’t dilate or are very slow to adjust to the lighting.
The other type of visual problem I’ve encountered only happens with severe hypoglycemia. My visual field first appears blurred, but then splits into two overlapping images. Once when this happened to me I checked my blood sugar and it was around 20 mg/dl (normal is 70-110 mg/dl when fasting).
I think the reason these things happen with hypoglycemia is just a matter of the brain malfunctioning. Your brain accounts for about 20% of your resting metabolism, so when your body starts running out of fuel (glucose), it takes a heavy toll on your brain’s ability to function.
I had hypoglycemia for about twenty years before it was diagnosed correctly. My own shrink at that time said that I was having panic attacks. (He is no longer my shrink.)
Finally, my internist, who is also hypoglycemic, recognized the problem. I carry glucose tablets with me usually. But I confess that once I had to administer Godiva chocolates.
Sometimes I have these attacks in the middle of the night and am awakened from a sound sleep. I fit the first pattern described above except that I also become confused.
The very first time that I had one of these attacks, I instinctively ate a bowl of raw oats, milk and lots of sugar. Believe me, the glucose is better.
I understand that emotional problems can cause many physical problems. But two misdiagnoses of anxiety turned out to be Stein-Leventhal Syndrome (PCOS) one time and gallstones another.
I do appreciate that the physicians here are willing to suggest possibilities.
I am 43 years old and have had hypoglycemia ever since I was a little girl. It is not a fun thing to have. No, I have never been “diagnosed” by a doctor but it doesn’t take a doctor or anyone else to tell me that I have it for me to know the obvious. My episodes are not always the same. They range in severity. Sometimes I will have the worst, which is the flashing aura in my eye, cold sweats, dizziness, irritability, migraine, upset stomach, and fainting if I don’t eat something quickly. When they are this bad, which is rare, it takes several days before I begin feeling better. Most of the time however, they are minor where I just get some symptoms and not the rest. It does affect my life greatly in the sense that I have to make sure I watch what I eat, especially when going somewhere. If I am going to be somewhere where I am not around the availability of food, I need to pack a high protein snack just in case. It can be controlled for the most part by just staying away from foods high in sugar and fat. Too bad I love them both so much! LOL!!
Anyway, recently I have had balls of light yo-yoing at the left corner of my left eye. Freaked me out at first since I had never experienced anything like it before in my life. I never go to the doctor unless I feel as if I am on my deathbed, but I went to an opthomologist (sp?) last week because my eyesight is THE most important thing to me and I do not want to risk it. It’s a good thing I went because he found optic nerve damage and narrowing of veins behind both of my eyes. I am scheduled for an MRI on Halloween. I also have a lypoma hypothalamus brain tumor that was “accidentally” found during a CAT scan in 2009. Anyway, being a lypoma, it is benign, not cancerous and the doctor told me back in 2009 not to worry about it. It will be interesting to find out what the MRI shows. I also have mild to moderate hearing loss which the eye doctor said was common with the eye thing. Strange. I am just researching and would eventually like to find out if the hypoglycemia and the eye thing have any connection.
I’m not weighing in on the “is hypoglycemia real or not” question, but I can say this: having spent most of my life as non-diabetic, then becoming Type 1 diabetic at age 38, I can honestly say that I don’t know how anyone would figure out the difference between being really hungry/tired/wore out and being hypoglycemic without actually testing blood sugar. They feel the same to me.
In fact, just being hungry, like after a super long workout where I didn’t adequately eat/hydrate, often feels worse than actually being hypoglycemic.
Anecdotal spot testing of both Mr. Athena and I prove this to be true. There have been MANY times that he comes home after really pushing himself on his bike and feels light-headed and shaky and is absolutely sure his blood sugar is low. We test, he’s at the same 90-to-105-or-so level he’s ALWAYS at (#@!$@# non-diabetics and your dastardly pancreases!)
Same with me. I’ll feel low for whatever reason (exercise, skipping a meal) or no reason at all, be absolutely sure I’m low, test, and I’m fine.
A blood glucose meter from Target or Wal*Mart is about $15 and the testing strips are reasonably priced as well. If anyone really thinks they’re hypoglycemic, go buy one, and test. Maybe it’s hypoglycemia, but maybe it’s something else, too. Seems like a cheap way to figure out the difference.
As far as protein having an effect on blood glucose, glucagon is released when you consume protein, which causes your liver to convert glycogen into blood glucose, if available.
But not very quickly, which is why I said “in the short-term”. If you’re eating to reverse the effects of hypoglycemia, I’m assuming you want that effect quickly.
Also, in non-diabetics, the liver dumps glucose with NO food at all if it senses it’s needed. That’s why we don’t all need to eat constantly to maintain our energy levels.
