Once in a while, I was up feeling shaky and sweaty. Food and drink helps right away. I was wondering; is this hypoglycemia?
Possible but it could be a lot of things, some quite serious. See your doctor! Don’t depends on the well intentioned but sometimes faulty advice of your fellow teeming millions where your health is concerned.
I would definitely see a doctor. It could just be stress or it could be diabetes. It’s best to find out now instead of waiting.
That John Denver’s full of shit man!
Same thing happens to me. Sometimes, I even pass out. A cold Pepsi usually brings me out of it.
Funny thing is, I’ve been to five different doctors, and they can’t figure it out. I’ve had all sorts of crazy tests, and all of them have come back normal. I even had to wear a heart monitor for a month, with no results. I just carry candy in my pocket now, and hope I won’t land on something hard or pointy.
It does sound like hypoglycemia, especially since a soda will bring you out of it. You would need to test your blood sugar when you feel the symptoms. A test meter can be purchased at any pharmacy for about 60 dollars.
It’s probably not actually hypoglycaemia, since the body is actually very efficient at maintaining glucose levels within a normal range except in very rare medical conditions eg insulinoma. Incidentally, diabetes doesn’t cause low blood sugar, it causes high blood sugar although the cells are unable to utilise the sugar, due to insulin deficiency or resistance. The link with diabetics is that patients on oral hypoglycaemic tablets and particularly on insulin may misjudge their intake and thus become hypoglycaemic but it rarely happens if you are not on treatment.
It is much more likely that you are experiencing a side effect of the body’s physiological (ie normal) response to a starvation situation which includes adrenaline release (adrenaline stimulates liver gluconeogenesis = raises blood sugar). Adrenaline and sympathetic nervous stimulation generally can give you the shakes etc. Ingestion of sugars, especially in liquid form (easily absorbed in the stomach) will stop it.
I experience those same symptoms. Fortunately, as a nurse, I have ready access to a glucose monitor so I got in the habit of checking my glucose whenever I felt like crap. When I’m shaky and sweaty and feeling like I’ll pass out, my blood glucose is between 45 and 55. The highest I’ve ever tested (when I felt normal, or soon after eating) was 98. The normal range for blood glucose is 70 to 120.
I should probably see a doctor, but I don’t really care. 
As a life-long hypoglycemic, your symptoms sound quite familiar.
Request a Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) and do not eat the evening before the test–they’ll give you plenty of instructions on the test conditions.
Most folks can control the symptoms via dietary controls.
If the test comes out negative for hypoglycemia, you need to pursue other avenues of investigation with your physician.
–Kalél
TheHungerSite.com
“If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.”
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
I have the same thing. I had the GTT. It was fine. It seems that when I haven’t eaten in a long time…I get shaky and get a headache, even break out in cold sweats sometimes. Finally I found a way to eat that is healty for life. It’s very simple it just required me to make some major changes in my life. No red meat, no refined sugar/flour foods. I constantly eat during the day, carrots or fruits. It works. I lost 15 pounds in three weeks. The first week was hell. I actually had sugar withdrawal. But now it’s easy to follow and I know that I’m getting healthy.
I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.
Thank you all for the information!
I believe its time to quit eating my chocolate cake every night before bed(been doing it for over 20 years).
I think cutting down on sugar is a great idea!
So again thanks! and I’d better change my sig…
Donuts, and the promise of more donuts to come-Homer Simpson.
Thing is, though, that when my symptoms hit, I wouldn’t have TIME to test my blood sugar. I have just about enough time to say “Catch me!” to whomever is closest by, and down I go. It happens to my mom, too. Our greatest fear is that it mght happen someday while we’re driving. I always take a soda along, just in case I start to feel whoosy.