Hypoglycemia: details
Hypoglycemia is a condition caused by the body's inability
to use sugar effectively, causing low blood sugar.
Hypo means low and glycemia means sugar.
Hypoglycernia is the opposite of diabetes, which is a condition
marked by high blood sugar and known also as hyperglycemia.
Dr. Seale Harris was the first to discover hypoglycemia in
1924. It was known then by the name hyper-insulinism, due to the belief that
it was caused by too much insulin in the blood. The excessive insulin burned
more sugar than was necessary and caused the blood sugar level to drop dramatically
to below normal levels.
What Is Hypoglycemia?
Blamed on "the sugar laden American diet ', hypoglycemia is estimated by
some physicians to affect over 20 million people in the United States. The major
symptoms of this condition are mental confusion, low energy, and emotional,
instability that is often accompanied by neurotic or psychotic behavior.
According to some experts, a hypoglycemic individual
may experience more marital and family conflicts, have more accidents, and even
commit suicide during an episode of low blood sugar and can make an individual
affected by hypoglycemia very miserable and seriously impact their personal
and social life.
Hypoglycemia is a common entity. Although not everyone
suffers from it, more and more people have this condition because of poor diet
habits that include high intake of simple carbohydrates, sugars, alcohol, caffeine,
soft drinks, and a minimal intake of complex carbohydrates.
Patients develop emotional distress and significantly higher anxiety, somatization, depression, and obsessive-compulsive reactions.