What Causes Low Blood Sugar? – The Most Important Factors
When that feeling of light-headedness and shakiness takes over you, it is probably easy to tell that you’ve got low blood sugar. If you tend to suffer from these kinds of episodes, you may want answers to the question “what causes low blood sugar?” Here we will attempt to provide these answers by dismantling the various causes of low blood sugar:
– Hypoglycemia is the first possibility. Hypoglycemia means that your blood glucose levels are below what they should normally be, especially due to lack of food intake.
– If hypoglycemia is the culprit, then one of the causes of blood sugar levels in this case is basically not eating enough or infrequently, as well as missing meals altogether. You should also avoid waiting too long between meals.
– If you as much as think you have hypoglycemia, you should forget about dieting, as it could cause some serious, and maybe even life-threatening complications. Another thing that could aggravate hypoglycemia is dehydration.
– The next answer to the question “what causes low blood sugar?” is strenuous exercise and physical activity, especially if you’re not used to doing such activities. This may cause your blood sugar levels to drop significantly, especially if you are not eating enough during this time.
– Another one of the possible causes of low blood sugar is exercise that is sudden, unusual, or unexpectedly excessive. If a person is used to doing strenuous physical activity, then his/her blood sugar should not be affected, of course.
– The next culprit in low blood sugar is alcohol. When alcohol is consumed, insulin levels go up, which causes the blood glucose levels to drop.
– If you are a diabetic using insulin medications, you may find this effect to be more severe, which could lead to blood sugar levels that are dangerously low.
– You may avoid severe effects by eating small meals before consuming alcohol, as well as during.
– Other causes of low blood sugar include overmedication with anti-diabetic pills and insulin, as well as the use of medications like pentamidine, beta blockers, trimethorprim, and sulfamethoxazole.
– Severe infection somewhere in the body.
– Adrenal insufficiency.
– Liver failure
– Kidney failure
– Cancers involving the liver or those causing poor oral intake
– Insulin-producing tumor or insulinoma
– Genetic or congenital defects which regulate the release of insulin.
– Congenital conditions that have to do with releasing more insulin (for example, when a child is born to a mother who is diabetic, major birth stress or trauma, etc.)
– Tumors like mesothelioma, hepatoma, or fibrosarcoma, all of which may be responsible for producing insulin-like factors.
– Conditions such as gastroparesis, which affects peristalitic activity.
– Syndromes that may affect glucose absorption, which ultimately leads to low blood sugar levels.
For more information, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoglycemia
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/low_blood_sugar_hypoglycemia/article_em.htm
The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.
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31 Mar 2011