hypoglycaemia

hypoglycaemia

Fringe medicine
A condition defined by promoters of fringe healthcare products that is said to affect 10 to 25% of the US population and cause chronic fatigue, criminal behaviour, depression, drug addiction, mental disorders (including schizophrenia), sexual impotence and a wide range of other conditions. 

Mainstream medicine
A clinically uncommon condition which should be diagnosed only in the context of a legitimate endocrine disorder by a mainstream physician.

hy·po·gly·ce·mi·a

(hī'pō-glī-sē'mē-ă)

An abnormally low concentration of glucose in the circulating blood.
Synonym(s): hypoglycaemia.

hypoglycaemia

Abnormally low levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood, such as an arterial plasma concentration of less than 3.0 mmol/litre. Hypoglycaemia is dangerous as the brain is critically dependent on glucose and is rapidly damaged if this fuel is absent. Hypoglycaemia causes trembling, faintness, sweating, palpitations, mental confusion, slurred speech, headache, loss of memory, double vision, fits, coma and death. Behaviour is often irrational and disorderly and may simulate drunkenness. The commonest cause is an overdose of insulin in a diabetic. Diabetics are advised always to carry sugar lumps or glucose sweets for use as an emergency treatment of hypoglycaemia. Hypoglycaemia other than that due to insulin overdosage is uncommon, but may have many causes, including beta blockers, alcohol, unripe ackee nuts, liver disease, congestive heart failure, inborn errors of metabolism, sepsis, starvation and various other prescription drugs.

hypoglycaemia

abnormally low blood glucose concentration. May be a consequence of severe fasting, but can occur in healthy well-fed people during the late stages of endurance exercise, particularly when consumption of carbohydrate drinks is neglected or, paradoxically, when a one-off intake of glucose elicits an insulin surge. Diabetics are at risk of hypoglycaemia from insulin overdose or during exercise (which lowers blood glucose) unless special care is taken with blood sugar control. Blood glucose may also be low following alcohol ingestion with inadequate food intake. Acute severe hypoglycaemia can result in coma, convulsions and brain damage. See also diabetes.

hypoglycaemia

abnormally low concentration of glucose in circulating blood (i.e. <2.9 mmol/L); induced in diabetics by mismatch of administered insulin and food intake in relation to exercise levels; symptoms (triggered by low cerebral glucose levels and reflex autonomic nervous system stimulation) include warning signs (e.g. appearing drunk, slurring speech, poor concentration, behavioural truculence, feeling faint/light-headed, trembling, oral paraesthesia, inappropriate sweating) or rapid progression to coma; treated by administration of oral glucose (10 g sugar in water), intravenous glucose solution or intramuscular injection of 1 mg glucagon

hy·po·gly·ce·mi·a

(hī'pō-glī-sē'mē-ă)

Symptoms resulting from low blood glucose (normal glucose range 60-100 mg/dL [3.3-5.6 mmol/L]), which are either autonomic or neuroglycopenic.
Synonym(s): glucopenia, hypoglycaemia.