My wife's struggle with hypoglycemia, advice needed

[Bobo08]

Hi Yupo. Thank you for sharing the video. Both the video and her website are definitely worth exploring.

In that section of the video, she said that people who have difficulties transitioning to keto diet may have hypothyroidism because instead of using thyroid hormones, the transition happens using adrenaline, which adds to the stress and worsens the situation. That's how I understand it. That makes sense and is another aspect to consider.

I'd also like to update that my wife's health is much better now. She can sleep up to 6 - 7 hours at night and go for about 2.5 hours comfortably without food during the day, both of which are big improvements over just a week before. She can even do some gardening.

She is still eating a diet of 7 - 8 small meals a day, and is taking D-ribose and CoQ10 daily. The other supplements arrived today so she will start taking them from tomorrow.

I don't know it is the diet or the supplements that help. But we are both very thankful for the advice and support from many forum members. Even though it was a difficult period, it could have been so much worse for us without the forum.

 

[Yupo]

Hi Yupo. Thank you for sharing the video. Both the video and her website are definitely worth exploring.

In that section of the video, she said that people who have difficulties transitioning to keto diet may have hypothyroidism because instead of using thyroid hormones, the transition happens using adrenaline, which adds to the stress and worsens the situation. That's how I understand it. That makes sense and is another aspect to consider.

I'd also like to update that my wife's health is much better now. She can sleep up to 6 - 7 hours at night and go for about 2.5 hours comfortably without food during the day, both of which are big improvements over just a week before. She can even do some gardening.

She is still eating a diet of 7 - 8 small meals a day, and is taking D-ribose and CoQ10 daily. The other supplements arrived today so she will start taking them from tomorrow.

I don't know it is the diet or the supplements that help. But we are both very thankful for the advice and support from many forum members. Even though it was a difficult period, it could have been so much worse for us without the forum.

Glad to hear she is doing better. Yay!

 

[Bobo08]

Hi all. I need to revive this thread to ask for more advice regarding my wife's condition. Through observations in the last 10 months or so, I've come to believe that it is a neurological condition rather than diabetes or hypoglycemia.

Basically, the main symptom is a strong spell of dizziness, up to a feeling of near passing out on serious occasions (she did pass out once so it's a real danger). I'll list the things that usually bring it about, and the things that help below.

Things that bring it about or make it worse:

• Anything that lowers blood sugar level. This includes things with very mild effect such as arrowroot, ALA, and most recently, hyperbaric oxygen therapy. BTW, this is a major obstacle to many therapies that we have on the forum.
• Anything that lowers blood pressure
• Moderate to heavy physical activity
• Cold, windy weather
• Time in the late afternoon to night
• Anything that makes demands on the brain: watching movies, computer programming, studying. This seems to include NeurOptimal sessions although this is not confirmed yet.
• Any strong emotion
• Any stress. This includes things like travelling in the car for more than 30 mins, going to the mall for more than 1 hour, etc.

Things that helps:

• Maintaining relatively high blood sugar level (around 8 mmol/L)
• Breathing exercises, meditation
• Head massage
• DMSO

From what I understand, DMSO has the effect of expanding blood vessels. That led me to that this could be due to the brain not receiving enough blood (blood vessels constricted or occluded). But I have no way of confirming it. BTW, her usual complaint is "blood doesn't flow to my head".

So if anyone has advice regarding the above, I'd appreciate it.

 

[1toofast]

Hi all. I need to revive this thread to ask for more advice regarding my wife's condition. Through observations in the last 10 months or so, I've come to believe that it is a neurological condition rather than diabetes or hypoglycemia.

Basically, the main symptom is a strong spell of dizziness, up to a feeling of near passing out on serious occasions (she did pass out once so it's a real danger). I'll list the things that usually bring it about, and the things that help below.

Things that bring it about or make it worse:

• Anything that lowers blood sugar level. This includes things with very mild effect such as arrowroot, ALA, and most recently, hyperbaric oxygen therapy. BTW, this is a major obstacle to many therapies that we have on the forum.
• Anything that lowers blood pressure
• Moderate to heavy physical activity
• Cold, windy weather
• Time in the late afternoon to night
• Anything that makes demands on the brain: watching movies, computer programming, studying. This seems to include NeurOptimal sessions although this is not confirmed yet.
• Any strong emotion
• Any stress. This includes things like travelling in the car for more than 30 mins, going to the mall for more than 1 hour, etc.

Things that helps:

• Maintaining relatively high blood sugar level (around 8 mmol/L)
• Breathing exercises, meditation
• Head massage
• DMSO

From what I understand, DMSO has the effect of expanding blood vessels. That led me to that this could be due to the brain not receiving enough blood (blood vessels constricted or occluded). But I have no way of confirming it. BTW, her usual complaint is "blood doesn't flow to my head".

So if anyone has advice regarding the above, I'd appreciate it.

Have a look into using nigella sativa thymoquinone and vitamin B12.

 

[nicklebleu]

Hi Bobo08, sorry to hear that things haven’t gotten better since your last post.

I think at this stage I would focus to differentiate between a blood pressure problem/ circulatory problem (like orthostatic hypotension) and a blood sugar problem. Has that been done? If it is a blood sugar problem, then my focus would be to rule out an autonomous production of insulin (as in an insulinoma), which can be quite tricky - one way is to monitor blood sugar on a continual basis with a sensor in the skin. Then you can maybe correlate better if her spells are connected to blood sugar fluctuations. The same can be done with blood pressure, although this is a bit more invasive - continual BP monitoring to try to establish a connection.

And has she had blood work - like catecholamines/ VMA (vanillin mandelic acid)/ insulin precursors, hormonal panels etc?

At this stage it seems to me that there are too many possible issues, and this needs to be narrowed down. Sorry to not be of more help …

 

[Possibility of Being]

Sorry to hear it's still a puzzle and not much of improvement so far.

BTW, her usual complaint is "blood doesn't flow to my head".

Well that's something that I know first hand, so I'd give it a layman shot FWIW. In my case, there is a bit of a damage in my neck that gives me exactly that feeling (and dizziness) when I move my head up like when looking at something higher up; the blood vessels get compressed and there is not enough of blood flow. My low blood pressure, far from optimal fluid circulation and orthostatic hypotension only make it easier to happen. No correlation with sugar levels though as far as I know, just the arching my spine backwards. So maybe there are two independent conditions in your wife's case where either only one causes the spells or both contribute to it, each in its own way? Maybe it would be worth to look at her posture when she is watching movies, working at her desk (I cannot have my puter screen elevated above desk level even a tiny bit), reading, sitting in a car, etc?

Again, a big FWIW.

 

[Jones]

Along the same lines as PoB, my first adjustment with an upper C spine specialist chiropractor for an atlanto-axial subluxation bought a rush of blood to my head so it may be a good idea to get that checked out. That joint was only out by 2mm on one side and 1mm (with torsion) on the other according to 3D x-ray. But that's enough to cause some inflammation around the brainstem which can further compress things that travel through the foramen magnum - the hole at the base of the skull. Apart from blood flow it can play up with the flow of cerebro-spinal fluid and change pressure inside the skull.

Pretty easy to get a laymans idea if that joint is out by standing her in front of a tiled or brick wall so there are some parallel lines behind to use as guides, and check to see if her shoulders are level and if her head seems to lean, turn or both slighly to one side.

Some other signs to look for:

The following Signs and Symptoms may indicate Upper Cervical (c0-c1-c2) Injury C0 – skull or occiput; C1 – atlas; C2 - axis These are the signs, which may indicate that you have an upper cervical spine injury, which may have gone undetected for some time. You don’t have to experience all of these symptoms, just some. However, the posture, head tilt sign, shoulder height sign and ear symptoms will, in my opinion, make it a strong possibility that you do have such an injury.​ Is your posture poor? Do you have rounded shoulders and/or forward head posture? Does your head feel heavy to hold? Is your head tilted to one side and/or your head rotated to one side when you look in a mirror? This can be really subtle. Does your nose or nasal septum deviate to one side? If so, you may find that it deviates towards the side to which your atlas has moved anterior (e.g. nose deviates to the left; then atlas is anterior on the left) Is one of your shoulders lower than the other? Pull your shoulders back and down and look carefully for one lower than the other. Again it can be subtle. Press firmly but gently with your thumb into the impression just below your skull at the top of your neck on both sides (see picture). This is known as the sub-occipital area. Find the base of your skull and press the soft flesh around that area. Is this tender or painful for you? Do you have some shoulder and/or neck pain/aches, which don't seem to go away? Does your jaw click when you use it, open it to eat etc. Further check on this; Put your pinkies (little fingers) into your ear canals and chew normally. Do you feel a bumpy dislocation like feeling? This should be a smooth action in your joints. Do you have any lower back pain or mid back pain (under the shoulder blades) niggles? Can you move your head from side to side without pain or restriction? Is there a loss of Range of Motion (ROM)? Do you have any sand paper, clicking or crunching sounds when moving your head from side to side in a 'NO' action? (i.e. cervical crepitus) Is your hearing a problem or do you have other ear symptoms (e.g. tinnitus, watery sounds, blockages, vertigo, Meniere’s Disease, otalgia, recurrent ear infections)? Do you often get headaches or migraines? Can you remember any trauma (even minor) to the head, neck or shoulders? Was your birth difficult? How's your vision? – Sensitive to light, especially at dusk, floaters? Do you experience any dizziness, vertigo or movement sensations (i.e. loss of proprioception)? Does the ground seem to move away from you? Do you experience any tingling and burning sensations especially in fingers and toes? Do you have confirmed Scoliosis of the spine, from x-rays? Do you have one leg shorter than the other or is your pelvis higher on one side? Have you had any x-rays, CT scans or MRIs taken of your cervical spine (neck)? Do these reveal loss of cervical lordosis (neck curve), even a small amount?

 

[Bobo08]

Thank you all for your advices. Definitely more stuff to look into and try out.

From what I can see, the chiropractic connection seems to be the best lead at the moment. My wife habitually tilts her head to one side for as long as I know her. She also tends to put most of the weight onto one side (measured by standing in relaxed posture on two scales). It is something we have known for a long time, but didn't think of as important. We will arrange for some visits to the chiropractor shortly.

I would also give less weight to blood sugar as being the main cause. At the beginning, we thought it was because she had to maintain a high blood sugar level to avoid the dizziness spells. But as we try out different things and observe more, those nasty spells also happens whenever there is a " high load" on the brain, even if she has just eaten and the blood sugar level is high (checked by a blood sugar testing device).

I'd like to bring up a relevant event last night: My wife was in a relatively normal state, having eaten about 1 hour before and I was massaging the back of her head (applying pressure to various points on the back of the head and neck). Suddenly, she felt dizzy and a severe headache. It only passed after drinking multiple spoons of DMSO and eating sugared ginger. I think that is another indication that the cause, or main contributing factor, is something of a mechanical nature.

I will report later on how the chiropractic visits turn out.

 

[hlat]

It only passed after drinking multiple spoons of DMSO

It's good that the DMSO worked. Have you read the book DMSO, Nature's Healer by Dr. Morton Walker? Maybe the book might give more clues?

DMSO - Dimethylsulphoxide

I ordered mine through the "Valhoma Corporation" in Oklahoma. They actually specialize in high quality products for our 2D friends...but I thought their prices were pretty good, and I trust their quality. I have family that have been buying horse stuff from them for 30+ years...

cassiopaea.org

 

[Jones]

We will arrange for some visits to the chiropractor shortly.

If you do see a chiropractor, I read that an upper C-spine specialist is the safest option. They will practice either the Nucca or Atlas Orthogonal methods.

Here is a picture that shows the adjustment in the skeletal system that is made to compensate for an atlanto-axial subluxation.



Also, Dr Stanley Rosenberg mentions on his book Acessing the healing power of the vagus nerve that the basic exercises he gives can help to reposition the atlas vertebra. There's a thread on the book here that shows those exercises.

 

[Bobo08]

Hi Hlat. Yes, I have the book. Among the 16 major medical properties of DMSO, it is a vasodilator. That's what led me to the current path of investigation. In addition, oxygen is a vasoconstrictor, which proved to be the case when it brought on a "spell" for my wife even when she just breathed the oxygen at normal atmosphere pressure.

Thank you for the additional information, Jones. It is both good news and bad news. Good because I know more what to look for. Bad because all the upper cervical specialists I can find are at least 2 hours from where we live. I'll keep on researching.