Functional Hypoglycemia and Anxiety

I’ve been aware of functional hypoglycemia for years because my spiritual teacher, who is also an MD, mentions it frequently in his books saying that around 25% of his patients (he was a psychiatrist) found that their symptoms (anxiety, depression etc.) disappeared after two weeks of cutting out sugars and starches.

I never did it though. I’m physically very healthy, very resilient with only one real issue which is dysmenorrhoea. So I figured that this can’t be an issue for me. My anxiety must have some other cause.

And then I realised that my anxiety is worst at night. Which, in and of itself, doesn’t really mean much, except that I tend not to eat during the day. I don’t have any weird eating habits or anything, I just don’t feel very hungry until late afternoon usually so I eat a couple of snacks and then have a big dinner. It’s just how it has always been.

And I simply feel better on an empty stomach. I don’t have much anxiety, I don’t pick to anywhere near the same degree, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a panic attack in the morning.

So today, I decided to do a test. On an empty stomach, I ate a slice of white bread with a little humus. White bread is maxed out on the GI, and though hummus is really low (between 6 and 15) white bread just isn’t tasty and I didn’t want to eat it alone.

So, empty stomach, feeling good, no anxiety, white bread.

While I’m waiting to see what happens, lets have a look at hypoglycemia and the GI.

What is hypoglycemia?

In simple layman’s language, hypoglycemia is the body’s inability to properly handle the large amounts of sugar that the average American consumes today. It’s an overload of sugar, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and stress.

In medical terms, hypoglycemia is defined in relation to its cause. Functional hypoglycemia, the kind we are addressing here, is the over secretion of insulin by the pancreas in response to a rapid rise in blood sugar or “glucose”.

All carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits and grains, as well as simple table sugar), are broken down into simple sugars by the process of digestion. This sugar enters the blood stream as glucose and our level of blood sugar rises. The pancreas then secretes a hormone known as insulin into the blood in order to bring the glucose down to normal levels.

In hypoglycemia, the pancreas sends out too much insulin and the blood sugar plummets below the level necessary to maintain well-being.

Since all the cells of the body, especially the brain cells, use glucose for fuel, a blood glucose level that is too low starves the cells of needed fuel, causing both physical and emotional symptoms.

What are some of the symptoms of hypoglycemia?

• fatigue
• insomnia
• mental confusion
• nervousness
• mood swings
• faintness
• headaches
• depression
• phobias
• heart palpitations
• Anxiety

• a craving for sweets
• cold hands and feet
• forgetfulness
• dizziness
• blurred vision
• inner trembling
• outbursts of temper
• sudden hunger
• allergies
• crying spells

What is the difference between functional and reactive hypoglycemia?

Functional hypoglycemia refers to decreases in blood sugar that cannot be explained by any known pathology or disease. It’s a nice way of saying, “Your glucose regulating mechanisms aren’t functioning normally, and we don’t know why.” Reactive hypoglycemia refers to hypoglycemia resulting from the body’s abnormal response to rapid rises in blood glucose levels caused by diet or stress.  The terms are now frequently interchangeable. –  Dr. Douglas M. Baird

Source

And what is GI (glycemic index)

The glycemic index (GI) is a ranking of carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. Foods with a high GI are those which are rapidly digested and absorbed and result in marked fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Low-GI foods, by virtue of their slow digestion and absorption, produce gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin levels, and have proven benefits for health. Low GI diets have been shown to improve both glucose and lipid levels in people with diabetes (type 1 and type 2). They have benefits for weight control because they help control appetite and delay hunger. Low GI diets also reduce insulin levels and insulin resistance.

Source

Basically, a low GI diet reduces the amount of insulin produced because the pancreas doesn’t get all trigger happy and blood sugar levels remain stable.

This is a pretty lengthy list of foods but to really boil it down, meat, fish, and poultry generally have a GI of zero meaning that  they have no effect on blood sugar levels, and the GI score goes up mostly based on the amount of carbs and starches. So an egg or a steak will have a GI of zero, and a potato can be anywhere from 60 to 95 depending on the type of potato and how it is prepared (boiling keeps the GI low, baking keeps it high because of changes in the sugars).

So, normally at around this time, I still wouldn’t have eaten, and I would be feeling OK, not expecting my appetite to show up for another couple of hours.

2 hours after eating white bread how do I feel?

HA!

I have trembling, weak knees, lightheadedness, high anxiety and I’m feeling really hungry. I actually went to the fridge to grab something before I realized what was happening.

Now, obviously, this isn’t a blood test and hasn’t been supervised by any kind of professional. It’s just me dicking around in the front room really, but given how long I’ve had anxiety, and given its recurrent pattern this little test seems pretty conclusive.

How long will these sensations last? I don’t know. Quick relief can come from eating something sugary (I’ve noticed this during previous panic attacks – I eat something sugary and the symptoms are totally gone within 10 minutes) but that’s really just continuing the cycle. But obviously they do go away or I wouldn’t go to bed anxious and wake up feeling totally fine.

So, I’m going to try a low GI diet for 2 weeks and see how that works out. I like GI anyway, and I do want to cut the crap that I eat. This is definitely something that is worthy of further investigation, and if something as simple as cutting out sugar can reduce my anxiety then I think it’s worth a shot.