Is 77 a low blood sugar when your sugar normally runs around 130? I got really shaky and went completely pale.

Question

The nurse at work made me eat peanut butter and drink cranberry juice. I was already trying to eat chocolate chip cookies after I checked it. I am not a diabetic but I knew my pressure was ok and that was the only other thing I could think to do is check my sugar.

The dr has been keeping a check on my blood sugar over the past few years. That is the first time that I had felt like that and I had just eaten a small bag of runts candy and had eaten lunch only 2 hours before this happen.

I just did the same thing again. I ate about 3 hours ago and I was cleaning when I started shaking and feeling the same way I did yesterday. I am not at work so I had no clue what my blood sugar was. I just did the same thing I did yesterday minus the cookies and I am starting to feel better. Still somewhat shaky though.

Answer 1

I have hypoglycemia. If I'm around 77 thats when I start feeling pretty sick. 130 is kind of high for a normal. Is that reading after you ate?

The cookie could be what was making you feel shaky. If I get the smallest amount of sugar in my system my body freaks out completely. It raises so fast I get a hot flash, then after a couple minutes I start crying for no reason, then it levels out, then it plummets really fast and I'm stumbling all over the place. There are different types of hypoglycemia. Fasting, Reactive, and Relative. I'm the relative type.. so I feel symptoms almost immediately after eating. I cannot have juice at all either. I made the mistake of drinking orange juice once, and the room was spinning SO hard I couldn't look up. I've had mine since a child, and back then the doctor told me to eat candy when I felt sick. I never ate it though... Sugar has always made me feel bad.

Talk to your doctor and get a 5 hour glucose test done. Its absolute hell, but it's worth it. It gave me complete insight into exactly whats happening with my body at different blood sugar levels. Now I don't freak out, and go into a panic attack because my addrenallin is going to raise my BS.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

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Answer 4

According to LabCorp, a sugar of 77 is within normal limits. However, there are different levels of tolerance for different people. I have seen people go as low as the 30s and still not feel symptoms. I have seen others start feeling symptoms with a sugar of 80. It just depends on the person.

If you are experiencing low sugars without the resulting high sugars from treatment of lows, it's likely you have hypoglycemia and not diabetes.

You need to see your doctor about this. It's not normal to have frequent lows and this can be detrimental to your health. It's also a precursor to diabetes. You may have to make some dietary changes to see that your body has what it needs to function normally.

Another thing...if your blood sugar is running about 130, this is considered high. The normal range of blood sugar is 70-120 mcg/dl.

I advise you to consider getting tested for diabetes. In order to do this, you will need to do an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). Talk to your doctor. The fluctuations with your blood sugar are reason for concern. Good luck.

EMT

PS Until you know for sure one way or the other, make sure you always have something with you to treat lows (peanut butter crackers, Life Savers, Reeses peanut butter cups, etc).

Answer 5

The response to low-blood sugar is different for everybody. As a diabetic, for me, 77 is not terribly low and does not give me any of the symptoms you mentioned. Your symptoms sound like it could be related to hypoglycemia, which does not mean necessarily you have diabetes. I would discuss this with your Dr. to see if you should have a glucose-tolerance test to determine if you are diabetic or simply a hypoglycemic.

As for the nurse's recommendations, cranberry juice will get sugar into your system very fast -- much faster than chocolate. Peanut butter, having simple sugar combined with fat (which sustains sugars longer in the blood) are a better long-lasting solution, but will not give you the quick lift in blood sugar you may be seeking. Most pure/real chocolate is not terribly high in sugars and, because of the fat in cocoa, takes longer to get in the blood stream (just like peanut butter).

So your best source for a quick sugar load is a sugary liquid like most fruit juices or sugar-based soft-drink. Also, don't overdue it because if you are hypoglycemic, a large sugar load could actually make your hypoglycemia worse (e.g. as a hypoglycemic, your pancreas is over-working and kicks out a lot of insulin to counter-act your sugar intake. However it is providing too much insulin which means you will need some more sugar to off-set that excessive insulin load from your pancreas -- kind of maddening, eh?!).

Let your Dr. do the diagnosis and go from there -- and good luck!

Answer 6

Sounds like your Hypoglycemic(low blood sugar)
My brother has been dealing with this for years. He usually eats small snacks every two hours or drinks a small orange juice. He keeps it under control that way. Check with your doctor again and tell him that you are having increasing bouts of low blood sugar. A normal level nowadays is 90-160. It has been raised over the last two years. I have been diabetic for 13 + years so I can tell you that these bouts of low blood sugar can be pretty scary. The shakes and feeling faint are a sure sign of being too low. Please....check with your doctor and make sure everything is all right.

Answer 7

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Diabetes can be "reversed" or go into "remission". I believe that what that is is decreasing the need to take medications. A person who has diabetes will always have it... but there are cases where a type 2 can either reduce medications or even eliminate them... but will still need to watch diet, get plenty of exercise and keep their weight down. This is called management and control. However, that does not mean that there will never be one. Research has taken huge advances and the more scientists learn about it, the higher likelihood that a cure might come about someday.
While I did recently read an article that stated gastric lap band or gastric bypass MAY be a potential cure, more research is needed and even if this one day is a cure, it would only be effective on type 2s who are obese since neither of those procedures are performed on people who are of normal weight or body mass. Stem cell transplants are still highly controversial and most likely, have a long way to go before it is approved as a diabetes cure by the FDA. Since the vast majority of diabetics are type 2 (roughly 90%), those of us who are type 1 seem to get lost in the shuffle. EMT type 1 for more years than I care to remember, use a pump. Let me add that when I mean diabetes can be controlled and managed without medication but with diet, exercise and weight control, I'm referring to type 2. This is not an option for type 1s, who must take insulin, either by injections or a pump, to survive.

Answer 8

If a blood sugar for a diabetic is around 200 or more for a while and eventually drops to the normal blood sugar range (70 to 110 or 80 to 120..somewhere around there) you will feel like you have a low blood sugar when you actually dont (shakiness is a symptom of low blood sugar). your body probably just got use to being around 130 for a blood sugar.

Answer 9

its not too low but you may have just gone too long without eating period. Generally if your sugar is low though you want orange juice, peanut butter, something with protein. It will help your sugar better. if you eat cookies, chocolate and such it can actually cause your sugar to jump so fast and so high that you go into shock from too high sugar. I don't yet have diabetes but I have the same prollem of sugar dropping too low. I try to keep a bag of peanut butter cracker sandwiched in my purse when i go anywhere and in my locker at work. honestly I don't care for them too much but i can't exactly carry around orange juice in my purse :) take care and hope this helps

Answer 10

77 is considered normal for the range of the blood sugars... I took care of my husband for many years with his diabetes and I now have it and what I have seen is if your blood sugar runs about the same everytime even if it is within normal range if it drops lower than what your using to having it your going to feel sick from it and have reactions. because your body is adjusted to being around 130. I wouldnt go overboard with the snacks if you feel that way but drinking few sips from a regular soda or orange juice will help bring it up a bit and help you feel so much better