non-diabetic symptoms of hypoglycemia

Posted by winston137 @winston137, Feb 2 2:19pm

I am a track athlete who for about the past year has really been struggling when competing and with high intensity workouts, when I haven't in the past. After a race or jumping I begin to feel very shaky, sweating, blurry vision, light headed. this resolves after eating something like a candy bar a piece of fruit. which leads me to believe its blood sugar related. completely fine to continue as is and just know I need something like that after and race or during a workout. but when high jumping where it lasts for about an hour it makes it very difficult. this past week the symptoms were worse than they have been. whole body shakes and struggling to not pass out after every jump. when I was finally able to eat my lips began to tingle and had the chills. ive been experiencing rib and shoulder pain for about a year and half for an unknown reason. a blood test during this showed blood sugar of 50, leading to checking it consistently for about a week. it varied between 50-90. doctor said it was normal so I wasn't concerned. These symptoms along with the rib and joint pain went away for a four month period after being on azithromycin, many doctors cant seem to figure out the cause. Just looking for any suggestions to keep this from happening and wasn't sue if there was anything to prevent these symptoms. or any ideas on what to eat before during. to help.

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broach188 | @broach188 | Feb 3 6:49am

You could try the glucose tablets you melt in your mouth .It also sounds like you are over working your body .Exercise will cause your blood sugar to drop sometime .I don't know about the pain you are having Good luck

Cheryl, Volunteer Mentor | @cehunt57 | Feb 7 12:05am

Even non diabetic (“normal”) people can experience high or low blood sugar from time to time. High intensity sports can bring on low blood sugar. A quick fix would be fruit juice. The liquid is quickly absorbed along with the carbs. For the long term, prevention is a better solution. This would be a good meal the evening before a meet and breakfast the morning of the meet. Having complex carbs and protein is longer lasting than simple sugars (such as a candy bar).
I worked in the kitchen during college and the track coach would bring the team in the evening before a meet for what he called “carb loading”. It was usually all you could eat spaghetti. Sometimes there was all you could eat pancakes. Not sure about that strategy now. It was a long time ago.
Another thing you could consider is asking your provider about hypoglycemia (next time you have a physical). It is the opposite condition of diabetes but oddly enough can have some similar symptoms.
I also don’t know what to say about the rib and joint pain. If you have a coach or personal trainer that would be a concern to bring to their attention (plus the blood sugar).