Can I ask what the other hypoglycemia site your on. I'd like to check it out, you can never get enough advice from people suffering the same condition. No I have never heard of the cornstarch for either hypo or diabetes. (my mother was diabetic) I got some advice on the running site that I belong to from a hypo runner. He uses intermitten fasting where he fasts for 20hrs and eats in a 4hr window. I know that wouldn't work for a two year old but has anyone ever heard of that?

I like the Daily Strength format the best. The other is one of the yahoo hypoglycemia ones, I'm sorry I don't remember which one. They send out emails whenever someone posts a question or suggestion. It has over 1000 members and many of them have had hypoglycemia for a long time. I have had it probably all of my life, but I was diagnosed 25 years ago and am still learning.

By the way, I did try a little cornstarch in her milk last night and she did seem to sleep better. I googled it and found some interesting information. I have never heard of an hypoglycemic that can fast.

Thanks for the info on the yahoo groups. I've already joined three of them. I saw the post about the cornstarch and I'm gonna give it a try. What is uncooked cornstarch though? Is that just regular cornstarch?

When I googled cornstarch and hypoglycemia, I read that cooking changes the properties that help with keeping the blood sugar level.

i got some cornstarch at the store today. I'm gonna try it mixed with my plain yogurt.

Let me know how you do with it.

It might work for fasting hypoglycemia but not to reactive hypoglycemia. They're almost opposed condition.

Fasting hypoglycemia is when your body can't produce enough glucose or maintain glucose.

Reactive Hypoglycemia is the body overeacting to what you're eating by secreting too much insulin which will bring the sugar down. In Reactive Hypoglycemia you don't need something to raise your blood sugar, you need something that doesn't trigger your insulin secretion.

By the way, if you tested your hypoglycemia with a Glucose Tolerance Test it is Reactive Hypoglycemia and can't therefore be Fasting Hypoglycemia which would be diagnosed with a Fasting Glycemia Test or with a hemoglobin glycosilated test.

A person with Reactive Hypoglycemia should tolerate fasting because it removes whatever possible trigger. The person with Fasting Hypoglycemia can't tolerate fasting.

It's important not to follow tips and approaches for Fasting Hypoglycemia when you're suffering from Reactive Hypoglycemia and viceversa, they're opposite problems which needs opposite measures. Just one example Fasting Hypolycemia needs more sugar and fast acting carbs during a crisis, Reactive Hypoglycemia needs less sugar and protein during a crisis ... and more differences)

Thank you so much Danny for the information. I did try it with my daughter, but it didn't help her. I was wondering if it was because of the different types of hypo.

Danny87, how can you tell which type hypo you have? I was just hubby and I were just told we were hypoglycemic, period.

HSTAR, With reactive hypoglycemia as soon as you eat foods that require insulin, your body starts making too much insulin and you get a drop in sugar quickly, usually within an hour or two. With fasting hypoglycemia usually your sugar will rise as you eat, then as your body makes insulin it doesn't stop as a normal body would so it keeps making insulin and so your blood glucose drops after several hours.

I have reactive hypo and will feel terrible hungry at about 23 minutes after eating, even if I am still eating. When my hypo is not in control that is.

Fasting Hypoglycemia means that your fasting glycemia levels are too low. You test in the morning after 12 hours night fast and you have below 70 glycemia levels. This means your body for some reason can't make enough glucose and couldn't release enough glycogen during the night. You feel bad when you don't eat.

Relative Hypoglycemia means that your fasting glycemia is perfect or maybe a bit high. You test in the morning after 12 hours night fast and everything is normal but you test after reacting to something you have eating and you see your blood sugar doing all kind of crazy things: going up then low, up again then too low.

In this case your body is overeacting to mainly carbs by spiking blood sugar and secreting too much insulin. You might feel bad if you don't eat or delay a meal but only because your previous meal crashed your blood sugar and now you feel the need to eat something to bring it up and NOT because your body can't maintain normal blood sugar level when not eating.

Someone called Reactive Hypoglycemia diabete's most brilliant disguise. In my opinion Reactive Hypoglycemia is diabete's without the lack of insulin. The initial response to an high carb food is basically diabetic but unlike in diabetes your pancreas can still release an excess of insulin as a countereaction to spiked blood sugars. Hypoglycemia is a misnomer when you have Reactive Hypoglycemia. This condition was discovered when diabetic insulin was invented. Diabetic who injected too insulin had terrible symptoms like shakiness, blurred speed and vision, dizzyness, spaciness, anxiety, panick, fainting, exhaustation, profouse sweating, aggressivity, irritability, mental confusion, forgetfullness, tense muscles. Dr Seale (which was awarded for his medical discovery) found out that non diabetic people had the same symptoms which meant that their body was releasing too much insulin. Too much insulin is released because there's a decreased tolerance to glucose leading to sugar spikes or insulin resistance (if the cells are resisting to insulin 10 times more insulin is released to get a response from them, that's too much and excessive blood sugar is eventually stored so blood sugar is suddenly too low)

Dr. Seale didn't call the condition Reactive Hypoglycemia (which has been later named) but Dysinsulinemic Dyglycemia (unstable insulin and blood sugar) or even Onset Posphate Diabetes.

Many people before their diagnosis of diabetes had unstable wildly fluctuating blood sugars and reactive hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia is a misnomer also because your blood sugar is not merely going down, it is just moving up and down like a roller coaster, the down are just a small part of what is really going on and a consequence of a whole problemantic impairment in blood sugar regulation.

The test for Reactive Hypoglycemia is a 5 hours glucose tolerance test. You're given a glucose drink and your blood glucose is measured every 30 minutes.

A normal person could eat an high carb meal. His blood sugar would spike no more than 150. It will be 120 an hour later and 100 two hour later. Within three or four hours it will be at fasting levels again.

A person with Reactive Hypoglycemia would spike (from the high carb meal) over 200, will be at 180 an hour later and suddenly two hours later will be at 50 or 40 or less.

A person with diabetes would spike (from the high carb meal) over 200, will be at 200 an hour later, will be at 180 two hours later, will be at 180 three hours later.

Notice that if it wasn't for the diabetic unability to produce enough insulin to bring sugar down, diabetes and Reactive Hypoglycemia would be the same thing with the same blood sugar pattern.

When a hypoglycemic fasts, at some point the body begins to release sugar from the liver, which triggers a hypoglycemic reaction. This is why fasting is not good for a hypoglycemic and you must eat small meals throughout the day, and also what makes it difficult to get through the night sometimes, because you are fasting when you sleep.

Danny87, your reply #12 is excellent and I didn't see it before I sent my previous reply because I didn't see there was a page 2 of responses. Also, I guess you are a male and I find that interesting becuase most on this site seem to be female. Maybe hypoglycemia seems to affect women more than men, or maybe women just participate more on chat sites, I don't know. In any event, you used the term relative hypoglycemia which I think I saw somewhere. There is a difference between reactive hypoglycemia and relative hypoglycemia I think, do you know what it is?

Most males suffer from reactive hypoglycemia just like most males suffer from diabetes or will become from hypoglycemic diabetic. Reactive Hypoglycemia is less known than other conditions and I'm afraid males are sadly culturally programmed to be more unemotional, stern and suck it up. Males like that are known to be less in tune with their body and (as shown in many studies) to be less likely to ask medical opinions for issues they have or to find confort in their friends. Fortunately things are changing.

I'm just a young individual who never cared about artificial gender roles and I'm just true to myself and I hate to suffer and when this condition struck me when I was 8 year old I never stopped lamenting without feeling ashamed for it. I'm not afraid of my emotions and feelings or talking about them.

The hypoglycemia observed in a Glucose Tolerance Test can be absolute or relative.

Absolute means that at some point your blood sugar is below 60

Relative means that even if your blood sugar lowest point is for example 75, if it reached that low point quickly and suddenly from an higher point, it is still hypoglycemia because the spread the drop is more important than the level. So going from 160 to 75 suddenly and not gradually is still hypoglycemia even if 75 is not an hypoglycemic blood sugar level.

Most people with Reactive Hypoglycemia have the absolute hypoglycemia kind but others have the relative kind.