Everyone has different symptoms of a hypo, but the most common signs are trembling and shaking, feeling disorientated, sweating, being anxious or irritable, going pale, palpitation and a fast pulse, lips tingling, blurred vision, feeling hungry, tiredness, losing concentration, headache, and a fogginess in your head.
Sometimes you may already feel these symptoms when your blood glucose is falling quickly but are not yet below 4mmol/L. Testing your blood glucose regularly can help you to identify a hypo before you get any symptoms and also prevent it from dropping too low.
If you are unable to tell when your blood glucose is low, you will onlyknow by checking it.

How to treat a hypo

You must take action as soon as you notice symptoms of a hypo or if your blood glucose levels are too low. If you don’t act quickly, it could get worse and you could start feeling confused and drowsy, and you could even become unconscious or have a fit. This is called a severe hypo.
To treat a hypo, immediately eat or drink something that has 15-20g of fast-acting carbohydrate. For example, 3 Super C sweets or 5 Jelly Babies or 140ml Coke or 125ml litchi juice.
Choose whatever you have on hand, or is preferable to your taste, or is easy to store.
If you are not sure how much carbohydrate is in a product, check the nutrition label on the product but be sure
to look for the amount of carbs in the portion that you will be consuming.
Wait 15 minutes and re-test your blood glucose. If it isn’t increasing at all then repeat the process.
Once you see your blood glucose rising, in order to prevent it from dropping again, eat 15-20g of slow-acting carbohydrate. For example, a slice of wholegrain bread with cheese or peanut butter, or a fruit and some nuts, or a glass of milk.
If you are feeling too confused or drowsy to eat or drink then ask someone to help you. It’s important that your family, friends and colleagues know what to do if you have a severe hypo or become unconscious. If you are unconscious, they should put you on your side and call an ambulance.
Always keep hypo treatments by your bed in case you have a hypo at night. If a hypo doesn’t wake you up, you may realise that you had one if you feel extremely tired or have a headache the next morning. If you think you may be having a hypo at night, do a blood test before you go to sleep and during the night. If the one during the night is much lower, you may need to change your insulin dose. Speak
to your healthcare provider about this.

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