| By :
Ben Mester
Is it possible to have hypoglycemia without diabetes? The answer is yes, and it's important to know why. As more and more cases of diabetes pop up, people are trying to diagnose the early warning symptoms of the disease. Just to get the terms straight, hypoglycemia is a state of low blood sugar or glucose, due to an overproduction of insulin or from a poor diet. Hyperglycemia is a state of high blood sugar usually due to low levels of insulin. Diabetes is the persistent medical condition of a body's underproduction of insulin, or of a cell's inability to process the insulin, either of which leads to high levels of blood sugar and dangerous conditions within the body, even death. Hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia are often associated with diabetes because all three conditions have to do with insulin and improper levels of blood sugar. The real difference between the three is that diabetes is a persistent medical condition, whereas hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia are states within the body that come and go. People who are wondering if they can have hypoglycemia without diabetes might really more accurately be wondering whether they can have hyperglycemia without diabetes. We'll talk about that first before we move on to having hypoglycemia without diabetes. Diabetes causes hyperglycemia because without insulin, the body can't metabolize blood sugar for fuel and energy. The blood sugar continues to build in the bloodstream and if it isn't taken care of, can be extremely dangerous and hazardous to a person with diabetes, even at times resulting in their death. Certain conditions can cause hyperglycemia without diabetes, but these are rare. But what about hypoglycemia? As we discussed in the first section, people are becoming more and more wary of diabetes and the early warning signs of the condition in order to help prevent it before the condition becomes permanent. If you're wanting to accomplish that, you'll need to somehow distinguish between hypoglycemia that arises through diabetes and hypoglycemia that comes about because of some other factor. Here are some of the other factors that may cause hypoglycemia: 1. Excessive Alcohol Consumption. You don't need to be a doctor to know that too much alcohol is hazardous to your health. Drinking too much alcohol can definitely bring on hypoglycemia. Why is that? When your body processes sugars and releases them into the bloodstream, some of the sugar is stored as glycogen in your liver and released slowly over time. Because we all know that alcohol heavily affects the liver, and one of those effects is that the liver is inhibited from releasing its stored sugar back into the bloodstream. 2. Some Medications. Some medications can cause hypoglycemia. Some antidepressants, Quinine, and other things can cause hypoglycemia. Read the labels for side effects. 3. Hormone Imbalance. Insulin release and production is regulated by hormones. Hormones are produced and regulated by your endocrine system. Your endocrine system, when healthy, is in a state of homeostasis, meaning balance. But a wide variety of things can throw your endocrine system out of balance, causing incorrect hormone production. One of the main causes of endocrine imbalance is steroid use. But there are many other causes. 4. Fasting. Not eating for extended periods of time can cause hypoglycemia. Levels of blood sugar can very quickly decline in response to fasting or a lack of nourishment.
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