I posted on here a few months ago with blood sugar questions. Eventually I was tested for almost everything. I found out that I have a kidney hormonal imbalance, I get low on potassium easily and end up with high blood sugar. Potassium is needed for insulin secretion. However my tests showed that I am a moderate hypoglycemic. I have been lowcarbing for several weeks and taking potassium and feel like the lowblood sugar is not as bad as it was. I used to eat right before I went to bed and then I would wake up sweating and heart racing and have to eat again at 2 in the morning. Lately I eat dinner at 7 and I don't have any problems.

In the book Life Without Bread the dr. shows 7 graphs of patients that were hypoglycemic and then after eating lowcarb for 3 months he retested and their glucose intolerance tests were normal or close to normal. He says the older you are the longer it can take you to get to normal, and the less likely it may become at a certain point.

I was wondering if any of you had experienced this type of healing with lowcarb?

Also, my doctor said to consider myself a diabetic and to stay with atkins for life and eat a lot of fat. Do you think hypoglycemia and diabetes are the same thing?

I actually believe that episodes of Hypoglycemia are the first stages of Diabetes. I used to have them a lot in my 20's...and I weighed about 115. I did eat lots of pasta, bread, sweets, but my metabolism kept me thin.

I think that once we have blood glucose issues (high or low), they are for life...so that is why your MD told you to stay on LC.

How much Potassium are you taking? You should take (2) 99mg tabs per day whilst LCing.

I am healing from Hyperglycemia...through weigh loss, exercise and stress control. Healing, but never cured.

You are so lucky to have all this information at this stage.

Best Wishes!

Thank you for the information. I'm glad that you are healing. I have read that diabetics can sometimes stop there medications on lowcarb and wondered if that is because the carbs are so few or if they are becoming more sensitive to insulin?

Yes I am very lucky, I thought I was already down the road of diabetes, so maybe lowcarbing will add years to my life. I also stopped taking the betablockers I was on for heart palpitations that seem to have been connected to my blood sugar fluctuations.

I have been taking 2 99mg of potassium, which seems to be just right.

I have to agree that hypoglycemia is mostly likely an early stage of diabetes. I was hypoglycemic in college and then 8 years later became diabetic.
I haven't had my glucose tolerance tested in quite some time, so it's hard to say whether or not that has gotten better, but I do know that I can keep my blood sugars normal around the clock as long as I stick with low carb.



I'm one of those who has been able to stop my medications. I honestly haven't been willing to test whether or not I can go higher carb as long as I'm still trying to lose weight. The fact that I've had a couple of hypoglcemic episodes tells me that I am getting more sensitive to the insulin that I produce. Once I get to maintainance, I plan on trying to slowly increase my daily carb allowance to see what my body can tolerate at that point. I'm hoping to be able to get to 40-50 grams of carb per day, but would be more than content to stay at 30 if that's all my body can handle.
I believe that Dr. Schwarzbein believes that insulin resistance can be reversed, but I think how long it will take and if it will happen at all depends on a lot of variables like you mentioned above.

Hi LisaN:
I've read Dr. Schwarzbein book, and she is against ketosis. she says that carbs should be limited but not to a point when your body is going into ketosis.
how is the insulin resistance can be reverse. i thought that high insulin burns insulin receptors, so when insulin is lower, does it restores receptors or creates new ones. isn;t it like beta cells, once burned gone foreever. i'm just trying to understand better. may be i should revisit Dr. Schwarzbein book. she make a lot of sense, and allow more carbs :-)
Thanks,
Dina