Do you know about diabetes? It’s a health problem that makes it hard for your body to deal with sugar.
Now, imagine having so little sugar in your body that you feel unwell. That’s called hypoglycemia.
A group of doctors known as the Endocrine Society has created a guide to help people with diabetes who often have low sugar.
The guide is called “Management of Individuals with Diabetes at High Risk for Hypoglycemia: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline.” It’s like a map to help doctors care for people with diabetes.
What is Hypoglycemia?
You might wonder why having too little sugar in your body is a problem. Our bodies need sugar for energy, just like cars need gasoline to run.
If a person with diabetes gets too little sugar, they might feel weak or dizzy. Sometimes, they might even faint or have seizures, which are like electric storms in the brain.
Hypoglycemia can make it hard for people to do their usual activities, like going to school, hanging out with friends, or playing sports.
It can happen to people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Especially if they take insulin or some other medicines.
The Problem of Hypoglycemia
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, hypoglycemia is one of the top three preventable bad reactions from drugs.
From 2007 to 2011, too many people had to go to the emergency room because of it. That cost a lot of money, more than $600 million. That’s a lot of ice cream cones!
The New Guide and Helpful Devices
This new guide is an update from an old one made in 2009. Back then, we didn’t have some of the cool stuff we have now. So the doctors wanted to make a new guide to include the cool new stuff.
They talk about new types of insulin and something called glucagon, which helps raise your blood sugar when it gets too low.
The guide also talks about amazing devices that make life easier for people with diabetes. These are Continuous Glucose Monitors (or CGMs) and insulin pumps.
CGMs keep an eye on sugar levels all the time. It’s like having a tiny friend that tells you when your sugar is too low or too high.
Insulin pumps are small devices that give insulin to the body when it’s needed, just like a super-helpful robot.
Recommendations for Kids and Adults
Some things that the guide suggests are:
Use easy-to-use glucagon: Glucagon is like a superhero that helps raise blood sugar when it gets too low.
Use CGMs for people with type 1 diabetes who take insulin many times a day: Instead of pricking your finger to check blood sugar, the CGM does it all the time without any pokes.
Check on hospital patients using computers: If a person with diabetes goes to the hospital, the doctors should use computer records to help watch their sugar levels.
Teach people about diabetes: If someone has diabetes, they should learn about it. The better they understand it, the better they can manage it. This is true for adults and kids alike.
The new guide is like a treasure map, helping doctors and patients find the best ways to deal with low blood sugar.
It will help not just the person with diabetes, but also their families, and doctors to understand how to fight the battle against low blood sugar. We might call it a plan for our brave sugar warriors!
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about Vitamin D and type 2 diabetes, and what you need to know about avocado and type 2 diabetes.
For more information about diabetes, please see recent studies about How to eat to prevent type 2 diabetes and 5 vitamins that may prevent complications in diabetes.
The study was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
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