AN A-Z OF DORSAL AND THORACIC PAIN: HYPOGLYCAEMIA (LOW BLOOD SUGAR)
This condition results from a pancreatic metabolic imbalance. It proves to me again and again that a light breakfast is wrong for many people. Certainly it is for those who suffer tiredness, headache mid-afternoon, dizziness, feeling faint, craving sweets or stimulants and are dieting.
Low blood sugar symptoms mimic chronic fatigue syndrome and similar problems. We are victims of TV advertising that tells us ‘light’ breakfast cereals are enough for our first meal of the day. This is not so for people who have this metabolic problem.
Low blood sugar cases suffer exhaustion, depression, headaches, poor concentration, and a desperate need to eat something immediately. They choose sweets or strong stimulants like tea or coffee or Coke especially at 3.30-4 p.m.
This is the danger time when children come home from school and have to buy chocolate on the way, or they arrive home famished because their breakfast lacked the protein required to adequately sustain the level of blood sugar. Workers go to sleep on the job; mothers driving children home after school can go to sleep in their cars.
It’s the same story every time: ‘I don’t eat breakfast’, or ‘I only have fruit’, or ‘just a cereal’ or ‘just tea and toast’. These foods are digested in an hour or less. People suffering low blood sugar symptoms need to eat a substantial meal at 7.30 a.m. to control blood sugar crashes at 9.30 a.m., 3.30 p.m. and 2 a.m.
When an ‘English style, breakfast is missed, fatigue symptoms show about 9.30 a.m. Morning tea is needed urgently (preferably something sweet for a quick pick-me-up) and again at 3.30 p.m. when a strong sweet stimulating tea or coffee seems to be a necessity. This is how weight is put on — trying to boost the blood sugar level after 4 p.m. when the metabolic rate slows down for the day.
The continental breakfast of croissants and coffee is not a good habit if you have low blood sugar problems which show up as extreme tiredness around these hours.
Five-Day Cure-This routine usually only takes five days to stop the craving for sweets or stimulants mid-morning and mid-afternoon. It will take longer to stabilise your metabolism and revitalise your life. But the benefits are increased energy, better concentration at work and school, weight loss for those with weight to lose, and a state of wellbeing.
1. Eat a protein meal for breakfast. As well as cereal, please include a slice of
ham on toast, some leftover chicken, a poached egg, a piece of cheese, a slice
of turkey with cranberry sauce, or baked beans and boiled bacon. (Have your
cereal in the afternoon if necessary.)
2. Eat small protein meals every two-and-a-half hours. Buy a pack of seeds,
3. Add unrefined carbohydrate foods like wholegrain bread, brown rice, pasta or
bananas if underweight.
4. Take a tablespoonful of glycerine mixed in milk or diluted fruit juice three
times a day if your condition is severe.
5. Take the amino acid, phenylalanine, in tablets from your health food store.
Also take zinc, vitamins B and C and chromium. Best to see a naturopath or
nutritionist.
Overcoming resistance: Don’t ask your family if they want a protein breakfast. Start cooking and let the smell of the food sell the idea to them. Sell the sizzle before the sausage! Who can resist hot food on a cold day? Grilled lamp chops smell delicious. Vegetarian protein doesn’t work quickly for those really in trouble. If you feel like ‘throwing up’ at the thought of breakfast, then usually there is undigested food in your stomach from eating late the night before or there isn’t enough gastric acid to digest the protein.
Adjustments, acupuncture or digestive enzymes are also used, depending on the patient’s overall problems.
Swing the meals around by taking the protein out of the evening meal and putting it into breakfast for a few days. Let dinner be one course only – just a plate of vegetables, a thick bowl of vegie soup, a large salad or a fruit platter, depending on the weather.
The humble egg has been given bad publicity because of people suffering from high cholesterol (and that’s another story). So, even those who need them, such as growing children and mothers of young families, have shied away from eating eggs sensibly. Please don’t deny your children one of the best foods nature has provided. Eggs are great for all except those who are allergic to them or who are on special diets.
Go out of your way to buy organic food if you are concerned with chemical poisons in the food chain.
In my experience low blood sugar is often a female condition, made worse when complicated by a hormone imbalance.
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