What is hypoglycemia?

Answer 1

Hypoglycemia is a disease that lacks carbohydrates/sugar in the diet. It is commonly referred to as low blood sugar.
Hypoglycemia - hy-po-gly-ce-mi-a (n.)

An abnormally low level of sugar in the blood.

What does this mean? In simple layman's language, hypoglycemia is the body's inability to properly handle the large amounts of sugar that the average American consumes today. It's an overload of sugar, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and stress.

In medical terms, hypoglycemia is defined in relation to its cause. Functional hypoglycemia, the kind we are addressing here, is the oversecretion of insulin by the pancreas in response to a rapid rise in blood sugar or "glucose".

All carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits and grains, as well as simple table sugar), are broken down into simple sugars by the process of digestion. This sugar enters the blood stream as glucose and our level of blood sugar rises. The pancreas then secretes a hormone known as insulin into the blood in order to bring the glucose down to normal levels.

In hypoglycemia, the pancreas sends out too much insulin and the blood sugar plummets below the level necessary to maintain well-being.

Since all the cells of the body, especially the brain cells, use glucose for fuel, a blood glucose level that is too low starves the cells of needed fuel, causing both physical and emotional symptoms.

Some of the symptoms of hypoglycemia are: * fatigue * insomnia * mental confusion * nervousness * mood swings * faintness * headaches * depression * phobias * heart palpitations * a craving for sweets * cold hands and feet * forgetfulness * dizziness * blurred vision * inner trembling * outbursts of temper * sudden hunger * Allergies * crying spells

Answer 2

Hypoglycemia is the medical term for the state produced by a lower than normal level of blood sugar (glucose) Literally it means means "under-sweet blood" Hypoglycemia can produce a variety of symptoms. These can be related to the lack of fuel for the brain. Symptoms range from "feeling bad" permanent brain damage or death.

The most common forms of moderate and severe hypoglycemia occur as a complication of treatment of Diabetes. Treatment is to ingest destrose (a sugar) or eat foods which digest to glucose. No official "too low" level of glucose has been identified but levels below 70 mg/dl or 3.9 mmol/l are considered hypoglycemic.

Answer 3

Hypoglycemia or hypoglycaemia is the medical term for a pathologic state produced by a lower than normal level of blood glucose. The term hypoglycemia literally means "under-sweet blood" if you need more info go to this website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoglycemia

Answer 4

The term means low blood sugar. Hypo- = below +-glyc- = sugar + -emia = blood. Blood sugar below the normal range. It has nothing to do with sugar in the food but how the body regulates blood sugar levels. It is not a disease but defective response.