Hyperglycemia Essay

Nowadays medical sources are full of information about hyperglycemia – high level of blood glucose. Diabetes has almost captured the world: today almost 300 million people suffer from this disease. However, the “glucose starvation” – hypoglycemia – can also be dangerous. Despite the fact that this phenomenon is rare and is often caused by consumption of sugar reducing drugs, the severity of hypoglycemia shouldn’t be underestimated. A sharp significant decrease in blood glucose may result the most deplorable consequences. I have chosen the topic of hypoglycemia because it is very interesting and important; this condition can happen with any person. Nowadays more and more people get sick with it, and this condition can happen not only with adults, but with children also. Everyone should know how to prevent the low level of blood glucose and how to help a person with hypoglycemia attack. This research helps to find our the nature of hypoglycemia, its causes, symptoms, ways of diagnosing, treatment, ways of preventing it, the first aid during hypoglycemia attack.
The translation of the word “glycemia” from Greek means “sweet” and “blood”. It is the word that combines one of the most important indicators in the human body – blood glucose level. Glycemia is in normal when it is not lower than 3.3 and not higher than 5.5 mg/L. Glycemia should be rather stable – it is vital: otherwise, the brain simply will not be able to function.
Hypoglycemia, a condition characterized by abnormal low level of sugar in the blood. The human body and especially the brain, for normal functioning need the blood to contain a constant level of glucose, so hypoglycemia is a condition that requires urgent actions (The Hypoglycemia Support Foundation Inc. 2006).
Hypoglycemia e manifests with complex symptoms such as profuse sweating, constant feeling of hunger, tingling lips and fingers, pallor, palpitations, fine tremors, and muscle weakness and fatigue. If central nervous system suffers, there may appear blurred and double vision, headache, spastic of muscles, or frequent yawning. Sometimes there may appear mental symptoms, such as depression and irritability, drowsy state during the day and insomnia at night. As hypoglycemia has a variety of symptoms including the reaction of anxiety, the disease is often mistakenly diagnosed as neurosis or depression (MayoClinic 2010).
Discussing the reasons of hypoglycemia, there should be mentioned that maintenance of desired concentration of glucose depends on the composition of food and the efficient functioning of all body systems involved in the regulation of blood glucose level. The disruption of any of these systems may lead to hypoglycemia.
The most common hypoglycemic state is functional hypoglycemia (the cause of which is unknown), alimentary hypoglycemia that occurs after operations on the gastrointestinal tract and late hypoglycemia or delayed insulin reaction observed in the early stages of diabetes. Quite common is hormonal hypoglycemia caused by deficiency of pituitary-adrenal axis. Hypoglycemia can also occur due to an overdose of insulin while therapy of diabetes. The excess of insulin leads to a too rapid removal of glucose from the blood.
Much less common the causes of hypoglycemia are tumors of the pancreas of liver and central nervous system. The sharp decline of glucose in blood can also be a consequence of pregnancy, diarrhea, starvation or prolonged physical exercise.

To detect, diagnose hypoglycemia people use the so-called five-hour glucose tolerance test with periodic blood tests during starvation. This test is important, but does not provide complete information. Recently there is used a continuous monitoring (automatic registration) of glucose levels, which allows simultaneous determination of blood levels of insulin, growth hormone, adrenaline and cortisol, which makes it possible to accurately assess the condition of the patient.
Treatment for hypoglycemia is based on the identification and correction of all violations of the functioning of the body, causing a given state, as well as dietary measures. The second method is reduced to the strict exclusion of refined sugar (including honey, molasses, sugar, etc.), white flour and other products containing pure starch, and eating at least six times a day (instead of three in large quantities). Six-times diet should contain enough protein in the form of meat, fish, poultry and dairy products with the free choice of fruits, vegetables and grains. There is a need to avoid caffeine-containing medications and foods (such as coffee and cola). Acute attacks of hypoglycemia associated with an overdose of insulin, usually are removed by intake of sugar or glucose, but sometimes there is a necessity of intravenous glucose injection. Irregular food intake is not acceptable. There are also some other ways to treat this condition; they are presented by Andrew Muir in the chart.

However, hypoglycemia is not just “adult” disease. Children also can get sick with it. Regardless of the causes, symptoms are typical: agitation, irritability, or conversely, drowsiness and lethargy, paleness, clammy skin, chills, and severe hunger. This disease is particularly dangerous because later it may affect the physical and mental development of children. In addition, in childhood nerve cells are very sensitive to the dramatic change of glucose level and metabolic disorders can affect the central nervous system. There are two main causes of disease in children: ketonemia or acetonemia, as well as intolerance or high sensitivity to leucine amino acid. The basis of treatment of hypoglycemia in children is a diet. In the first case – the removal of animal fat from the dietary, while in the second – the restriction of the protein. Therefore it is necessary to abandon ingestion of eggs, fish, nuts, peas and pasta. The second attachment provides an adult hypoglycemia treatment protocol developed by the Lovelace Medical Center Diabetes Episodes of Care (EOC) Inpatient Team. (American Diabetes Association, 2011). It is also interesting to know the link of hyperglycemia to renal dysfunction and development of nephropathy.
There is no exact data about the incidence of hypoglycemia in adults, since not heavy cases of hypoglycemia are not registered. With regard to little children, the incidence of hypoglycemia is 1.5-3 cases per 1000 newborn children, and in high-risk groups the prevalence is much higher. Transient hypoglycemia is observed in 2 of 3 preterm low birth weight infants. The main reason of this is the lack of sources of glucose (glycogen, proteins and fats) in combination with defects in enzymes of gluconeogenesis in the liver. Transient hypoglycemia is also observed in 80-90% of children born from mothers who suffer from insulin-dependent diabetes or have had diabetes during pregnancy. In 10-20% of children with high risk, a resistant severe hypoglycemia is developed. Hypoglycemia is spread among all aged groups of people and mortality because of it is not so low.
The research provided the basic information about the disease, its symptoms, causes, diagnosis and treatment. It proves that hypoglycemia is a dangerous condition, but if to give timely assistance to the patient, the treatment outcome will be positive. Everyone should know about the symptoms of the disease, in order to be able to identify it at an early stage. Every person should know how to protect himself from this disease and how to give first aid to a person who suffers from hypoglycemia attack. Every reader can make his own conclusions based on the provided research.