7 replies to this topic

[daetake]

So I think I have been having some problems with blood sugar levels (hypoglycemic?). I'm not very familiar with typical causes in regard to this condition besides stuff I've read on wikipedia and whatnot. I'm 23, 5'7" and ~140lbs.

I believe it has messed with the absorption of my amino acids, vitamins, etc. that I take in the morning, despite my attempts to take them with honey (read that somewhere) and/or fruit juice. I need to take them on an empty stomach, but eventually leads to much more of a dysphoric experience after taking them(because, I'm assuming, of the low blood sugar levels interfering with absorption).

This often happens after a moderate size meal as well. After about a half an hour or so I will feel like my stomach is empty and I drank a ton of water. I also begin to notice a strange texture in my mouth (hard to describe). If I eat a couple pieces of fruit or something similar, I will usually start to feel a bit better.

These are the supps/noots I'm taking (morning):
-800mg piracetam
-250mg cdp-choline
-1g dl-phenylalanine
-800 ug folic acid w/ b12
-500mg vit c
-~100mgs caffeine
-400mg magnesium
-1g taurine
-100mg niacin

Last night I took:
-1.5g l-tryptophan
-1g GABA
-200mg? holy basil

Now... I DID just read that Holy Basil can lower blood glucose levels, but would that be enough to give me a not-so-fun next day?

Any help would be awesome.

[ajnast4r]

stop taking all supps for 2 weeks. if the problem persists go to a doctor. if not, add them back 1 each week... see whats causing the problem

[hamishm00]

I would also buy a blood sugar tester kit (the electronic ones with the needle cartridges, and the disposable testing tabs that go into the electronic counter), and monitor your levels when you are off the supplements. If they're normal then resume the supplements and keep monitoring, and as the previous poster said: see where it's going wrong. If it's not blood sugar, come back to us.

[daetake]

I am about to go down and buy a cheap blood tester kit and see what's up.

Does anyone know if low blood sugar levels would interfere with supplements absorption? I could take my phenylalanine and caffeine and feel the effects, but since this low blood glucose thing, whenever I take them I can't feel a thing from them. Even coffee has absolutely no stimulant effect. (I know I shouldn't drink coffee if I'm hypoglycemic).

I'm just trying to figure out what's going on without going to a doc, since I don't have insurance... unfortunately.

[HereInTheHole]

I am about to go down and buy a cheap blood tester kit and see what's up.

Does anyone know if low blood sugar levels would interfere with supplements absorption? I could take my phenylalanine and caffeine and feel the effects, but since this low blood glucose thing, whenever I take them I can't feel a thing from them. Even coffee has absolutely no stimulant effect. (I know I shouldn't drink coffee if I'm hypoglycemic).

I'm just trying to figure out what's going on without going to a doc, since I don't have insurance... unfortunately.

That's an interesting question. I'm hypoglycemic (blood test). In my younger days, some...umm...substances did nothing to me, while other people would get powerful effects. I rarely drink alcohol, but thinking back to times I have, as my hypoglycemia worsened over the years, alcohol's powers weakened dramatically. Caffeine in a large enough dose works, though. The "large enough dose" I've put up to acclimation, but there might be more going on like you suggest. The effects from phenylalanine are subtle and would probably be shouted down by a severe enough bout of low blood sugar, whether you're hypoglycemic or not.

Now... I DID just read that Holy Basil can lower blood glucose levels, but would that be enough to give me a not-so-fun next day?

If I haven't maintained my blood sugar and then I exercise, I feel horrible and it takes days to recover from that. If I have maintained, then I can recover with food on that same day. So if you take something at night which lowers your blood sugar and you're hypoglycemic, I'd suspect that the next day you'd feel it.

I'd love to give more than anecdotes, but there's not much research yet into hypoglycemia. Good luck.

Edited by NarrativiumX, 23 September 2008 - 03:54 PM.

[daetake]

I am about to go down and buy a cheap blood tester kit and see what's up.

Does anyone know if low blood sugar levels would interfere with supplements absorption? I could take my phenylalanine and caffeine and feel the effects, but since this low blood glucose thing, whenever I take them I can't feel a thing from them. Even coffee has absolutely no stimulant effect. (I know I shouldn't drink coffee if I'm hypoglycemic).

I'm just trying to figure out what's going on without going to a doc, since I don't have insurance... unfortunately.

That's an interesting question. I'm hypoglycemic (blood test). In my younger days, some...umm...substances did nothing to me, while other people would get powerful effects. I rarely drink alcohol, but thinking back to times I have, as my hypoglycemia worsened over the years, alcohol's powers weakened dramatically. Caffeine in a large enough dose works, though. The "large enough dose" I've put up to acclimation, but there might be more going on like you suggest. The effects from phenylalanine are subtle and would probably be shouted down by a severe enough bout of low blood sugar, whether you're hypoglycemic or not.

Now... I DID just read that Holy Basil can lower blood glucose levels, but would that be enough to give me a not-so-fun next day?

If I haven't maintained my blood sugar and then I exercise, I feel horrible and it takes days to recover from that. If I have maintained, then I can recover with food on that same day. So if you take something at night which lowers your blood sugar and you're hypoglycemic, I'd suspect that the next day you'd feel it.

I'd love to give more than anecdotes, but there's not much research yet into hypoglycemia. Good luck.

Thanks for the information NarrativiumX, I really appreciate it! I forget where I read it, but there was something that lead me to believe that if you have low blood sugar, then taking supplements like phenylalanine, tryptophan, etc. on an empty stomach in a low blood sugar episode will be converted into glucose (or your body will attempt to convert them) because there isn't any extra glucose to port much into the brain. (Or something to that effect - I wondering where I read that... It may have been somewhere on http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/ - I'll have to look for it.)

I have a doctor's appointment next week to see what's going on exactly and get some blood stuff done. These last few days I HAVE changed my diet quite a bit. Basically just cutting out a lot of sugar and upping the veggies and low GI foods. It was probably long overdue anyway; I would eat too much sugar and not eat often enough. I've started to feel a bit better.

By the way, as a hypoglycemic do you ever get a very dry mouth? I've gotten that since this has started, but I've only read about a dry mouth as a result of hyperglycemia.

Edited by daetake, 25 September 2008 - 03:14 AM.

[daetake]

So I think I have just found the problem. I doubt anyone is interested, but just in case...

I believe this whole problem was caused by Holy Basil, which happened to start about three days after I had started taking it. I thought it may have caused it, but couldn't find anything to really back me up until now...

It turns out Rosmirinic Acid, which is the predominant acid extract in Holy Basil (1) is an Alpha-Glucosidase inhibitor (2) which are used for diabetics to prevent the digestion of carbohydrates. Since I couldn't digest carbohydrates properly and break them down into sugar, I've been getting daily cases of hypoglycemia (which has been getting better daily). This would explain a myriad of my symptoms, from not "feeling full", intestinal issues, along with hypoglycemia and all it's symptoms.

If anything I'd warn people to watch out for this stuff if they want to try out Holy Basil. It's been about a week and I still have some symptoms, but they're getting better. I don't know how long Holy Basil or Rosmirinic Acid is suppose to stay in your system (couldn't find any information on half-lifes or anything), but hopefully not for much longer.

As a side note, something I found interesting I didn't know before: resveratrol is also an Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitor, although not quite as potent as others (2).


[1] http://cat.inist.fr/...cpsidt=19193585
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/16500886

Atleast I started eating healthier from this.

Edited by daetake, 25 September 2008 - 06:44 AM.

[HereInTheHole]

That's great you found a likely source of your problem. I think you may have also found a source of mine.

The past 2 weeks or so, exercise has been nearly impossible. I was making nice progress before that. I never would have suspected resveratrol. I started taking it a few weeks ago. On the days I exercised, I loaded up on it. I'll drop the res entirely and see what happens. Thanks for the new term: alpha-glucosidase inhibitor. I can use it to investigate other supps I'm taking.

Some people report an increase in endurance from resveratrol. I wonder if it's somehow related to this. Maybe for a healthy system, this inhibiting effect parses out the carbs at a rate ideal for exercise.

Edited by NarrativiumX, 26 September 2008 - 04:41 PM.