HypoglycaemiaLow blood sugar, HypoBlood sugar that has fallen too low, usually below 70 mg/dL. It comes on within minutes and needs sugar immediately.
Hypoglycaemia unawareness
Also known as Impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia
Losing the early warning symptoms of low blood sugar, so the first sign is confusion or collapse rather than shaking and sweating.
The warning symptoms of come from adrenaline. After many low episodes the body stops mounting that response, and the warning disappears while the danger does not.
It develops most often in people who have had diabetes for many years, or who run their sugars low.
Awareness can often be restored by strictly avoiding lows for several weeks.
Related terms
- InsulinInsulin hormone, Insulin injectionInsulin is the hormone made by the pancreas that moves glucose out of the blood and into cells. As a medicine it replaces or supplements what the body cannot produce, and it is given by injection because stomach acid would destroy it.
- Continuous glucose monitorCGM, Flash glucose monitorA small sensor worn on the arm or abdomen that measures glucose continuously and sends readings to a phone, without fingerpricks.