The Hypoglycemic Connection II

Hypoglycemia is low blood sugar (or glucose). The part of the body affected most by hypoglycemia is the brain. Since the brain is most affected, Hypoglycemia can therefore affect both mood and energy.

Hypoglycemia is not just low blood sugar, but a reaction to eating sugar or things that might act like sugar, such as tall glass of fruit juice. The blood sugar rises quickly like normal folk.Instead of coming down slowly back to where it started, in the case of hypoglycemics the blood sugar crashes to a much lower level than before usually two or three hours afterwards. It is a condition that is a reaction to consuming sugar in the first place.

Hypoglycemics are tired people. They are moody, and they get down and depressed at times without any cause. They have trouble concentrating, and they may feel that their memory is slipping. Most admit to having a sweet tooth.

Dr. Samra is a graduate of the University of Sydney and holds a postgraduate fellowship with ACNEM.

He is president of the Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia and has been a regular guest on talkback radio in Sydney.

In the past he has been asked and has been sponsored by the New South Wales prison system to aid prisoner rehabilitation at Long Bay Gaol in Malabar, Parklea prison, Parklea, using his nutritional skills.

Hypoglycemia is a poorly understood but common condition affecting about 4% of the population. Nearly a million Australians and over 15 million Americans are sufferers.Its relevance to depression, fatigue, behavioral manifestations, addictions, marriage breakdowns, and crime needs to be better understood. Literally billions of dollars can be saved for the community in health costs and rehabilitation and Law enforcement. The human cost in suffering with depression, fatigue, anxiety and despair compounds the total picture.

Dr. Samra has defined the hypoglycemic syndrome. It requires a presence of any three of the following four features.

• depression
• lethargy or tiredness
• forgetfulness
• sugar cravings, or a love of sugar.

Dr. Samra stresses the point that to understand the effects of Hypoglycemic Syndrome , one must think in terms of low glucose availability to the brain at the cellular level, rather than just low blood glucose.

Dr. Samra has simplified and refined the criteria for diagnosing the types of hypoglycemia from a GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test).

With the advent of CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) patients can perform the test on themselves. 75 g of glucose is consumed at the start of the test, having fasted all night. Pure glucose can be purchased from a pharmacy.A blood glucose reading is performed every half hour for four hours. With the CGM patients can easily test every 15 minutes and map out their sugar curve.

Using the GTT, Dr. Samra is able to provide an explanation for the long list of seemingly diverse unrelated symptoms with reference to the different phases of the hypoglycemic reaction.

Understanding the availability of glucose to the brain he demystifies the perplexing diversity of symptoms: and so is able to explain such symptoms as “sweating” and “depression”.

The Hypoglycemic Connection 2 is a book about a very real illness. This is a disease most medical textbooks have forgotten. It is presented in a way that makes it easily understood. This book outlines the step-by-step processes by which good health may be restored.