Wilkinson Jens wrote:

> Is it really that common to be hypoglycemic? I suspect there may be
> two definitions that are used. My own recognition is that hypoglycemia
> is a dangerous condition when blood sugar drops too low, and the
> person goes into a coma that can be life-threatening. But I thought
> that with normal people, once you start fasting you will go into
> ketosis before the blood sugar drops dangerously low, and so you don't
> die from fasting until maybe a month or more.

There is a very rare medical condition where the blood sugar is too low
most or all the time.
Something in the metabolism doesn't work. This could be life threatening.

The very common "reactive hypoglycemia" occurs when a person eats a lot
of carbs, especially
sugar, and too much insulin is released. That causes the blood sugar to
drop too low, causing
symptoms of faintness, anxiety, tremor, moodiness, etc. It's a very
nasty feeling, one which I
am very familiar with. The good news for people with this condition is
that when you do
not eat, the blood sugar level stays at a reasonable level.
Hypoglycemics can always fast
if they start in the morning and DO NOT have juice or caffeine. Juice
fasting for hypoglycemics
is practically a guarantee of a blood sugar crash and the irresistible
need to eat rather than pass out.

Reactive hypoglycemia often precedes type II diabetes, sometimes for
many years. When
the cells get too tired of being flooded with the insulin due to the
high carbs, then you get
insulin resistance and all the rest.

Lynnet