Complications (5)
- Amputation and diabetes: How to protect your feet
- Dehydration
- Diabetic retinopathy
- see all in Complications
Lifestyle and home remedies (22)
- Insulin and weight gain: Keep the pounds off
- Amputation and diabetes: How to protect your feet
- Diabetes management: How lifestyle, daily routine affect blood sugar
- see all in Lifestyle and home remedies
Prevention (2)
- Healthy savings: The art of frugal food shopping
- Diabetes prevention: 5 tips for taking control
Risk factors (1)
- Diabetes risk self-assessment
Symptoms (1)
- Diabetes symptoms: When to consult your doctor
Tests and diagnosis (3)
- A1C test
- Glucose tolerance test
- Glucose challenge test
Treatments and drugs (8)
- Insulin and weight gain: Keep the pounds off
- Erectile dysfunction and diabetes: Take control today
- Pancreas transplant
- see all in Treatments and drugs
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Hypoglycemia and diabetes: How to treat low blood sugar
Hypoglycemia can lead to seizures and loss of consciousness. Learn how to spot low blood sugar — and what to do about it.
By Mayo Clinic staffYou have diabetes. You're feeling shaky, clumsy and irritable. These telltale symptoms may indicate low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Find out how to get your blood sugar level back on track.
Why blood sugar falls
Hypoglycemia — often defined as blood sugar below 70 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or 4 millimoles per liter (mmol/L) — occurs when there's too much insulin and not enough sugar (glucose) in your blood. Hypoglycemia is most common among people who take insulin, but it can also occur if you're taking oral diabetes medications.
Culprits may include:
- Taking too much diabetes medication
- Not eating enough
- Postponing or skipping a meal
- Increasing physical activity without eating more
- Drinking alcohol
What to watch out for
Paying attention to the early signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia can help you treat the condition promptly. Red flags include:
- Shakiness
- Clumsiness
- Dizziness
- Weakness
- Sweating
- Hunger
- Irritability or moodiness
- Headache
- Blurry or double vision
- Pounding heartbeat
- Confusion
It's important to take your symptoms seriously. Hypoglycemia can increase the risk of serious — even deadly — accidents. Left untreated, hypoglycemia can lead to seizures and loss of consciousness. Rarely, severe hypoglycemia can be fatal.
Next page(1 of 2)
