Is hypoglycemia REALLY a precursor to diabetes? I've never heard that before except by someone on this site.

I have occasionally experienced hypoglycemia where I get shaky and a bit disconnected and I feel like I have to eat the whole kitchen RIGHT NOW! I've used by grandmothers glucometer and found my sugar to be 59 or 60. It goes up but I have never been able to get any other info other than keep snacks on hand to prevent it. My MD never elaborated about what it means if that happens to you or if it's a sign of IMPENDING diabetes.

It's a theory that has been talked about for many years. Before people become diabetic their body goes through insulin resistance so the pancreas reacts by overproducing insulin. That causes hypoglycemia. Eventually the pancreas just tires out and can't do it any longer, so the person becomes diabetic. You can have a blood test to check for insulin resistance if you are concerned. The very best thing you can do to prevent type two DM is to give your pancreas a break. Don't eat tons of sugar and carbs. Remember carbs are the same as sugar to your body. When you eat white rice your body thinks of it as eating spoons of pure sugar. The same with fruit juices. Eat whole foods like the orange not the juice. And don't eat white, refined, sugared anything.

I thought they were kinda opposites. Like hypoglycemia is when your blood sugar is low and with diabetes, it's high. If they are in fact opposites, I doubt one is a precursor to the other. I can see hyperglycemia being a more likely candidate as precursor to diabetes, but I still have no idea if that's true or not.

I'm hypoglycemic and my doc didn't tell me I was on the road to diabetes. That doesn't make me the expert, lol, just that he didn't tell me to be careful that I was at risk for it.

If I was ever hypoglycemic, I was not aware of it. In my case, insulin resistance was the first clue... not hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia, particularly reactive hypoglycemia, is evidence of your pancreas not doing its job very well. Should your pancreas completely fail, diabetes will be the result.

As per Wikipedia, reactive hypoglycemia is a pre-diabetic condition.

I had never heard that until my nephew was diagnosed hypoglycemic and that is what his doctor said as well.

Both hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia could lead to diabetes. Hypo is too low blood glucose(sugar) levels and hyper are too high blood glucose levels. Hypo can also occur for other reasons, such as the pancreas releases too much insulin or for too long after a meal, reactive hypoglycemia.

Insulin is the chemical that causes cells to absorb glucose from the blood and hence regulate the blood glucose level.

Diabetics that need to have insulin shots can also suffer hypo if they use too much insulin. I think the majority of diabetics are hyper. This is due to the body resisting the effects of insulin, the pancreas not able to produce enough insulin or both.

If you are hypo then your glucose levels can get so low that your body and brain can't function properly. Seriously low glucose levels can lead to coma.

If your pancreas is over producing insulin then it is possible that your pancreas will "burn out" as you get older and produce less and less insulin or stop all together. If this happens then you will become hyper and have Type 2 Diabetes.

You should get your doctor to get some tests done and see if your insulin and glucose levels are normal. The healthy range for blood glucose is 70-140 mg/dl (3.9-7.8 mmol/l), though the low end could be as low as 40 mg/dl (2.2 mmol/l).

Then again it might just be that you work too hard and not eat enough.