Patients with hypoglycemia have too little glucose in their blood. This is often due to medications they are taking to bring down their blood sugar in order to manage diabetes. While hypoglycemia is much less common in people who do not have diabetes, potential causes of it in such patients include medications taken to treat kidney failure and other medical conditions, heavy use of alcohol, severe liver disease, an eating disorder, a hormone deficiency or a pancreatic tumor that causes the body to over-produce its own insulin. In patients who have undergone gastric (stomach) surgery, a special type of hypoglycemia may occur due to the body producing too much insulin right after they have eaten a meal. This is referred to as reactive hypoglycemia. Symptoms of hypoglycemia may include paleness and trembling/shaking, sweating, a racing heartbeat, fatigue, tingling sensations around the lips, hunger, confusion, blurry vision, seizures and fainting. Immediate treatment is necessary to increase the person’s blood sugar, and this can include having the patient eat a piece of candy or drink a regular (not diet) soda or fruit juice that can quickly put sugar back into the bloodstream. Once this is accomplished, medications, surgical removal of a pancreatic tumor and consistent medical monitoring should keep the condition from recurring.
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