Re: Hypoglycemia: what worked for you?

Hi. i have no idea when your note was written because i don't see any dates on these posts, but i had just googled coconut oil and hypoglycemia and your post came up. I have some bad kind of non-diabetic hypoglycemia (HG) which i just became aware of this year. It started with an episode of ataxia one morning, ataxia is when your motor coordination is impaired, i couldn't type, i had trouble walking, i fell twice. With difficulty i made some instant oatmeal and started eating that, and while i was eating that, i felt the symptoms go away. I didn't know what to think about it so i stopped thinking about it. A month later, i had routine blood test, something i hadn't had done in 3 or 4 years, and it showed extremely low glucose--32mg/dl. The bottom end of the normal range is 65. The result was so low that my doctor emailed me at home to ask how i was feeling. i said i felt normal (which was not that great), and because i said i felt normal, he thought it must be a lab error. About 5 days after that lab test, i had the second ataxia episode, much worse than the first, i woke up to find myself falling out of my bed to the floor, i couldn't use my arms to break my fall. i wasn't able to get up and walk. i could crawl around, though not very coordinated, hard to control the direction i was going in. i knew it was like the last time but worse, so i knew i should eat something. i drug myself to the kitchen and got a piece of whole grain rye bread and sitting on the floor, i took a bite. While chewing the first bite, felt the symptoms clear up, i knew i could get up and walk. i was normal. My coordination came back. So, i started eating 5 times a day and i got a home testing glucose meter and started testing. After about a week, i felt my energy increase and my head clear. My glucose testing gradually increased. When i first started, it was in the 20s and low 30s in the morning and didn't get very high all day, but gradually it got higher. It was still in the 30s in the morning when i woke up but as the day went on it would go up, and higher as time went by. i saw an endocrinologist but he wasn't helpful. i have an appointment with another endocrinologist in a couple of weeks, my web research has me thinking i should be checked for an insulinoma. But today, on a discussion forum i read someone said they had seen coconut oil help their relative who had hypoglycemia. They said we should look at you tube videos with a Dr Newport. I watched the videos. Her husband was developing early onset Alzheimers. She was an MD herself, pediatric hospital program admin, and she was searching for clinical trials for something that might slow the progression of her husband's Alzheimers. In the course of doing that, she stumbled on a study and a patent application to use coconut oil to treat dementia. Something to do with glucose regulation in the body and the brain not getting enough glucose causing symptoms of demential. Based on information in what she read about the coconut oil study, she gave her husband two table spoons with his oatmeal at breakfast. She said that it takes about 3 hours to feel the effects of the coconut oil, the improved energy and cognitive function, and she said her husband did well on a test he had that day, he was being tested to see if he qualified for a clinical trial for another investigational Alzheimers drug. His test score was dramatically better than on a test be took the day before. I think, if i understood right, the coconut oil, or the medium chain triglycerides they bring to the body are metabolized from the intestine to the liver and the liver delivers keytone bodies into the circulation which is a fuel for the brain that can take the place of glucose. It performs the same function as glucose. That's as far as i got in the videos today. Things had gotten so bad for me, i had slacked off my 5 meals a day and was not eating as soon as i got up in the morning and my glucose tests were getting lower and lower, i was back into the 20s, and one morning last week i woke up laying on the floor by the foot of my bed, laying on my back and i couldn't get up. i tried and tried but i couldn't get my body to get up. I had no memory of how i got on the floor. After about 10 minutes, i started improving and was able to sit up,and i could see that my guitar had been knocked to the floor at some point, i had no memory of it, i crawled to the kitchen and had a piece of rye bread again and it helped though i continued to feel fragile and tired throughout the day. The next morning, the same kind of thing happened, i woke up laying on the floor and didn't know how i got there. The last thing i remembered was waking up at 7am and thinking i would go eat breakfast. Next thing i knew it was10am and i was laying on the floor and i couldn't get up, and i my mind was completely confused, i didn't have any understanding of why i was there and unable to get up, it was like a bizarre dream. I now believe that on both of these days, i had a seizure, though i have no memory of it, and that i was comatose for a period of time and then i woke up. Since then, i've been eating all day and keeping the rye bread next to my bed. The first night, i mean, the night after i woke up on the floor the second time, i was too scared to go to sleep. i just wanted to stay up and keep eating, to keep my blood Sugar up because i didn't want to have another coma. I live alone.
So, i have been researching insulinomas and waiting to see another endocrinologist. But tonight i bought coconut oil at the health food store and i'm going to start eating it tomorrow as breakfast. i guess i'll start with a couple of tablespoons in my oatmeal and later i'll spread some on a rice cake or two, another couple of tablespoons, see what happens. Like you, i have found very little on coconut oil and hypoglycemia. i hope you are still doing well. If you should happen to see this post. i would love to hear from you about this subject. Tweet