Hypoglycemia after LEL

[maxap]

Hello,
I have had several mornings with dizzy spells and wobbliness after LEL. As they came on after LEL I thought that there might perhaps be a link. A friend suggested that it might be hypoglycemia, - and it does seem that something sugary will make me feel better. I am not diabetic though .........  and checking my blood sugar when I have these episodes shows that it is fine, i.e. not too low. Could this have something to do with the aftereffects of LEL? Anyone with a similar experience? Probably unlikely. Maybe time to visit the doctor.

[ElyDave]

what do you mean by "not too low"? What was the BG measured?
Have you a reference BG when you are not dizzy/wobbly?

It is possible as a diabetic if you have had BG running high and stable  to feel hypo-like symptoms if you then improve your BG to i.e. normal range and stable.

I'm not a quack, I'm a T1 diabetic so can gave you my experience, could also be other underlying issues - postural hypotension for example, not unusual in endurance athletes.

[T42]

Hypoglycaemia isn't a lasting condition like piles or rickets: you have it, you eat, and if you're not diabetic that's that.  OK, if you bung in an excess of sugar then you can start a hyper/hypo sleigh-ride, but even that will stabilize in a few hours.

I'd suspect something circulatory, probably not permanent either, but I'm not a quack either, echoing or not. A pukka doc will be able to tell you.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

You may just have a low red blood cell count.  I had a medical 10 days after hammering around the Mille Alba a few years back and my hematocrit was 39.5 (normal range 40 - 50, my normal level 43 - 45).  1400km in 5 days will destroy a lot of red blood cells and stress the rest of the system so that it probably doesn't produce new ones at the same rate as it would do rested.  Another week or so and, if this is the case, you'll be back to normal.

[MikeFromLFE]

You may just have a low red blood cell count.  I had a medical 10 days after hammering around the Mille Alba a few years back and my hematocrit was 39.5 (normal range 40 - 50, my normal level 43 - 45).  1400km in 5 days will destroy a lot of red blood cells and stress the rest of the system so that it probably doesn't produce new ones at the same rate as it would do rested.  Another week or so and, if this is the case, you'll be back to normal.

A low haematocrit without any other of the numbers tells you nothing about your red cell count. You may have an increased number of very small red cells, or a very small number of very big red cells.
What the red cells are doing would be much more interesting to look at - red cells are designed to carry haemoglobin and the amount they can carry is constrained by a number of factors.
The average amount of haemoglobin per red cell is measured as 'Mean Cell Heamoglobin' (or MCH).
The values to look at are Hb (Heamoglobin level), Hct (sometimes known as PCV - Haematocrit), RBC (Red cell count), MCH, and MCV (mean cell volume), MCHC will usually be reported as well but is more of an internal check to make sure the other numbers are sensible.
The only measured values are Hb, RBC and MCV - the others are calculated.
Reference ranges ('normal values') vary by age and sex, and each individual person will have their own 'normal' (my Hb rarely used to go outside 14.1 - 14.3 / 141-143), and that personal normal can be outside the population 'normal' - but not by much in most cases. (Some biochemical measures also vary by season).
Equally, a single measurement is a little less useful than sequential measures.


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