What can I do to feel better?
Changing your Diet
Avoid Caffeine
Caffeine often improves the symptoms of hypoglycemia, at least temporarily, so it can be tough to remove it from your diet. If you are a caffeine addict, and just can’t get through your day without it, it is likely that a sugar stabilization diet will help you reduce your caffeine cravings.
Caffeine stimulates release of stored sugar into your blood stream, so you will feel better for a while, but your blood sugar will drop abruptly again once the effect of the caffeine wears off. As my nutritionist, Dr. Todd Norton, once described it, "In asking the glucose-bearing cells to release sugar, insulin knocks at the door. Caffeine, on the other hand, simply kicks the door down!" Another reason that you get a boost from caffeine is that it stimulates the adrenal gland. This makes your heart beat faster and raises your blood sugar. Excess caffeine also puts stress on your kidneys, and flushes minerals like selenium, manganese, zinc, calcium and magnesium from your body.
My first response was, "So what—I really feel better. I neeeeed it!" Caffeine, like sugar, causes a roller coaster of sugar highs and lows. I know that after I drink caffeinated drinks, I find that I am constantly hungry the next day or two and it takes me a couple of days of proper eating to get back on track. As you learn to regulate your blood sugar by changing your diet, even your cravings for caffeine will subside.
Quit Smoking
I know, I know – now I've really gone overboard! We have been hearing for years that nicotine will kill you and we have all lost people important to us. What you, as a hypoglycemic, need to know is that nicotine also has an effect on blood sugar. Nicotine, like caffeine, activates the adrenal gland. Your heart speeds up and your blood pressure rises and you get that much-needed boost. Although butting out may be much more difficult than eliminating caffeine, you will find that as you change your diet and begin to feel better, your cravings for nicotine may also slowly begin to subside. Quitting still may not be easy; after all, cigarettes become a habit based on more than the nicotine addiction. As your blood sugar begins to stabilize, you will find that it will be easier to taper down and smoke fewer cigarettes per day.