What are the symptoms of hypoglycemia?

Taking certain glucose-lowering medication for diabetes can push blood sugar too low (hypoglycemia), as can skipping a meal or eating too little, exercising more than usual or drinking alcohol.

You will know your blood sugar is low -- 70 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or less -- when you feel one or more of the following:

• dizzy or light-headedness
• hungry
• nervous and shaky
• sleepy
• confused
• sweaty

Test your glucose to make sure it's low, and if it is at or below 70 mg/dL, consume 15 grams (g) of carbohydrate -- for example, drinking a half cup of juice or three-fourths of a cup of regular (not diet!) soda or taking three to four glucose tabs.

The neurogenic symptoms include tremor, palpitations, and anxiety/arousal (catecholamine-mediated, adrenergic) and sweating, hunger, and paresthesias (acetylcholine-mediated, cholinergic). In the patient without diabetes, the presence of neuroglycopenic symptoms provides more clinically compelling evidence of an underlying hypoglycemic disorder, as the neurogenic symptoms are particularly nonspecific. Recognition of neurogenic symptoms by patients with diabetes can lead to prompt self-treatment.