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Functional Hypoglycemia is a real thing. I did a high school paper on it back when I had a rotary phone and pet dinosaur. At the time -- nearly four decades ag

Functional Hypoglycemia is a real thing. I did a high school paper on it back when I had a rotary phone and pet dinosaur. At the time -- nearly four decades ago -- there was no known cause and the only useful treatment was diet and taking high doses of vitamins. When glucose levels get depleted, the body starts drawing on stored stuff in the liver. The mechanism for releasing that is adrenaline. When the liver stores run out, you have no further backups. So then you start waking up out of nightmares that involve running because your heart is racing in your sleep as the body tries and fails to access your depleted emergency stores. I've never heard of it as a neurological diagnosis, but it is known to impact mental functioning and promote terrible anxiety.

Muromec 6y ago
> So then you start waking up out of nightmares that involve running because your heart is racing in your sleep as the body tries and fails to access your depleted emergency stores. Wow, really thanks!
ford_o 6y ago
Wait, that's exactly what has been happening to me for the past few weeks. Each night I woke up after 2 hours of sleep with heart racing. Then I woke up another 2 times, due to tingling in my arm. My heart was calmer at that point. I was wondering what could be the cause..
- tjohns 6y ago
  That could be a lot of things, including sleep apnea. A formal sleep study is a good place to start.
glogla 6y ago
When your body runs out of glucose in blood and glycogen in liver, it starts creating new one from protein and fat [1] for the few processes that need it, while switching most metabolism (including brain) to use fat-derived Ketone bodies as fuel [2]. This normally happens when fasting, and is no big deal. It's how people survive days without food. Now there's something going on with how brain processes ketone bodies and glucose differently and there some research about how that affects things like Alzheimer's disease but I don't know that much about that. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

Muromec 6y ago

> So then you start waking up out of nightmares that involve running because your heart is racing in your sleep as the body tries and fails to access your depleted emergency stores. Wow, really thanks!

ford_o 6y ago

Wait, that's exactly what has been happening to me for the past few weeks. Each night I woke up after 2 hours of sleep with heart racing. Then I woke up another 2 times, due to tingling in my arm. My heart was calmer at that point. I was wondering what could be the cause..

tjohns 6y ago
That could be a lot of things, including sleep apnea. A formal sleep study is a good place to start.

glogla 6y ago

When your body runs out of glucose in blood and glycogen in liver, it starts creating new one from protein and fat [1] for the few processes that need it, while switching most metabolism (including brain) to use fat-derived Ketone bodies as fuel [2]. This normally happens when fasting, and is no big deal. It's how people survive days without food. Now there's something going on with how brain processes ketone bodies and glucose differently and there some research about how that affects things like Alzheimer's disease but I don't know that much about that. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]