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Sat 7 Oct, 2006 08:24 am
I got dehydrated about 5 weeks ago and for about two days I didn't take in much sugar because I was drinking water rather than soda. For years before this I would drink anywhere from 6 to 18 sodas a day and eat sugary foods constantly. After the two days, I drank a Powerade and about an hour later I started to have problems-headache, lightheadedness, and some coordination issues. The next day I had a bottle of Coke when we were unloading a truck at work and the problems were worse. It started out the same as the day before but then I got very confused and felt like I was going to pass out. My coworkers wanted me to go to the emergency room but I didn't go. It lasted for about 4 hours even though I ate something about an hour into it. Any sugar I had caused these problems for about a month. I started waking up in the middle of the night and in the mornings I feel miserable until I eat something, then I crash again about an hour to two later. Would the sudden change in diet cause this?
My doctor told me to avoid foods high in sugar and eat small frequent meals because the results from a 3hr glucose tolerance test came back pretty low and stayed low throughout. The other day I decided to see what would happen if I ate huge amount of sugar rather than a small amount-I don't know why I did this, but I did. I felt ok-I basically just had a headache later that night-but I expected to wake up either in the middle of the night or in the morning feeling horrible. I didn't and I wasn't even hungry when I woke up. I had breakfast but I didn't eat much sugar that day and around lunch I started to have problems again.
About a year ago I tried to cut back on soda and I started getting really bad headaches. I went to the doctor and was told that I was having caffeine withdrawal. This time however, after a couple of days I couldn't get going in the mornings without the caffeine so I have been drinking diet soda. I have been having about 6-8 diet sodas a day for about a month, so I don't think it is the caffeine.
At first my doctor thought that I was probably diabetic as I had a number of the symptoms-excessive thirst, weight loss, cuts and bruises that linger, fatigue, and sensitivity to sugar among others. He was surprised that the results ended up being as low as they were. Every other test that has been done so far has come back completely normal.