Reactive hypoglycaemia is the general term for hypoglycaemia low blood glucose levels after eating. It usually occurs a few hours after a meal, snack or drink hours and is a recognised complication after bariatric surgery.
If these symptoms occur within hours after eating, you may be experiencing reactive hypoglycaemia:. It is the result of the anatomical alterations to your gut and changes to gut hormones that occur after bariatric surgery and affect the way carbohydrates sugars are digested and absorbed.
Reactive hypoglycaemia is closely linked to your diet and can often be managed with dietary changes. The role of insulin is to control blood glucose levels. It does this by signalling to the liver, muscle and fat cells to use glucose from the bloodstream for energy. Keeping a food and symptom diary can be helpful to confirm or not whether any of the foods you eat are triggering symptoms. Record the type of food eaten, along with the amount and times of meals and symptoms using the diary in this booklet.
This information can be shared with the Dietitian who can advise dietary changes to help improve your symptoms. However, if the Dietitian is unable to help you manage your symptoms or your symptoms are severe, we will refer you to an Endocrinologist for further investigations and management. Carbohydrates are found in; pasta, couscous, breakfast cereals, crackers, rice, fruit fresh, tinned, dried , and starchy vegetables such as potatoes, yam and sweet potato.
All of these are digested by your body to release glucose sugar. Some processed foods that contain carbohydrates free sugars include; cakes and biscuits, sweets, chocolates, fruit juice and smoothies, jam, marmalade and honey. Ensure that meals and snacks are structured and spaced hours apart so you do not have long gaps between eating. Eating 3 small meals and snacks across the day can help to stabilise your blood glucose levels and avoid symptoms that may be caused by eating large portions of food or carbohydrates.
