Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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Hi Peeps, The reason I ask this is I went for a meal on Sunday and felt shocking (LC flu) on Monday, however I'm wondering if this reaction is more hypoglycemia than the flu we describe?

I have no idea how much sugar, corn flour etc.. was in my meal. I looked up LC flu but the symptoms seem to be the same as a hypoglycemic reaction, muscle pains, dizziness, fever, shaking, lack of energy etc...

Could it be that the body releases insulin to bring sugar down but it releases too much, I know Robb Wolf has said that we would fail a oral glucose test. We then return to LC eating and the body hasn't clicked back into burning fat for fuel; leaving us with no glucose, some insulin floating around thus leaving us in a hypoglycemic state?

Regards, Ninds

flag	asked Apr 3 2012 at 13:32 Ninds 356●1●9

Dave S. · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-03 13:49:06Z UTC

If you are low to very low carb - say under 50 grams per day - you have very likely induced peripheral (muscular) insulin resistance due to the high level of free fatty acids running around in your blood stream. Eating a high carb meal under those conditions could very easily lead to reactive hypoglycemia. Yes, too much insulin could be released, because, initially the sugar has fewer places to go to. And this is why low carbers will often fail an OGTT. Ramping up carbs for about three days is usually recommended before an OGTT.

Of course, the only way to determine if you are hypo at any point is to test your blood sugar. If if happens again, I sugggest you drink some orange juice or something similar. Hypoglycemia is nothing to fool around with.

Although, now that I realize that this happened from Sunday to Monday, I doubt that it is reactive hypoglycemia, since that should only take a few hours. Perhaps you are really sick - ie. real cold/flu. It's also allergy season here in Virginia and a lot of people are getting colds as a result.

As always, I'm not a doctor, even on TV...

Ambimorph · Answer 2 · 2012-04-03 14:17:05Z UTC

One thing that happens during keto-adaptation is that your kidneys stop retaining so much salt, and start rapidly excreting it. If you don't consume enough salt to replace this, then this can cause light headedness, fatigue, headache and constipation. See Volek and Phinney's The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living -- my current favourite ketogenic diet reference.

So try adding a couple grams of salt and see if that helps.

Low Carb Flu = hypoglycemia??

2 Answers