Background: Hypoglycemic symptoms in the absence of diabetes remains a common complaint in endocrinology practices, but remains understudied and lacks clinical definition and evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis or treatment. Our goal was to pilot test the concordance of hypoglycemic symptoms with low glucose values in young healthy individuals.
Methods: We recruited 8 individuals who reported regularly experiencing symptoms consistent with hypoglycemia to wear a blinded Dexcom continuous glucose monitor and report symptoms for seven days. We excluded individuals with diabetes or other known causes of hypoglycemia.
Results: All participants experienced glucose values <70mg/dL and half (4/8) experienced glucose <50mg/dL for at least 15 minutes or 3 consecutive readings. Lower glucose values were significantly associated with higher odds of experiencing hypoglycemic symptoms (OR=1.15 (1.06-1.24) for every 5mg/dL, p<0.001) from mixed effects models for repeated measures (Figure). All participants also reported reduced quality of life and engaging in potentially obesogenic behaviors in order to avoid symptoms.
Conclusions: Individuals with hypoglycemic symptoms in the absence of diabetes experience clinical hypoglycemia, indicating the need to understand the etiology, behavioral responses, and other health risks that might be associated with this condition.
M. Mongraw-Chaffin: None. D. McClain: None. D.P. Beavers: None.
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR001420)
