New Danger Spotted for Hypoglycemic Events

Now, here's just the sort of thing I don't like to read. It's an article with a health-related double whammy! And the statistics it cites are high and not particularly inviting.

If you have ever had hypoglycemia, you know how unpleasant it can be. In case you don't know, hypoglycemia means that your blood sugar has gotten low enough to create effects such as sweating, extreme coldness, even the beginnings of mental confusion. If serious enough, it can lead to coma and death. Some degree of his can happen if you haven't eaten in a while, and it's something many people have experienced even if you haven't used or know the name for the episode. Hypoglycemia can also occur for people with diabetes in reaction to medication. Too much or too fast acting insulin can create the condition, and some of the medications used by type 2 diabetics can bring on varying degrees of hypoglycemia as well, especially those that stimulate the pancreas to create more insulin.

According to an article by Shirley S. Wang in the Wall Street Journal blog on diabetes, people who have experienced hypoglycemia that is severe enough to send them to an emergency room are more likely to suffer from Alzheimer's Disease, a LOT MORE LIKELY!

The article is entitled "Diabetics Visiting the ER Have Greater Chance of Dementia" and can be found at: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/04/14/diabetics-visiting-the-er-have-greater-chance-of-dementia/

Here is just one quote from Ms. Wang's article: "The large study of 16,667 patients, all of whom were in the Kaiser Permanente system, found that having one episode of hypoglycemia serious enough to result in a trip to the hospital or emergency room increased patients’ risk of dementia in later age by 45%. Experiencing two episodes increased the risk by 115% and three or more episodes raised risk by 160%.

See what I mean? How often do you find 160% odds in an article about health? I can't think of one!

The article references a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Unfortunately, I can't afford a subscription to this prestigious journal so haven't reviewed the article. Perhaps some of you out there do subscribe and if so, I'd love to hear your comments on the source article. This is certainly something worth watching and if the numbers sited here are even close to accurate, more study is warranted! I'm going to do some searching in the next few days and see what else I can learn and share with you about this study. Please do the same.