How to head off a hypo

We’re lucky that not only something as common as plain old sugar or honey will help lift us out of a hypo, but there are also other products that are easily carried so that we can keep an ‘emergency’ sugar source near to us at all times.

Glucotabs and Glucojuice are widely available in most chemists (and are also available from www.medicalshop.co.uk).  Glucotabs come in a big tub (of 50 for £2.95) as well as a smaller container that holds ten tablets (around £0.79p) and is small enough to fit in pockets, satchels, handbags or drawers. The little juice shots are arguably even easier to ingest – you don’t even need to chew. In one shot you get 15g of useable carbs that you can ‘neck’ pronto!

HypowalletRather newer is the HypoWallet, a portable, robust and easy to open pack containing a pack of chewable orange GlucoTabs (4g carbs per tablet), a shot of GlucoJuice (15g carbs per shot) as well as two tubes of GlucoGel (10g carbs per shot). There’s also a treatment guide card, providing an at-a-glance reference, and an emergency contact card with emergency first aid instruction http://www.hyposite.co.uk/hypowallet/.

GSF Syrup was originally developed for sports people. The readily available sugars can be of benefit to a diabetic with a low blood glucose reading. Now available on prescription, the sachets are easy to carry and the syrup quickly absorbed into the blood stream. The sachets come in a box of 10, and you can if you wish buy them online from Arctic Medical (www.arcticmedical.co.uk) or Desang (www.desang.net).GSF Syrup

A bad hypo might need ‘third party intervention’ – which could mean that someone else has to give you a Glucagon injection using a GlucaGen HypoKit. Available on prescription, these injections deliver a dose of pure energy and can be administered by someone else if you lose consciousness or are otherwise incapable of administering it yourself.

See feature in digital print form here.

Desang Diabetes Magazine is our free-to-receive digital journal (see below). We cover diabetes news, diabetes management equipment (diabetes ‘kit’ such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring equipment) and news about food suitable for a diabetic diet including a regular Making Carbs Count column. We just need your email address to subscribe you (it really is free, and you can easily unsubscribe should you wish to).

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