Hypoglycemia

For a lay person:

Hypoglycaemia is low blood sugar. It causes shakiness, sweating, hunger and confusion, and when severe can cause fainting or seizures. It is most common in people treated for diabetes.

For a trained medical person:

Low plasma glucose with symptoms that resolve on correction. In diabetes it is usually from insulin or sulfonylureas; without diabetes, causes include insulinoma, drugs, adrenal insufficiency and post-bariatric reactive hypoglycaemia.

In Chinese medicine:

Flaws and Sionneau's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Liver-Spleen Disharmony; Q ideficiency and phlegm accumulation; Stomach repletion-spleen weakness; Qi and Blood Deficiency. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Treat low blood sugar at once with fast sugar. Get emergency care for confusion, fainting or seizures.