Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, can causenausea.
Blood sugar levels can vary throughout the day and low blood sugar can happen in people with and withoutdiabetes.
Photographer / Getty Images
What Is Low Blood Sugar?
Photographer / Getty Images
When your blood sugar drops, it triggers the fight-or-flight response, causing a surge of adrenaline.
This flood of adrenaline functions as a helper, moving stored glucose into the bloodstream quickly.
However, this surge isnt without effects.
Other symptoms like sweating, shakiness, and anxiousness can also be resulting from this process.
That said, people with diabetes shouldnt assume their nausea is always related to low blood sugar.
The only way to know for certain is to measure your blood sugar.
If your levels are within the normal range, other factors may be contributing to your nausea.
Is Nausea a Symptom of Low Blood Sugar?
You will notice certain symptoms when your blood sugar begins to drop.
These symptoms arise in stages, ranging from mild to moderate to severe.
Each stage is characterized by a specific set of symptoms.
They may decide to switch you to a different medication.
For example, managing blood sugar can reduce symptoms of gastroparesis.
Symptoms of pancreatitis include nausea and pain in your upper abdomen that may spread to your back.
Pancreatitis requires immediate medical attention.
Everyone with diabetes on medications that can cause low blood sugar should have a glucagon emergency kit.
A glucagon injection can be used instead to safely raise blood glucose.
The plan should include a person they should talk to if they are not feeling well.
Talking to your child about their diabetes and the symptoms to be aware of helps keep them safe.
People Without Diabetes
When people without diabetes experience low blood sugar, it is callednon-diabetic hypoglycemia.
Summary
In people with and without diabetes, nausea can be a sign of low blood sugar.
Treatment may be as simple as consuming carbohydrates, but this isn’t always the case.
Treatment may depend on the underlying cause.
Low blood sugar that cannot be elevated to normal ranges can quickly become a medical emergency.
American Diabetes Association.Low blood glucose (hypoglycemia).
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.Low blood glucose (hypoglycemia).
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.Symptoms & causes of gastroparesis.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.Definition & facts for pancreatitis.
Umpierrez G, Korytkowski M.Diabetic emergencies - ketoacidosis, hyperglycaemic hyperosmolar state and hypoglycaemia.Nat Rev Endocrinol.
doi:10.1210/jc.2013-v98i10.39A
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Nausea.
National Health Service UK.Feeling sick (nausea).
