5.2.0.0 Hy­po­glycemia Treat­ment

Providers should con­tin­ue to coun­sel pa­tients to treat hy­po­glycemia with fast-‍act­ing car­bo­hy­drates at the hy­po­glycemia alert value of 70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/‍L) or less. Hy­po­glycemia treat­ment re­quires in­ges­tion of glu­cose-‍ or car­bo­hy­drate-containing foods. The acute glycemic re­sponse cor­re­lates bet­ter with the glu­cose con­tent of food than with the car­bo­hy­drate con­tent of food. Pure glu­cose is the pre­ferred treat­ment, but any form of car­bo­hy­drate that con­tains glu­cose will raise blood glu­cose. Added fat may re­tard and then pro­long the acute glycemic re­sponse. In type 2 di­a­betes, in­gest­ed pro­tein may in­crease in­sulin re­sponse with­out in­creas­ing plas­ma glu­cose con­cen­tra­tions (58). There­fore, car­bo­hy­drate sources high in pro­tein should not be used to treat or pre­vent hy­po­glycemia. On­go­ing in­sulin ac­tiv­i­ty or in­sulin sec­re­t­a­gogues may lead to recur­rent hy­po­glycemia un­less more food is in­gest­ed after re­cov­ery. Once the glu­cose re­turns to nor­mal, the in­di­vid­u­al should be coun­seled to eat a meal or snack to pre­vent recur­rent hy­po­glycemia.