Hypoglycemia: What It Is, What It Isn't, and How to Fix the Root Problem

I only just began following some of Matt's suggestions in this book and I can cautiously say that I may be seeing results already. I am a person who has been dieting from the age of 12. I'm now 61. So all of my adult life and part of my childhood, sadly enough. I've always felt colder than other people. I remember times when I have walked into a room feeling OK, and within five minutes of sitting down, my nose, hands, and feet would be freezing. At times when I was more "successful" with my dieting, my pulse rate was around 40 bpm, and I was not an elite athlete by any means. My constipation has been something that has profoundly affected my daily life for all these years. As has low energy. I've always had low temperatures. 99 degrees for me is a fever, and means I'm getting sick. Always. When I think about how restrictive eating has affected my professional life and parenting my two daughters, I regret that I continued with it all that time, until about two months ago.I regularly had the kind of desperate hunger where I felt like I was going to die if I didn't get food NOW. A few months ago, I went on my last actual diet, which was based on paleo and primal ideas. I had to include dairy or else I felt awful. I didn't lose weight, and quickly began cheating, since it didn't seem to make any difference. I will say I quit having that desperate hunger, which was like what Matt describes as hypoglycemia. More recently I've started eating whatever I want. Things haven't really settled down yet after a lifetime of restrictive eating -- I've definitely been overdoing it, but I think it's a necessary phase.While I no longer get desperately hungry and often go for quite a few hours without eating, I do still have the early morning awakening. It's usually around 4 am for me. And i'm usually awake for at least an hour before getting back to sleep. I've attributed this to the hot flashes I've had since undergoing chemo in 1999/2000, since the awakening is accompanied by a massive hot flash. But why do I sleep pretty well until 4 am or so then wake up at nearly the same time every morning?Yesterday I started trying Matt's suggestion of eating a high carb breakfast and getting most of my calories in before 2 pm. I took a long, deep nap after the high carb breakfast, then only had a bowl of cereal between lunch and bedtime. This morning I didn't have the awakening thing until 5:30 am. Maybe that's progress. I hope so. I ate some saltines. I probably slept lightly until after 7.Today I did the same, but didn't have the same sleepiness after breakfast. The last time I took my temp it was 98.6, while yesterday I was getting readings like 96.7 and 97.3. It's too soon to tell how this will work out for me, but I'm hopeful. If it works for me I'll add a star.Thanks, Matt, for this book.

I bought this book because I was having shakes, dizziness, and racing heartbeat in the mornings right after waking up, but before having breakfast. These symptoms would subside whenever I ate something. This would also happen often in the middle of the night and would prevent me from sleeping. I called this "hypoglycemia" but had never been to the doctor during an attack to verify that my blood sugar was below 70. So really, I didn't know that my blood sugar was low. I simply assumed that it was low blood sugar because eating made it better.I had also read on WebMD and other medical sites that basically hypoglycemia only has a few possible causes: diabetic taking too much insulin, Pancreatic cancer, liver problems, or thyroid problems. All of these causes have other symptoms that should be obvious, which is why doctors never paid me any attention when I told them about this problem.So what does this book say about "hypoglycemia"? According to the author, Matt Stone, most people who think they have hypoglycemia have a completely different condition that used to be called "idiopathic postprandial syndrome" and is now often called "postprandial adrenal syndrome". I have done some research and found that this is actually a real disorder. However, doctors believe that this condition is "postprandial," meaning it happens after a meal. Matt Stone, on the other hand, believes that this is just as likely to happen in the middle of the night between 2-4 a.m.Doctors believe this disorder is caused by sudden adrenal surges. These surges may be caused by blood sugar that is on the high end of the normal range but falls rapidly. This possibly causes an adrenal surge that triggers the symptoms. That's what doctors and other medical researchers believe. Matt Stone believes that these adrenal surges are caused by a a slow metabolism, which is itself caused by a number of factors, including not consuming enough calories and about five other causes.I personally had been on a calorie-restricted diet for the past 10 months, and I knew from reading Michael Matthews  Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (The Muscle for Life Series Book 1)  that running a "calorie deficit" slows your metabolism eventually, so this idea that a slow metabolism might be causing my problems was really eye-opening.I implemented all of the advice that Stone gave about how to fix this problem, and I can say that I'm definitely feeling better. The one thing that I'm worried about though is gaining weight. Part of what Stone is describing is a practice that bodybuilders call "reverse dieting," where you slowly increase calories in order to get your metabolism back without gaining weight. Unfortunately though, Stone doesn't give much advice on how to do this correctly so that you don't end up being fat and unhealthy. He seems to think that you will just automatically lose weight if you get your metabolism back up, and that's not really believable. So that is one flaw in the book.Nevertheless, the advice he gave about water and salt, how to get good sleep, how to get beta-wave inducing brain activity, etc. was all useful.I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who thinks they have "hypoglycemia" but have not actually had a blood test come back with below 70 blood glucose.

Anything & Everything by Matt Stone & his pseudonyms is a very valuable read and makes me laugh multiple times throughout the read.His writing style does not Allow you to nod off.. It’s simply too exciting, engaging, & unique.This book in particular was VERY helpful on my health journey because I suspected sugar might not be the issue I was having and this book helped confirm that for my unique situation.I thoroughly enjoyed it and gained a lot of valuable (if not lifesaving) information from it

Although this book came well over a year after I've become familiar with Matt's work and began to implement strategies from Diet Recovery and Eat For Heat I still found it an excellent summary of main ideas should you wish to improve your metabolic rate. For me it was an excellent revision of things to watch out for as I have finally reached the point where I am healthy enough to actually FEEL like exercising again. It's awesome this feeling - not exercising because it's "good" for me but because my body is bursting with energy! I used to experience what I referred to as "low blood sugar", a horrible weak and nauseated feeling that crept over me whenever I was late with a meal. Like, 2 minutes late and stuffing down watered down oatmeal with a glass of almond milk and possibly some fruit. Anyway, a year of metabolic recovery and taking it real easy only doing light yoga while stuffing my face at regular intervals in hopes to convince my body that yes, food is abundant and no, you don't have to get off your ass and do some work and boom. No more "hypoglycemia". Ever.Of course there were some bumps along the road. There was that time when I wanted to burn all of Matt's books and jump around the fire doing an intense HIIT after gaining 15Ibs that didn''t magically melt off like I'd imagined..There were times I drank too much and started to exercise too soon and paid for it with 5 times a night peeing episodes...There were times I hated my body because it was holding on to 15Ibs of fat..In those times I found Matt's brutal honesty and quick recovery tips such as the ones given in this book life saving.Anyway, buy this book. Buy this book for anyone that is or is planning on dieting. It may just save them some grief and serious health issues.

As with so many, I find the way in which Matt writes to be irritating at times. I'm used to placing judgement on how someone speaks and express themselves. He does sound (and probably appeals) to a personality type that so often is involved in high output spots and financial eating.That aside, the information in the book is fascinating and controversial. There is little evidence yet what is said does make a lot of sense. I've been following Matts general advice (he is very careful not to be overly prescriptive) and have learnt a lot more about my body. It's only been a couple weeks of experimentation so far too early to draw conclusions but inhale felt better than I have in years for periods of those two weeks. I have also had some serious lows.Overall the type of person, like myself, who is drawn to this book is someone who is likely frustrated and exhausted after years of health struggles. Each persons path to recovery, and perhaps even each persons potential ability to recover, is going to be different.I think this book is worth and open-minded read. It may just be what you need to take the next step in your journey. Leave judgement behind and look for relevant contents as it applies to your experience. You may find yourself thinking differently, or at least have something new to talk about in relation to your hypoglycaemia. It's a quick read.

Book had some theories that may apply but overall advice would likely not work for somebody with RH such as a heavy carb fueled meal.

Good information

I have read some of Matt Stone's other books, and I have to say, yet again this one is very interesting. It explains how the body utilises sugar and carbs, and how this can have a myriad of implications on health.My daughter used to have a lot of problems with incontinence when she was very small. She would often guzzle a large cup of juice and then need to wee four or five times within the following hour. I was told by doctors that she needed to drink more water because she was slightly constipated. I now know, from reading this book, that her body was crashing and she really needed more sugar and less water. I wish I had know this years ago.