Hi Pema, I, my sisters and my mother have all suffered with hypoglycemia all our lives. I've often suffered with fainting spells. I feel you. I know how difficult this can be especially if you want to live a yogic life. You need to get all that protein to stay upright, and that usually means eating meat. When the blood sugar drops all good thoughts about saving the planet and good karma are secondary to not blacking out. I can tell you that I have found the one remedy that totally fixes this. Barley flour (tsampa) porridge for breakfast. Barley flour has a very special quality of regulating insulin levels for both diabetics and hypoglycemics. There is research on this you can look up on the internet. You can buy barley flour anywhere, and you can roast it on a dry pan on medium heat by sprinkling a thin layer on it until it is slightly tanned a bit. Then transfer it into a container. Keep going until you roast the whole batch. Or as I have, I'm lazy and skip this part and just add boiling water to raw barley flour. It doesn't make any difference really. Tsampa is roasted barley flour and it tastes really good if you add some brown sugar and stir in the hot water really fast until it has the consistency of a thick malto meal or oatmeal. I stir in soy milk and go to town. My whole family is so happy, because when I forget to eat (as I often do), if my lips go "sheet white" as they always say they remind me, "did you eat your barley?" This gets me right back to pink in the lips in no time. Then, I can go vegetarian the rest of the day or diet or whatever. This has changed my life. It was my lama who suggested this based on teachings about the qualities of different grains given by Lord Jigten Sumgon. Go figure. But it works. Don't wait, go now to the store and get some barley flour...
Post moved from Tibetan Medicine forum. Please see guidelines for the Tibetan Medicine Forum http://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=3839" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Hypoglycemia (general responses)
Re: Hypoglycemia (general responses)
I've not tried the barley. I'll give it a shot.
My practice is to eat often and eat a lot. I keep a strict vegetarian diet, but I allow eggs because I need the quick protein to fight the 10am shakes and the 2pm dizzy spells. The MDs don't have a better answer for me than this.
My practice is to eat often and eat a lot. I keep a strict vegetarian diet, but I allow eggs because I need the quick protein to fight the 10am shakes and the 2pm dizzy spells. The MDs don't have a better answer for me than this.
Re: Hypoglycemia (general responses)
Trust me... Barley, barley, barley, barley... I swear by this. It has totally changed my life. One of the reasons I'm so energized these days is because of this. I could never drink caffeine, alcohol or do anything fun because of this. I've had fainting spells at parties where friends have called 911 because they don't know what to do. Talk about a buzzkill. It's just like being a freak. Now I'm normal (body wise). Unless you go through this it's not something anyone can understand. But I'm so thankful to my lama for figuring this out, something no doctor of any kind has done anything to help in all my 37 years.
CAW!