You hear about glucose quite a bit in recent years, largely in relation to weight issues or diabetes. What is glucose? Glucose is a source of energy delivered to the body through carbohydrate-rich foods. Hypoglycemia occurs when the levels of blood glucose drop below normal levels. Symptoms can include weakness, anxiety, shakiness, hunger, confusion, difficulty speaking, nervousness, sweating, sleepiness and light-headedness or dizziness. Hypoglycemia is not very common in people above ten years old, unless it is a side effect due to diabetes treatment. For people who take insulin or pills that increase insulin production, hypoglycemia can be due to alcoholic drinks, a boost in physical activity, skipping meals, or having meals that are too small. It can also results from tumors, enzyme deficiencies, hormone deficiencies, or other diseases or medications.

A new research study now finds that the risk for hypoglycemia may be increased for patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Researchers are quoted as saying that hypoglycemia should be viewed as a safety event. Though researchers mostly agree that diabetic patients who develop hypoglycemia are probably dealing with hypoglycemia due to diabetic therapies, they still aren’t sure about the cause of hypoglycemia in patients with chronic kidney disease, but without diabetes.

The study involved patient records from the Veterans Health Administration. The researchers inspected over 2,000,000 records of glucose measurements and linked the facts and figures with vital statistics for death and hypoglycemia. They found that patients with chronic kidney disease were more likely to be older white males that also had cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and a higher Charlson comorbidity index than those without chronic kidney disorder.

The team’s researchers also found that those with hypoglycemia were more likely to be older african american males that were more likely to have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, all stages of chronic kidney disease, and cancer.

Patients with either diabetes or chronic kidney disease were found to have a higher rate of hypoglycemia than patients without either disease, though those with both diseases were found to have an even higher rate of hypoglycemia than those with just diabetes or chronic kidney disease alone. Researchers also found that almost 3 percent of patients died within one day of recording glucose values, and there was an increase in risk of death by hypoglycemia in an outpatient setting, as opposed to an inpatient setting. The odds of death were increased by the severity of hypoglycemia.

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