What Are Glucose Tablets Used For?

Diabetic people who suffer from the condition known as hypoglycaemia, or sudden low blood sugar levels that fall below 70 mg/dl, often need to immediately consume some form of glucose to boost blood sugar back to a safe reading. Using glucose tablets, which contain glucose sugar, flavouring agents, preservatives and binding agents, can give immediate aid and help you avoid serious complications. If this is a common occurrence you should seek the advice of your healthcare provider about how to set safe blood sugar level goals and how to best achieve them.

Hypoglycaemia Symptoms

If you are diabetic and taking some form of insulin or other medication such as chromium and you start feeling dizzy, sleepy, or confused and experience a faster heartbeat you need to immediately check your blood sugar levels. If the insulin dose was too much, the energy is burned faster and you then experience hypoglycaemic symptoms. In addition to this, you could feel a prickling or a lack of feeling in your lips or tongue, and a lack of physical coordination or feel confused emotions such as anger, sadness, hunger or anxiousness. If left untreated and blood glucose continues to fall, it can cause seizures, unconsciousness and in extreme cases, death.

Rules for Hypoglycaemia

If you feel that you may be experiencing hypoglycaemia you can quickly eat or drink food items with 15-20 grams of carbohydrates to try to get your levels back to normal. If food is not easily available you may want to use glucose tablets for your hypoglycaemia condition. Be sure to ask your doctor for a prescription and purchase them at your local pharmacy. Glucose tablets are convenient and portable but check the label to see how much glucose is in each tablet as it varies from 3 mg to 1 mg from brand to brand.

The rules for hypoglycaemia is simple --- treat with 15 grams of carbohydrates and then check the blood glucose levels after 15 minutes. If the values are still under 70 mg/dl, repeat the rule of 15, as often as necessary, to get your blood levels back to normal. It would be good to keep these tablets on hand whenever you are out and about or on holiday in case any hypoglycaemia emergency should arise. This is very important for people on insulin or oral diabetes medications.