Today's ePaper. photos weather maharashtra elections. Farmers Protest. Delhi AAP Lok Sabha Seats. M Manikandan. Kanhaiya Lal Murder. Mallika Rajput. Farmers Delhi March. Follow us. Intermittent fasting is trending these days for weight loss.

However, doctors who treat diabetes and hormonal issues are coming across cases of sudden low sugar in non-diabetic patients who fast for unusually longer durations. NAGPUR: Intermittent fasting is trending these days for weight loss. It happens commonly with the people living with diabetes.

Explore Your Financial Landscape with Personalized Credit Insights. About the Author Chaitanya Deshpande. Chaitanya Deshpande is Principal Correspondent at The Times of India, Nagpur. He has a PG degree in English literature and Mass communication. Chaitanya covers public health, medical issues, medical education, research in the fields of medicine, microbiology, biotechnology.

He also covers culture, fine arts, theatre, folk arts, literature, and life. Insulin resistance is associated with higher levels of inflammation and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. How could fasting produce these benefits? There are a handful of theories, and several of them may turn out to be true.

One of the leading hypotheses—which is already supported by solid research—is that fasting kicks off a kind of cellular cleansing process that removes old or unhealthy cells and allows new ones to flourish.

More work is needed to iron all this out. But the research to date indicates that intermittent fasting may provide unique and meaningful health improvements for people with Type 2 diabetes.

The term intermittent fasting does not refer to a single well-defined practice. Several different approaches fall under the intermittent fasting umbrella.

The three most common and well-studied are known as time-restricted eating, alternate-day fasting, and the diet.

For example, someone on this diet may eat between noon and 6 p. each day, and avoid all caloric foods and drinks for the other 18 hours of the day. Meanwhile, someone on an alternate-day-fasting diet eats normally one day, but the next day consumes few or no calories.

Finally, the diet involves eating normally five days a week but fasting on the other two days. There are many variations of each of these plans. Read More: The Link Between Type 2 Diabetes and Psychiatric Disorders.

The first step, always, is talking with your physician or care team. But if she or he seems dismissive of fasting diets in general, it may be worth seeking a second opinion from a provider who has experience with these plans.

Intermittent fasting can be risky for some. But there is now evidence that it may be a helpful, or even superior, alternative to classic weight-loss plans for people with Type 2 diabetes. Contact us at letters time. Getty Images. By Markham Heid.

June 16, PM EDT. The risks of intermittent fasting Low blood sugar, a. Most cases of hypoglycemia occur in people with diabetes and are caused by insulin or other medications especially, sulfonylureas such as glyburide , glipizide , and glimepiride , see Medication Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus: Oral Antihyperglycemic Medications Oral Antihyperglycemic Medications Many people with diabetes require medication to lower blood glucose levels, relieve symptoms, and prevent complications of diabetes.

read more that they take to lower the levels of glucose in their blood. Hypoglycemia is more common when intense efforts are made to keep the glucose levels in the blood as close to normal as possible, or when people who take insulin do not check blood glucose levels frequently enough.

Major causes are diabetes and high blood pressure read more are more likely to have hypoglycemia. Older adults are more susceptible than younger people to hypoglycemia resulting from sulfonylurea medications. If, after taking a dose of a medication for diabetes, a person eats less than usual or is more physically active than normal, the medication may lower the level of glucose in the blood too much.

People with type 1 diabetes or people with long-standing type 2 diabetes at least 10 years are more prone to hypoglycemia in these situations because they may not produce enough glucagon or epinephrine to counteract a low level of glucose in the blood.

Certain medications other than those for diabetes, most notably pentamidine , used to treat a form of pneumonia that occurs most often as part of AIDS, and quinine , used to treat muscle cramps, occasionally cause hypoglycemia. An uncommon type of medication-related hypoglycemia sometimes occurs in people who secretly take insulin or other medications that treat diabetes as part of a psychologic disorder such as factitious disorder imposed on self Factitious Disorder Imposed on Self Factitious disorder is pretending to have or producing physical or psychologic symptoms for no apparent external reason.

The cause is unknown, but stress and a severe personality disorder may read more previously called Munchausen syndrome. In otherwise healthy people, prolonged fasting even up to several days and prolonged strenuous exercise even after a period of fasting are unlikely to cause hypoglycemia.

However, there are several diseases or conditions in which the body fails to maintain adequate levels of glucose in the blood after a period without food fasting hypoglycemia.

In people who drink heavily without eating, alcohol can block the formation of glucose in the liver. In people with advanced liver disease, such as viral hepatitis Overview of Acute Viral Hepatitis Acute viral hepatitis is inflammation of the liver, generally meaning inflammation caused by infection with one of the five hepatitis viruses.

In most people, the inflammation begins suddenly read more , cirrhosis Cirrhosis of the Liver Cirrhosis is the widespread distortion of the liver's internal structure that occurs when a large amount of normal liver tissue is permanently replaced with nonfunctioning scar tissue.

The scar read more , or cancer, the liver may not be able to store and produce sufficient glucose. Infants and children who have an abnormality of the enzyme systems that control glucose use such as a glycogen storage disease Glycogen Storage Diseases Glycogen storage diseases are carbohydrate metabolism disorders that occur when there is a defect in the enzymes that are involved in the metabolism of glycogen, often resulting in growth abnormalities read more also may have fasting hypoglycemia.

A rare cause of fasting hypoglycemia is an insulinoma Insulinoma An insulinoma is a rare type of tumor of the pancreas that secretes insulin, a hormone that lowers the levels of sugar glucose in the blood. These tumors arise from cells in the pancreas that read more , which is an insulin -producing tumor in the pancreas.

Disorders that lower hormone production by the pituitary and adrenal glands most notably Addison disease Adrenal Insufficiency In adrenal insufficiency, the adrenal glands do not produce enough adrenal hormones. Adrenal insufficiency may be caused by a disorder of the adrenal glands, a disorder of the pituitary gland read more can cause hypoglycemia.

read more , cancer, and sepsis Sepsis and Septic Shock Sepsis is a serious bodywide response to bacteremia or another infection plus malfunction or failure of an essential system in the body.

Septic shock is life-threatening low blood pressure read more , may also cause hypoglycemia, especially in critically ill people. Hypoglycemia can occur after a person eats a meal containing a large amount of carbohydrates reactive hypoglycemia if the body produces more insulin than is needed.

However, this type of reaction is rare. In some cases, people with normal blood glucose levels experience symptoms that can be confused with hypoglycemia.

After certain types of bariatric surgery Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Metabolic and bariatric weight-loss surgery alters the stomach, intestine, or both to produce weight loss in people have obesity or overweight and have metabolic disorders related to obesity read more , such as gastric bypass surgery, sugars are absorbed very quickly, stimulating excess insulin production, which then may cause hypoglycemia.

Rare problems with metabolism of some sugars fructose and galactose and amino acids leucine may also cause hypoglycemia if an affected person eats foods containing those substances.

Severe hypoglycemia: Dizziness, fatigue, weakness, headaches, inability to concentrate, confusion, slurred speech, blurred vision, seizures, and coma.

Some people develop symptoms at slightly higher levels, especially when blood glucose levels fall quickly, and some do not develop symptoms until the glucose levels in their blood are much lower.

The body first responds to a fall in the level of glucose in the blood by releasing epinephrine from the adrenal glands.