My Hypoglycemic Attack

By Liz Nierzwicki

Saturday was a pretty exciting morning for me as I was headed to the studio to teach two of my favorite classes: Body Sculpt and then Hot CORE Flow and then after that, head to Chicago for St. Patty's Day. All was great until I started to have chest pains and not feel so great. What happened?

For those of you that know me, you know that I talk about eating protein at every meal. This particular Saturday morning I debated making my usual eggs and oatmeal or just going the easy route and having a quick bowl of organic raisin bran cereal with almond milk.  I chose the later, having an organic version of raisin bran (raisins removed) with the following nutrition label:

Nutrition Facts 
Serving Size: 3/4 cup

Calories Total 190
Total Fat 2.5g
Sodium 190
Total Carbohydrate 41
Dietary fiber 8g
Sugars 12 g
Protein 6 g

This clearly was not good enough for my body especially before an intense workout like the one we had in Body Sculpt that day.  After Body Sculpt my chest was hurting right above my heart and I didn't feel right but non-the-less, I had another class to teach; Hot CORE Flow.  So I tried to make myself feel better by drinking water and I even got a frozen bag of berries out of the freezer to put on my neck and head because I was sweating so much from class.  

I looked at Ellie, my front desk associate, before heading in to teach the 2nd class and told her I didn't feel right.  My heart was still racing as we sat there in the beginning of class doing our breathing exercises to quiet the mind and turn off the outer world to prepare ourselves for our yoga practice.  This was not easy this day for me as my inner world was going crazy.  Once I got the class started and they were in downward facing dog I stood up to walk around the room, took two steps and everything started to go black, I sat back down and could see again, but I felt very weird and my body was not right.  All in a matter of seconds... I debated just sitting there to teach the class or stopping the class all together.  I had to stop, something was happening and I couldn't go forward teaching.  I stopped directing the class and asked if there was a nurse in the room because I felt like I was going to faint and then I laid down.  One particular student stayed after Body Sculpt and took my second class, she jumped up right away when I said this, and was very fast to help, another student went to get me a cold water, another student went to get cold rags, while another student got me a coconut water.  Everyone was so helpful.  

I stayed fully alert throughout all of this but my body was starting to fail me.  My hands and feet started to tingle and go cold and then my ears started to tingle.  My heart was racing and my breathing was rapid.  One of my students started to direct me to take slower and deeper breaths (I thought that was pretty cool).  After a few minutes of this my hands and feet started to go stiff and they were locking up on me, I couldn't move my fingers anymore.  Once the paramedics got there they took my blood pressure and then they pricked my finger for a blood sugar test and found that my blood sugar was at 46, normal ranges are between 70-100. This was the problem, my blood sugar was way too low, so low that it was causing my body to go into Hypoglycemia.  Hypoglycemia is when the glucose (sugar) in your blood is too low.  Hypoglycemia can happen to people with out without diabetes, can develop quickly, and can be a very dangerous medical emergency.  Symptoms of hypoglycemia include: sweating, heart palpitations, trembling, anxiety, hunger, irritability.  When the brain goes without glucose the later set of symptoms occur: difficulty in thinking, confusion, headaches, seizures, and even coma or death.

The paramedics took care of the hypoglycemia by giving me pure glucose to swallow.  This raised my glucose a little at a time, at first to 56 after about 10 minutes, and then up to 79 once they pricked my finger for a third time in the ambulance.  Ugh! That little prick hurts, I still have a bruise on my finger.  I can't imagine doing that everyday.  I didn't really feel the hospital was necessary but, they took me there anyway because my chest pains were still present and they wanted to get me checked out further.  The hospital visit was unnecessary because all the tests came back fine, but I guess it was better to prove I was ok then sorry right?!  But, I'm not looking forward to those bills. 

Needless to say, we had to stop the class that day, which I felt really bad about.  I remember saying "I'm sorry" over and over again to everyone in there.  They were all so helpful and fast reacting.  I'm so happy to be surrounded by such a great, loving community of yogis.  

So I want everyone to know... it wasn't the class that did this to me.  It was a combination of things and my body, and what I put in to it, or in this case, did not put in to it this particular morning.  I have always had low blood sugar and when I was a kid I used to faint a lot because I didn't eat enough and my sugars would get so low, that just hasn't happened to me since I was about seven or eight years old.  So lesson learned!  I will eat protein at every meal!

Did I end up going to Chicago... ? Yes, of course and it was a sea of green shirts celebrating the arrival of spring and St. Patty's Day! I was not 100% that day so I took it easy.  Today, after a few days rest, I'm ready to get back on that mat and teach all of you.  Here's to a great day!

Namaste,

Thanks for reading everybody. We'd love to hear from you, please talk to us in the comments below. 

Liz Nierzwicki, BS, ACSM-CPT, E-RYT elevates personal growth as a lifestyle, as an entrepreneur and life coach. She is the founder of Solace Yoga Studio and creator of the online lifestyle program called figureFIT! (figurefitlife.com). Liz is the personal trainer, yoga teacher, and lifestyle coach to many clients all over the globe via her online figureFIT! program. She spends most of her time in Mishawaka, Indiana either running the business and teaching at Solace Yoga Studio or creating content for her online community. As a passionate advocate for mind, body, and spiritual health, she is writing her first book, "figureFIT! The Keys to Health and Happiness" detailing the figureFIT! program and how to balance our lives to be truly happy and healthy.

She is a frequent contributor to Paleo Magazine, Sassy Magazine, and Family Magazine. You’ll find many of her articles on the following blogs; GoFITTY, Mind Body Green and The Huffington Post. Liz leads annual yoga and fitness retreats around the globe and also runs Solace Yoga School programs twice per year.


For more from Solace, please sign up for our newsletter at solaceyogastudio.com. For more from Liz, check out her figureFIT! lifestyle program to become your best self; or sign up for her newsletter at: www.figurefitlife.com. It’s only via her newsletter where you will receive exclusive video blogs, podcasts, workouts, yoga videos, and meditation audios.