A panic attack occurs due to psychological reasons. But the causes for Relative hypoglycemia are physiological more than psychological.
Relative hypoglycemia occurs due to one of the following two reasons :
1) When blood sugar is falling rapidly--say from 300 to a 200 within a few minutes. This is generally observed in ppl with insulin resistance. Their body responds very late to insulin, and when it does respond after hours, the effect is rapid. Blood sugar begins to come down rapidly leading to hypoglycemic symptoms even at blood glucose numbers of 200 or above. This is not a panic attack. This is hypoglycemia and if the person is not allowed a little something to eat at that time to stabilize himself, the consequences could be dangerous.
2) It also occurs when a person whose body has become accustomed to high blood sugar ( say 300 or 400) is trying to bring it down straightaway to a hundred (without an in-between target) with large units of insulin. This can be explained as follows :
Imagine what happens when you go on a crash diet or sudden starvation .
If your body is used to 5 plates of food in a day and you suddenly begin to starve it bringing down the quantity to half a plate ALL AT ONCE , what happens ? You grow weak and tired and shaky and sweaty and you will even faint within 24 to 48 hours.
But suppose you bring down the quantity gradually--5--4--2--1--1/2 over weeks giving ample time for the body to adjust and adapt to the changes each time, then your body will survive on even a quarter plate in a day or just one morsel in a day without fainting.
While sudden starvation has even killed ppl, gradual starvation has made bodies adapt to, and survive on plain water and air too............
Same way when bringing down sugar levels, body must be given time to adapt to the new sugar levels by bringing down the sugar gradually and not all of a sudden. If your body is adapted to a sugar level of say 400 , then let your new target be 300. Give body time to adapt to this new target for a few weeks and then proceed to your next target of 200 and then 100 and then lower.
But if you try to bring a 300 or a 400 straightaway to a 100 , you will suffer hypoglycemia symptoms and you can actually faint ( never mind what your physician says ) coz your body is not adapted yet to sudden lows.
AND THIS IS NOT A PANIC ATTACK. PSYCHIATRIC PILLS WILL NOT TREAT IT.
IF A PERSON TREMBLES AND SHAKES OR FAINTS WHILE ON A SUDDEN CRASH DIET, DO YOU SUGGEST PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT FOR HIM OR DO YOU SUGGEST HE DIET MORE SLOWLY BRINGING DOWN THE QUANTITY OF FOOD LITTLE BY LITTLE EVERYDAY........................ ?
Make both--diabetics and diabetologists aware of this. Physicians first follow this very wrong method of trying to normalize high sugar levels all at once with large doses of insulin and then diagnose the following hypoglycemic symptoms as panic attacks tossing all common sense aside and refer the person to a psychiatrist. More confusion and more trouble follows the patient.