New medicinal Kratom user worried about blood sugar

[DelightedGoddess9]

As the title indicates I have been using Kratom for around 3 to 4 weeks now, and have been doing pretty good with what I consider a medium low dose of 4 g a day of the strain my friend calls green elephant, For energy and mental stimulation/motivation and energy. Today was the second time I had a negative experience that I am coming to associate with a too strong dose.
The first instance was much stronger from 5g of a new strain I wasn't used to (I had been takin "green Vietnam" before this incident and this was my first time using "green elephant"); I was nauseous and off-balance literally all day long. I felt like I was having a vertigo attack and a low blood sugar attack, and some weird eyeball migraine all at the same time. My friend who I get it from said this was normal when you took too much and that people call it the wobbles. She said to make sure I stay cool and hydrated and to eat enough food that day, and to skip a few days of taking it, and that it would fade which it did.
Today I took what was a normal dose for me of 4g and ate what I considered a good meal both before and after, though I might have been dehydrated in a general sense from having been to visit family in Colorado last week; I know the dry air and altitude does dehydrate me. I've been drinking lemon water to get back but maybe now enough...
I have PCOS which is a hormone imbalance that is, like all hormone issues, affected by my blood sugar levels. I also have a family history and personal experience of generally low blood pressure.
My question is threefold; one, is there a specific variation of Kratom that affects blood sugar and or blood pressure less, or do these things make it a plant that I should maybe not take at all? Or is there a medical or dietary supplement or adjunct that I can take with or alone to negate the side effects? I love the mental energy and I-can-get-it-done feeling I get from Kratom- I had been battling fatigue for almost 6 months, whether from depression or what I'm not sure. But it helps Me a lot until I have a day like this. I couldn't focus my eyes all day today- which caused a headache from trying to do anything other than lie on my couch with my eyes closed, eating a burrito with pepper sauce, praying it would stop so I could get something done today! It's almost gone now... Both the feeling and the day. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

I haven't noticed any significant changes in blood glucose when taking kratom (or any opiates/opioids for that matter). Ethanol is probably the most common recreational substance with the strongest direct effect on blood glucose, actually; there are other substances (like prednisone, certain anti-psychotic medications, etc) which can impact glucose, but regular old booze is probably the most common one that people consume regularly. I was under the impression that hypoglycemia could be avoided simply by maintaining a regular caloric intake...so couldn't you just eat food with the kratom if you were afraid of that issue? (I'm a type 1 diabetic so I'm familiar somewhat with blood glucose-related issues)

 

[DelightedGoddess9]

Thanks Burnt- I do make sure to take it with a meal or even two smaller meals, one before and one after; it may be that those meals contain too many carbs for it to be what my body needs. I seem to do better on low carb in general, so that might be my problem (I was using the carbs to do a soak-it-up sort of action with the Kratom, so to speak). I also was shown to take it mixed with honey (though I find coconut syrup tastes phenomenally better) then mix that with water to drink the Kratom. So that might be a part of the issue too. That's straight sugar, even if it does have a lot of soluble fiber in it.
And for clarity's sake I should say that what I'm experiencing sounds like what my friend described as a typical reaction to a too-high dose. It's like my eyes wouldn't focus all day, and I had nausea and vertigo.... So that might not be blood glucose related at all. But as that is my main issue in general, and then reading somewhere that Kratom does effect blood sugar levels I made an assumption about the cause of my problem.
It could be that I was dehydrated, which always exacerbates any problem. I guess I was more trying to ask for advice on that vertigo type feeling and also trying to pose a possible reason... It could be totally unrelated to my blood glucose levels.
I sure do appreciate your input- thanks for taking a few moments to help a newbie! Any advice on using this plant in general would be appreciated.

 

[ErgicMergic]

^If you're worried about blood glucose levels, maybe it's not the best idea to eat simple carbs like honey or coconut syrup. Those are straight sugar, really; natural, yes, but still straight sugar without enough fiber to slow down its absorption. This leads to spiked blood glucose/insulin levels which explains your symptoms.

That being said, Kratom is relatively weak, medicinal plant that many people use safely, but it also contains opioid alkaloids, albeit in low amounts. Taking too much of any opioid can cause your blood sugar to drop too low.

I also see that you've mentioned being diagnosed with PCOS, leading to endocrine issues even before starting Kratom. You might want to take a look into the other alkaloids of the plant and see if they're affecting you; I'd start with the yohimbine-like alkaloid since it works partially on the endocrine system, and work your way from there.

 

[IamMe90]

I know I'm bumping a nearly year-old thread from the grave, but I figured I'd add in my experience as it may be of interest to other diabetics out there; I haven't been able to find much about this at all after some cursory google searching.

Background: I've been living with type 1 diabetes for just about fifteen years. I had a lot of ups and downs controlling it while in my teenage years to my early 20s, but have recently (last couple years) began to manage it much more strictly after developing some unpleasant urinary symptoms (frequency, urgency) that my urologist believes may be early signs of (hopefully reversible) neuropathy. Last three A1C results have been: 6.2, 6, 6.7.

For me, kratom consistently has a lowering effect on my blood glucose levels. The extent to which it lowers my readings can vary markedly, but it seems to consistently have that effect to some degree on the whole. Sometimes, it can be very pronounced. Although I have had many such instances, tonight is a good example. I wanted to go on a run (I regularly run/exercise, about 3-5 times a week, ranging from 3-5 miles per run usually) after dosing kratom about 2 hours previously, but my glucose was low (60), even though I had just eating a rather large, caloric sandwich, which I estimated to be about 50g of carbohydrates. I had bolused 4 units of novolog insulin for that meal, so 15g:unit carb:insulin ratio; I wouldn't normally be running low after such, especially only about half hour after finishing the sandwich. I won't explain my thought process behind the following course of action that I took, other than that I knew to expect dramatically lower than normal blood glucose trends, but essentially, I drank: 3 HI-C juice boxes (22g sugar per box), ate 3 Reese's peanut butter cups (12g carb, 11 of which are sugar per cup), ate 1 two-piece Kitkat bar (9g carb, 7 of which are sugar per two-piece bar), and a 25g carbohydrate bag of potato chips--all without taking any insulin. I waited until my glucose reached 180, then went on my run. After finishing my run, my glucose was at 120

Now, granted, my run was sort of hardcore, as I find that kratom significantly amplifies my stamina. I went 6.36 miles in 56 minutes, including a steep hill; however, it isn't unusual at all for me to go on 5 mile runs while sober without needing to preload with quite such an absurd amount of carbohydrates. And I mean absurd; consuming 136g of carbohydrates, 131g of which were simple sugar, without taking any insulin and actually dropping down to 123 an hour later would never happen while sober, not even with intensive exercise.

There have been other times with no exercise involved whatsoever, yet I will have to drink juice (no solid carbs in these such instances because I was feeling nauseous at the tail-end of a kratom high) after juice just to hover at 60-70 for over period of hours. We're talking in the neighborhood of 7-8 juices.

I'm not sure what the reason for this is, or why it seems to have such a variable effect from person to person, and even from experience to experience with the same person; I suspect that kratom may act as some sort of catalyst to the efficient use of insulin by the body in diabetics, much like exercise (and hence the two in combination may have an exponential/synergistic effect); but I know that there's definitely something going on there.

Any other diabetic kratom users on here that can chime in with their own experiences? I am very curious.

 

[asecin]

i can say for sure kratom lowers my blood sugar extremely. used it for many years, but i was younger and didnt notice or care back in the day, now days i can certaintly take notice it does that. depending on dose, quality and type of kratom, it might lower blood sugar more so than red wine. i know 2 bottles of red wine will lower my blood sugar so much, ill go into shock, but a heavy dose of good quality kratom of specific type will do that much faster easily

 

[IamMe90]

i can say for sure kratom lowers my blood sugar extremely. used it for many years, but i was younger and didnt notice or care back in the day, now days i can certaintly take notice it does that. depending on dose, quality and type of kratom, it might lower blood sugar more so than red wine. i know 2 bottles of red wine will lower my blood sugar so much, ill go into shock, but a heavy dose of good quality kratom of specific type will do that much faster easily

It's interesting how differently these substances affect us all of us in this regard. For instance, alcoholic drinks do not lower my blood glucose. they just raise it like any other carb-containing food/beverage, except maybe not quite as much.

 

[asecin]

i didnt say "alcoholic beverages" in general, i said dry red wine. it seems my fault though, i forgot to say well oak aged dry red wine. i have had blood sugar raise by almost any other alcohol like for example, sweet white wine, dear lord that raises my sugar. anyway, i had to specify this, dry red wine aged in oak

ill give you something to read; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenolic_content_in_wine