Hypoglycemia (even a relative hypoglycemia) can precipitate a pretty significant spiraling cycle of worsening metabolic acidosis in people predisposed to this who drink alcohol. It really doesn't have to do with glucose, carbs, etc, etc. except in the most tangential sense.

I like examples like this because it is a common condition (drinking alcohol) that is commonly misunderstood and illustrates how expert advice is meaningless if the advice being given is based on a diagnosis which just happens to be wrong.

*************************************************************




This reminds me of a story. Pull up a chair and pour yourself a drink...

I had a conversation with a woman the other day who was telling me about her teenage daughter who started having "panic attacks" shortly after moving away to college. She only had symptoms when she would start to freak out over an upcoming test or paper that was due. She went to the student health dept, and her family doctor while home on break, and was given prescriptions for several anxiety meds and referred to a good therapist, none of which stopped her attacks.

Desperate for help she turned the bottomless pit of misinformation that is the internet and her clueless friends who authoritatively told her how to cure her panic attacks. Some information was good advice on how to treat panic attacks, some was expert advice, and some was just as worthless as anything you can find in the cage on XPT.

Just before deciding to drop out of college for good, she had one of her attacks and lost consciousness and became unresponsive. After a quick trip to the local ER, her panic attacks were cured forever in just a few minutes because her panic attacks were finally correctly diagnosed as asthma.

I wonder how long it took after leaving the ER before her friends started giving advice about how the right diet can cure asthma. After all, if the right diet can cure Steve Jobs' cancer, why can't it cure asthma?