I have been doing Atkins for about a year now. A couple of weeks ago we went out for a drink and I ordered a Mai Tai - not a good choice, I know, but it sounded so good! Anyhow, I only finished about 1/4 of my drink and within 20-30 mins I fainted - flat out on the sidewalk. I had a glucose test this week and have ruled out diabetes - which runs in my family. I had exercised a lot the previous week and have not had a glass of juice in at least 6 mos. Any ideas? Has anyone else ever had this happen?

Gee, do you happen to know someone by the name of "Lynn47"?

Funny, we seem to be having a run of first-time posters who pop on the boards to see if anyone else has had odd "health problems" which they seem to want to link to low-carb diets...

FYI, I have been doing atkins for years, and have never fainted from having an occasional treat - including a big ice cream Sunday every Mother's Day.

I will say that it is well known (among college kids, anyway) that doing a "no carb" diet for a few days before a drinking binge will decrease the amount of alcohol you have to drink to get "buzzed."

But after a whole year on Atkins, you are no doubt well into OWL and eating a lot more carbs than induction level, so that really wouldn't apply so much to you, would it?

On the other hand, I do vouch for the increased intoxicating power of alcohol while on a low-carb diet. It only takes one glass of wine for me, and I start getting silly.

My question would be how long has it been since you last had alcohol? I remember my first drink after starting Atkins nearly knocked me on my butt.

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Libby

2004 174/142/138

Begin Again 2007

164/159/142

I regularly have low carb beer on weekends - but do not drink hard alcohol often at all. I am not trying to "blame" low carb eathing for this. I am just curious if anyone has had the same experience. In general I feel and look great! I have never been happier - or smaller in my life. I drink plenty of water and try to follow the eating plan as much as I can. My energy level is through the roof. I run 5.5 miles at least 3 times a week. Atkins has literally turned me in to a completely different person. But, I am concerned that perhaps it is something I am or not doing that could have attributed to the fainting episode. I almost fainted once back in November but managed to get to the car (passenger seat) before falling. The fact that it has happened twice in 4 mos concerns me.

yes, that is quite concerning. hmm.

What tests has your doctor done besides the blood glucose?

Does he/she know you do low carb? Perhaps you are on BP meds, and your pressure gets too low? If you take ANY meds, especially BP, blood thinners, or diuretics, you MUST be keeping in close contact and be monitored by your personal physician.

That's what I can think of right off the bat.

Also, how exactly carbs per day are you taking in? With your level of exercise, you might need to be increasing that! The people at Atkins will tell you: There is no benefit to living at a carb level below what you need to be living at to lose or maintain your weight and/or control the symptoms of various things (BG, PCOS, etc.).

There are just so many factors!

And yes, I do get suspicious. We have many people who regularly "troll" here, trying to stir up trouble. I am monitoring several IP addresses currently, of a person/people who were previously banned and seem to be back. I do apologize. But part of my job here is to keep this place "safe", and since you have never posted before, and your first post was what it was, I wondered.

Actually, to be honest, my Dr. does not seem too concerned and they are attributing it to the fact that I had exercised hard that week so the metabolism was going and then I dumped juice into my system and sugar overloaded. I do eat sugar every Sunday. My boyfriend and I get a pint of ice cream and two spoons and watch Sunday TV. It's my only treat of that kind, so I don't feel bad about doing it! I had a complete physical in December and my levels on everything came back better than they have ever been. I do keep my carb levels low - between 20 and 50. That's where I feel best.

Sorry to hear there are people causing trouble on here. I have been reading you guys for the past year and have found this site a very valuable piece of the program! I have not had any problems until this so never needed to post!

Charmed, I hope you start coming back regularly. Sounds like you are doing everything fine. I get blackouts once in a great, great while, but that started when I was on some really nasty diet pills many many years ago. I still think I have lingering effects from that. and we are talking over 15 years. They tested me thoroughly at the time - and I just deal with them when they happen now. more like brownouts, as I call them.

I'd go with your dr's feeling unless it happens again.

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Mary Kay
2009 - 223
Valentines day goal - 214

Well, I'm glad you finally "de-lurked" as we say, though sorry it was due to a scare like that! Looking forward to hearing more from you.

Which kind of "glucose test" did you have, Charmed?

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You must try a glucose tolerance test, for sure. Looks like you had a moment of several hypoglicaemia. This thing can occur with glucose intolerants people and a simple glucose test do not reveal this problem.
When you are LCing your insulin stay on control, so when you eat sugar (like the juice) you can have a insulin spike and a very low glucose level after (hypoglicaemia)... Talk to your doc about!

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The glucose test my docotor performed consisted of me fasting overnight - they took my blood when I arrived and then had me drink something that was very similar to orange soda. They took my blood every hour after that for 3 hours. I am not on any medication so that is not a factor.

After I lost a lot of weight, I had some gray-outs and one total black-out. The black-out was in a bar, with one of my brothers, after I had had a little bit of tap beer and had smoked a little bit of a joint. It might have been the joint tha contributed to it, or the beer, but my doctors said that I was experiencing *POSTURAL HYPOTENSION*, a not uncommon thing with people that lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.

Postural Hypotension is a condition in which your blood pressure gets too low when you stand up suddenly. It's not dangerous. Your body may have to get used to the new weight level.

If you are having a gray-out, bend over at the waist and breathe for a while, until it goes away.

What is a gray-out? Well, in case you have never had one, it's when you feel a little faint, and the color seems to go out of your vision. It's a low blood pressure thing. Fighter pilots often get it because they are accellerating at high-gee and the blood rushes from their head temporarily, interfering with vision, a situation similar to postural hypotension.

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"And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours."

This may be way off base but could it be epilepsy? You don't have to born with it to have it. My sister developed it when she hit puberty and my uncle developed it when he was 30 something. Your fainting could be black out siezures. if it happens often, one every few weeks or more, I would ask my doctor about epilepsy.

Thanks so much for all the input - Insomnia, I tend to think it's what you are referring to. I don't smoke pot, but perhaps the combination of fruit juice and rum was enough to send me out of balance. So far nothing else has happened - so keeping my fingers crossed and sterring clear of juice!