By Hakeem Alexander

(Exercising Your Mind) An often encountered challenge to Hypnotherapy and fitness training in my clinical practice and strategic applications is hypoglycemia. This condition can manifest in many ways that act as barriers to these self-improvement programs. This is because hypoglycemia interferes with a person’s motivation. Motivation is a primary factor in the successful outcome of any self-improvement goal.

When a person is hypoglycemic, their blood-sugar is low. Many times this is because the pancreas over-secretes, or releases too much insulin. This is known as hyperinsulinemia. Other times it may be due to starvation or improper use of diabetes medication.

It must be noted that I do not use medical diagnostics to measure blood glucose or determine whether there is a serious medical condition. This should be left to physicians, psychiatrists and psychologists. My determinations of correcting glucose-imbalances are through observations of symptoms and interviewing clients.

Some symptoms of hypoglycemia are abnormal cravings, low-energy, lethargy, feelings of anxiety and exhaustion. These symptoms can trigger a person to feel depressed. The hypoglycemic person’s suggestibility changes from a literal or paternal type to a more inferential or maternal type. In this case, incoming information may be misinterpreted and cause confusion, paranoia, and lead eventually to depression.

Other physiological symptoms, are often caused by neuroglycopenia, an inadequate supply of glucose in the brain, and glycopenia, a general low-glucose level in the body’s tissues. These symptoms, which may further contribute to depression are inability to reduce body-fat or change weight, nausea, muscle weakness, shakiness, dizziness, faintness, lack of concentration, unstable emotions, mood-swings and generalized dysfunction.

Usually low-energy episodes are alternated with adrenaline rushes and adds to the psychological burden from this often malnutrition-induced, bio-chemical, physical stress. Neuroglycopenia changes the way that the brain processes information, and can manifest as increased suggestibility, impaired logical reasoning, irrationality, inferential suspicion and moodiness.

In addition, when a person becomes depressed from internal poor “self-talk”, negative imaginings, worries or other endogenous emotional causes that generate physical reactions, the altered metabolic activity, vaso-constriction, and other stress-induced physical effects become more deeply embedded if not relieved. These more “permanent” effects may cause the body to attempt to re-balance or find homeostasis. This balancing reaction may further induce hypoglycemic conditions as the body “seeks” to correct what it “perceives” as a chemical imbalance.

It may be obvious that low-energy, lethargy, and all the other symptoms that may lead up to and including depression, might become a problem for anyone attempting to be more motivated towards any goals or exercise program. This is a primary reason for investigating low-blood sugar and its many detrimental effects on motivation, mood and physiology.

In my clinical practice, it has been observed that the regulation of optimum blood-sugar levels through corrective dietary programs, improves a person’s physical condition, emotional state and energy levels. When an individual experiences the correct balance unique to their biochemical make-up, hyper-suggestibility and over-stimulation is greatly eliminated.

Following the dietary changes, emotional stress is reduced along with irrational behavior and other undesired symptoms. This can reveal the underlying psychological condition which can more readily benefit from Hypnotherapy, exercise, or other treatment modalities. Often, it is discovered that blood-sugar imbalances were the primary source, and all negative symptoms are extinguished. As long as a sensible nutritional plan is followed, symptoms do not reappear and improvements continue.