Blood Sugar Blues

For the last three or four years, I've frequently had trouble concentrating. Sometimes I can spend an entire day unable to really concentrate on anything, whether it's writing code, talking with someone else, or even just reading a book. I have the vague memory that my mind used to be much sharper, and that I've somehow dumbed down noticeably since then, although it's been so long that I'm beginning to doubt the veracity of those memories.

More or less concurrent with this onset of stupidity, I started having very strong reactions to food: irritability, dizziness, and headaches. I explained this to my doctor, and she said I probably have hypoglycemia. So I assumed that the times when I had trouble concentrating were due to having low blood sugar, and I tried to compensate by eating food that I knew I would digest slowly, such as proteins, fats, and complex carbohydrates. This certainly helped me avoid the dizziness and headaches. However the confusion still didn't really go away, so I decided it was probably due to something else -- like my sleep schedule, perhaps, or maybe even just getting older, or being bored.

About a week ago a friend of mine got me a blood sugar meter, and I discovered to my surprise that when I have trouble concentrating, I actually have high blood sugar. So, recently I've tried keeping my blood sugar deliberately low by eating very small meals rather infrequently.

I've discovered that when my blood sugar is below normal, I can concentrate easily, and my fingers just fly through the code. In fact, I concentrate so much that I have regained that annoying habit of requiring a couple minutes in order to shift my attention from one thing to another. You know what I'm talking about -- you see it whenever you interrupt someone at work and they stare at you for a while before suddenly snapping out of it and asking you to repeat what you just said because they weren't actually listening.

As soon as I eat something, it only takes about ten minutes before my concentration is lost. I can literally feel it going. Actually, it feels like my concentration is still around, but it wants to concentrate on my forehead instead of whatever it is I'm trying to work on. Yes, my forehead, as silly as that sounds.

The drawback to keeping my blood sugar low is that it makes me dizzy, irritable, and gives me headaches. That's why I never really noticed before now how obvious it is that my problem is having too much food, not too little -- I had spent a considerable amount of effort making sure I never had low blood sugar. The only time I don't mind the symptoms is when I'm sitting in a chair, staring at a computer monitor for hours on end, without moving my head. If I move my head, I notice how dizzy I am.

I'll continue looking for a better balance of attention span and comfort, but for now my strategy is to eat very little during the work day, and then eat whatever I want once I get home. I'm also trying to eat breakfast as soon as I wake up, so that the worst of the confusion happens while I'm still at home, yet I have enough food to tide me over for a few hours once I get to work.