If you’ve experienced them too, you know the drill: the crushing chest pain, the racing mind, the sensation of your stomach in your throat. Countless trips to urgent care, only to be reassured that physically, everything appears fine. It took nearly 15 years for me to uncover the crucial missing piece.
- What are Panic Attacks?
- Medical Red Flags
- Treatments
- My Solution
- You Are Not Crazy
What Are Panic Attacks?
Understanding the beast is the first step in conquering it. Panic attacks are intense surges of fear or anxiety that can strike suddenly and without warning. They can mimic the symptoms of a heart attack, making sufferers feel as though they’re losing control or even dying. Recognizing these episodes for what they are can be empowering.
My personal suffering with panic attacks was I always thought I was going to die from a heart attack the chest pain and heart pounding were just too strong. Yet every time I would show up to urgent care I was told, “Everything is fine it’s in your head.” AND IT WASN’T. You see urgent care only was hooking me up to an EKG, there were 2 huge red flags they were missing and not looking at.
Medical Red Flags
Typical panic attacks are primarily rooted in psychological distress. However, urgent care was never checking this underlying factor that mimicked a panic attack. BLOOD SUGAR! For me, in 2021 after having difficulty losing weight (I gained 50lbs taking a thyroid medicine, then also had a baby and it was pandemic). I started listening to a lot of Dr. Mark Hayman and he introduced me to a Continuous Glucose Monitor by January AI. This tool seemed promising to lose weight, I mean since I wasn’t able to learn weight, it sounded promising to learn the foods that were making my blood sugar spike.
I received my CGM. But to my surprise, I didn’t have high blood sugar. In fact, nothing at all spiked my blood sugar, it only crashed.
My “Panic Attacks”
I continued to experiment with food, clearly insulin resistant since I would eat tacos, ice cream, etc and no blood sugar spike. Then came the day I had red wine. Drinking often sets of my “panic attacks.” ONLY this time I was wearing my CGM and scanned it with my phone when I felt the heart beating in my stomach, the racing thought, the wanting to puke feeling…. Only to find out my blood sugar was below 40! Which is very low.
That was episode #1 where I learned I was having this feeling and my blood sugar was low. Now, since it was with alcohol I still thought there was a psychological aspect to it.
Then came episode #2. I decided to hike, with my 25lb 2-year-old on my back, not just a leisurely walk. I hiked a waterfall… It was the hardest hike I’ve done to date with the extra weight and the sun. I felt ok minus the body fatigue. The next day came around, I COULD NOT GET my blood sugar about 40. I was at a baseball game feeling like absolute poooo, full chest, racing heart, so beyond irritable. So I got a “quick sugar” Powerade. Nothing, still low. Then I had a burger, but nothing still low. I tried all day and couldn’t get my blood sugar up. It was so low from hiking.
Now had I gone to the doctor they probably would have told me I over-exercised and the Colorado altitude got to me.
You can not let your ongoing symptoms be dismissed.
Here is what it looks like when you scan in your CGM:
Treatments
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for managing panic attacks, but several strategies have proven effective for many sufferers. But the best thing you can do is find the root cause. For me self labeling “panic attacks,” kind of blinded everyone looking at me to check my heart. When the root cause was my blood sugar and insulin resistance.
My Solution
Only through listening to my whole body symptoms from irritability, hanger, inability to lose weight was I able to figure out the missing red flag. If you also suffer from these symptoms, or a storm of random symptoms please book a telehealth appointment with me so we can discuss options for tools to end these health scares for you.
You Are Not Crazy
- My pastor Shawn Johnson suffers from severe panic attacks. Like airplanes kicking him off, traffic-stopping type of panic attacks. There are real panic attacks that come from invisible demons. He has overcome his lifelong battle with anxiety and wrote a book called Attacking Anxiety. If you suffer, you have to read this. It really is a life tool to having success in your battle. He says it often and I want to share with you, “ You are not crazy, and This will end.” Yes, there will be an end to your panic attacks, there are resources and knowledgeable practitioners that can help. This isn’t the end of your story, this isn’t even your ongoing story, this will be a thing of the past that you will look back on and have countless tools to walk through life with.
Conclusion
Remember, you are not defined by your struggles, but by the strength and resilience with which you face them. You are not a person with panic attacks, you are a person. And I want to give you the tools that took me so many years to find. Here is how to get your own CGM, so you can start to have insights to your health and learn about what helps and harms your body. You will have live-in-time data about how you react to gluten, dairy, carbs, low-carb diets, exercise, etc. I also want you to have a copy of Attacking Anxiety. Right now our youth are under attack, a war on their mental health. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among kids ages 10-24. Having this book will equip you to help others in your life to get the help they need and let them know they are not alone.
Low Blood Sugar UPDATE:
The CGM was the tool that showed me I had insulin resistance and low blood sugar. But a client of mine owns Epsolution™️, which has been the product that finally healed over 15 years of insulin resistance. Soaking nightly for just one month in this magnesium sulfate has not only healed my insulin resistance but has removed hidden toxins that were causing so much of my health troubles. CLICK HERE for your introductory offer. If you suffer from autoimmune, Chron’s disease, chronic cramping, irritability, or hormone imbalance, this is a proven solution to healing.
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