During the last week, middle aged man came to me complaining about profuse sweating, feeling cold in the body, slurred speech lasting for few minutes since last 2 days. I found that he is a Diabetic since last 3 years and taking tablets for the same problem. His blood sugar was high during the follow up examination and he changed his physician for better control of his diabetes condition. He was advised to continue same medicines and changed the trade names of the drugs and timings. After going home, patient confused and he continue to take the old medicines as well as newly prescribed medicines. This has resulted in drastic fall in his blood sugar to the level below the normal limit (Hypoglycemia) repeatedly. Sometimes hypoglycemia without immediate attention and correction is dangerous to the health and may result in death.
This patient had hypoglycemia attack problems either poor instruction by physician or patient got confused with change of trade names and timings. These kind of emergency situations are known commonly with diabetes and High BP treatment.
Best way to prevent such emergency situations is to clarify with your physician regarding the medicines and dosages are same if the trade names are changed. The timings of the medicines are changed based on the individual patient response to the treatment.
