Symptoms are interpreted differently depending on age. Hypoglycemia as dementia....
http://goo.gl/g6s6GWMost of the time, the older woman seemed sharp. But increasingly, she became confused and disoriented — a case of “intermittent dementia,” one doctor speculated. Further tests were ordered, and then another diagnosis emerged.
It wasn’t dementia at all. It was hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. The woman had diabetes and was taking too much medication. Once the doses were lowered, her cognitive symptoms disappeared.
Dr. Kasia Lipska, an instructor at Yale School of Medicine, told me this story as she described hypoglycemia among older adults, a growing concern. Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 29 million Americans have diabetes, up from 26 million in 2010.
Older adults with diabetes are more likely than younger people to have bouts of low blood sugar because of altered kidney function, other medical conditions, other medications that interact with their diabetes drugs and a reduced ability to sense the warning signs of hypoglycemia: shakiness, sweatiness, dizziness, weakness, a feeling of intense hunger and blurred vision, among others. When glucose circulating in the blood plummets precipitously, people can collapse, lose consciousness, become delirious and die.