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If you find yourself in screaming fights every night with your spouse, you might want to check your blood sugar. A study shows that low blood sugar may make married people angrier at their spouses.

Low blood sugar makes you more aggressive

“What is the secret to a good marriage?” is a question often asked among married couples. For Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University and the study’s lead author, keeping your tummy full is a good way to keep your marriage strong, especially when you’re about to bring up a sensitive issue.

“Before you have a difficult conversation with your spouse, make sure you’re not hungry,” Bushman said. “People can relate to this idea that when they get hungry, they get cranky.”

This idea isn’t entirely new. We even have a name for it: “hangry.”

“We found that being hangry can affect our behavior in a bad way, even in our most intimate relationships,” said Bushman.

In their study, Bushman and his team recruited more than 100 couples and measured their blood sugar levels every day before breakfast and before bedtime. To measure their aggressive impulses, each participant was given 51 pins and a voodoo doll that represented their spouse. At the end of each day, the participants would insert 0 to 51 pins in the doll, depending on how angry they were with their partner. They did this alone over a period of 21 days and recorded the number of pins they stuck each night.

The lower the participants’ evening blood sugar levels, the more pins they stuck in the doll. Even those with a good relationship with their spouses were more likely to express anger if their blood sugar levels were lower.

The researchers then took the couples to the lab for an experiment that would measure aggressive behavior. The participants would compete with their spouse to see who could press a button faster. Whoever wins could freely blast his or her partner with a loud noise. In reality, the volunteers were playing against a computer that let them win half the time. And when they’re playing, their spouses were in separate rooms, so the noise was never delivered.

Those with lower evening blood sugar levels blasted a louder and longer noise to their spouse, regardless of their gender or whether they have a good relationship with their spouse. Those who stuck more pins in the doll were also more likely to send louder and longer noise.

“We found a clear link between aggressive impulses as seen with the dolls and actual aggressive behavior,” said Bushman.

As to why low blood sugar makes people angrier, Bushman explained that glucose, the main type of sugar in your blood, is fuel for the brain. The self-control needed to rein in your anger requires energy, and a huge portion of your energy is provided by glucose.

Symptoms and causes of hypoglycemia

When your blood sugar levels drop too low, you can experience hypoglycemia. The symptoms of hypoglycemia include:

• Feeling of extreme hunger
• Headaches
• Confusion
• Dizziness
• Inability to concentrate
• Excessive sweating
• Shaking
• Blurred vision
• Personality changes

People with diabetes are at the greatest risk of hypoglycemia for the following reasons:

1. Excessive use of insulin. Insulin is a hormone that regulates the amount of sugar in the blood. Diabetics don’t produce enough of this hormone or their body doesn’t use it efficiently. To manage their blood sugar levels, they take medications called human insulin. Taking too many of these medications can cause blood sugar levels to drop too low.
2. Skipping meals. Diabetics taking the right amount of insulin can experience hypoglycemia if they’re skipping meals, eating less than normal or eating late.
3. Excess physical activity. Exercising too much without eating enough can also lead to hypoglycemia.
4. Drinking alcohol. Drinking too much of the good stuff when you’re taking insulin can lead to hypoglycemia, especially if alcohol takes the place of food.

It’s not just diabetics who can experience low blood sugar. There are two types of hypoglycemia that people without diabetes must be wary of: reactive and non-reactive.

Reactive hypoglycemia usually happens when your body produces too much insulin. It occurs a few hours after a meal. Having reactive hypoglycemia may mean that you’re at risk of developing diabetes. Meanwhile, non-reactive hypoglycemia is due to an underlying condition, such as the following:

• Some eating disorders like anorexia
• Disorders that affect the liver, heart or kidneys
• Pregnancy
• Tumor of the pancreas
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Use of medications like those taken by adults and children with kidney failure

You can also experience hypoglycemia if you have dumping syndrome, a condition that causes your body to release excess insulin after eating a carb-rich meal. People who had stomach surgery to alleviate symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are commonly at risk of dumping syndrome.

Managing your blood sugar before making that tough conservation with your partner can help keep your cool and even bring a satisfying resolution to your problems. Be sure to eat energizing foods like grains and starchy veggies to avoid low blood sugar and check with a doctor if you experience symptoms of hypoglycemia.

Sources:

NaturalHealth365.com

ScienceDaily.com

Healthline.com 1

Healthline.com 2