There was a story in the news this week* about a BBC presenter who had to apologise to listeners after having a hypo while on air.
World Service presenter Alex Ritson has type 1 diabetes, and apparently, his introduction to an early morning news programme left him stumbling over words. He later explained what had happened, and said it was appropriate, as the programme would also be running a story on new research into diabetes published in The Lancet.
I’ve often wondered how public figures who have type 1 diabetes cope with hypos. Those of us who aren’t famous only need to worry about treating them—and sometimes that isn’t always easy—but what about if you’re in the middle of presenting a news programme, or fighting with other politicians a la Theresa May?
[Perhaps she can blame low blood sugars for the immense confusion that currently surrounds Brexit. Some people get violent when they are hypo too so she could use that as an excuse to punch Boris.]
When you have experienced hypos over the years, your body adjusts to them, and the symptoms you get are nowhere near as severe as they were the first few times. Nevertheless, confusion and brain fog still occur.
I remember sitting at meetings or trying to explain myself at work and scrabbling around for words that suddenly seemed to vanish. You get a split second where you panic—where are the words, where are the words—before realising what is going on. I reckon that’s what happened to Alex Ritson, and the panic was probably vile because he was on-air and knew millions of people were listening to him.
Alex later said on Twitter that having a hypo on air had been a recurring nightmare for years, but the Twitter community responded really well with people sympathising, and the JDRF tweeted a handy infographic that showed the signs of hypos, a useful guide for family, friends and colleagues of we type 1s.
*While researching this article, I found out that actor James Norton is a type 1, which made me happy. Nothing at all to do with the fact that he’s exceptionally good looking, #T1DLooksLikeMe…
Diabetes Diet 
I think this is a fascinating story. I am glad to be clued in on the situation.
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You can listen to it online, but I thought I’d leave the guy to his dignity. He explained what had happened and he wrote about it later in a piece for the in-house BBC magazine, so that’s enough.
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As a (reactive) hypo-prone Type 2, I sympathise. In retrospect most of my symptoms going back to early childhood which were diagnosed as “psychiatric” in origin relate to rapid drops in blood glucose. Not just the actual fainting but confusion attacks and an inability to stay awake mainly in the afternoon. I’d like to go back and relate them to the amount of carbs in my breakfast and lunch.
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Interesting point, Chris
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