Ballet dancer health, blood sugar balance, depression and hypoglycemia

Ballet dancer health, blood sugar balance, depression and hypoglycemia

Young ballet dancers often leave casual comments that relate to their self-esteem issues. Whether it's a body image problem, a perfection problem, a weight control problem, or a mildly depressive low energy problem, they either don't come out and say it, or they really can't articulate the problem. When I recently started reading about hypoglycemia and blood sugar balance, I began to associate its symptoms with many of the statements I've heard.

I became more interested in hypoglycemia and its sometimes subtle symptoms due to a conversation with a non-dancer, a talented performer, in a different field. This person has played in many countries, is pushed by all of their teachers, and yet cannot accept the accolades from teachers or peers or the enthusiasm of fans because - they just can't.

This person's lack of self-esteem baffles me. A person who won the number one state award for acting in high school? It's like winning the ballet competition with the Blue Bird or Swan Lake Pas de Deux.

Eating disorders are most broadly defined as the behavior that results in an emotional outcome by controlling what you eat. This does not necessarily mean anorexia or bulimia, but can refer to a practice of self-control or self-approval regarding food, calorie content, and this does not just apply to dancers.

It can be an extreme situation, like a teenager who insists on being vegan. I personally saw the result lead to stress fractures in this dancer who still thought she would be able to get stronger on pointe and have a professional career in ballet while looking at her x-rays.

Recently I looked into hypoglycemia and its symptoms. This is difficult. The symptoms are almost individual. But the dominant symptoms from what I've read are:

• Traurigkeit
• Selbstkritik
• Hoffnungslosigkeit
• Gefühle von absolut keinem Selbstwert
• periodisches völliges Versagen der Energie, Schwindel, geistige Verwirrung
• Selbstmordgedanken, aber nicht genug Energie, um weiter zu denken

Hypoglycemia is…drumroll…low blood sugar!

It is caused by a lack of protein or simply lack of nutrition.

Hypoglycemia does not mean you are diabetic or almost diabetic. More specifically called reactive hypoglycemia, this is a condition that results from a poor diet or not eating often enough for some reason. Or eating too many carbohydrates with too little protein.

The most common recommendation for hypoglycemic medications is to eat some protein every two hours.

I would also like to mention the rule of nutritionists that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why? Proteins reset your brain chemicals for the day. Skip these and your brain chemicals won't function properly until the next day if you happen to eat protein for breakfast.

Dance parents reading this - how often does your dancing daughter or son run out of the house and skip breakfast because they slept in?

And what will they eat when they go to the food banks at school? Or will they be starving by the time they get to the school cafeteria for lunch? This is a miserable situation for a non-athlete, let alone a ballet dancer or other athlete.

And later, when they run to their ballet academy? Are you one of those ballet parents who suffer when you hear “I’m not that good”… “I’m not good enough”… and worse? While the ballet teacher tells you that your child should aim higher – auditioning for professional summer intensives?

Still confused? Let me give you some relief. Hypoglycemia without diabetes http://benjimester.hubpages.com is an insightful discussion. It's worth reading the entire thread.

Personally, I believe hypoglycemia is caused by:

• mangelnde Aufklärung über Ernährung
• verarbeitete Fast-Food-Tiefkühlprodukte
• nicht genug Zeit, um frische Lebensmittel zu servieren, was darauf hinweist, was nahrhaftes Essen ist
• Zuckersucht (Ernährungsunwissenheit)
• Unwissenheit über Getreide, GVO-Getreide, Glutin und GVO-Zucker

And unfortunately I can't cover much more here. BUT please, if your dancing child or anyone in your family is having energy or depression issues - but not severe enough to warrant consulting your doctor (who will likely have no nutrition education) or therapist, please investigate hypoglycemia. It's an insidious condition - but can be reversed with a good diet!

It's not that difficult. I would like to never again hear of a ballet dancer or any other type of performing artist feeling grumpy, depressed, sad, or hopeless about their talent or potential when they have no idea where all this negativity is coming from. And they skip meals, eat non-food snacks and have low blood sugar...

I would like to never hear again from a sad, depressed ballet parent whose amazingly talented child is failing, sinking, not even treading water, suffering from body image or self-esteem issues, and thinking about quitting ballet or even committing suicide. Due to lack of nutrient balance.

This can require a lot of extra food prep for ballet parents! If you are still reading this post, you agree.

Inspired by Dianne M. Buxton