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Health

Hunger sensation and comorbidities

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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We determine the feeling of hunger by a peculiar pressure and sucking in the pit of the stomach, accompanied by the sounds of “rumbling” in the stomach area.

Some people cannot identify any specific symptoms of hunger during hunger: they experience a so-called "general feeling" that does not relate to a specific area of the human body or any one organ. In this case, one simply feels general tension in the body, thoughts are confused, bringing to the forefront the main goal - to eat. If this feeling is strong, then the person becomes almost indifferent to what to eat and where. For this reason, "breakdowns" often occur on food that is harmful to the body, which a person usually avoids: fast food, snacks, chips or store-bought chebureki.

Over time, the feeling of hunger can undergo some changes, sometimes pathological ones, when hunger literally begins to control us, despite the fact that we continue to eat food in the same quantities. When the feeling of hunger begins to fail and becomes incorrect, we will talk about this a little later.

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Feeling hungry and nauseous

Often these symptoms are signs of some diseases, for example, diabetes. But this is not always the case. Sometimes nausea is provoked by hunger itself: a person eats - the nausea goes away.

We will give you the most common reasons for the simultaneous appearance of such symptoms:

  • gastritis or stomach ulcer – you need to be checked by a gastroenterologist;
  • gallbladder disease – may be accompanied by nausea and a feeling of hunger, as well as a bitter taste in the mouth, flatulence;
  • acute attack of appendicitis - accompanied by pain in the right side of the abdominal cavity, fever, and nausea may turn into vomiting;
  • poisoning or manifestation of an intestinal infectious disease - accompanied by diarrhea and high temperature;
  • high blood pressure – nausea and a feeling of hunger, especially in the morning. Headaches are often a concern, the face is swollen and reddened;
  • a side effect of certain medications - most often non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, and also iron supplements;
  • early stages of pregnancy, especially the first trimester;
  • migraine - here each organism behaves differently. Nausea, as a rule, is present almost always, and the feeling of hunger is not constant, but is observed quite often.

Weakness and feeling of hunger

The simultaneous appearance of these symptoms is most often associated with carbohydrate starvation - a condition that occurs when there is a lack of carbohydrates in food, as well as with certain diseases and metabolic disorders.

All the reasons for this condition are associated either with insufficient intake of carbohydrates into the blood, or with their accelerated removal from the blood, or with a combination of these factors.

Specific reasons may include:

  • excess production of insulin with increased function of the pancreas;
  • insufficient synthesis of hormones that should promote carbohydrate catabolism - these are thyroxine, glucocorticoids, adrenaline, etc.;
  • incomplete breakdown of glycogen;
  • loss of large amounts of glycogen from the liver, mainly during heavy physical work;
  • liver disease;
  • fasting or a diet with a sharp restriction of carbohydrate intake;
  • intestinal diseases that make it difficult to digest carbohydrates;
  • intentional or accidental administration of a large dose of insulin.

Dizziness and feeling of hunger

When talking about the causes of such a condition as simultaneous dizziness and hunger, first of all I would like to ask: when was your last meal? If you do not remember, or 5-6 hours have passed since the last meal, then we can confidently talk about true hunger, in which the body is in dire need of food.

In addition, the same condition can occur with an unbalanced diet, especially if you are on a diet with a large restriction of carbohydrates. Remember that any diet should contain reasonable amounts of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, since the body needs them all.

If you consider the possibility of the presence of any disease that may cause dizziness and hunger, then, first of all, you should think about metabolic disorders and diabetes. You should see a doctor and check your blood for sugar levels, on an empty stomach and after eating.

Well, another, more pleasant in all respects reason is pregnancy. In this state, a woman can often experience nausea, dizziness and often just a "wolf" appetite.

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Feeling hungry in diabetes

It should be noted that this symptom does not appear due to malnutrition, but due to low glucose supply to the body's cells due to insulin deficiency.

One of the main properties of insulin is to allow glucose to penetrate into cells. If this is not possible, glucose continues to be in the blood, and the body experiences acute glucose starvation.

When the blood sugar level is exceeded, a condition is formed in which the patient feels constant hunger, thirst, and produces a large volume of urine. Hunger occurs because the cells experience sugar hunger; thirst - due to increased urine production and the removal of fluid with undigested glucose from the body.

Insulin is a hormonal substance synthesized by the pancreas. In a healthy person, when the amount of sugar in the blood increases, the pancreas accelerates the production of insulin, and when it decreases, it slows down. Thus, the flow of insulin into the bloodstream is regulated according to fluctuations in the amount of sugar in the blood.

If insulin production is disrupted, the cells in the body experience hunger. The patient feels the same hunger. This problem can be eliminated by administering additional doses of insulin.

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