EC Nutrition

The use of uncooked cornstarch, a complex glucose polymer, is an established therapy for fasting hypoglycemia in glycogen storage diseases [1]. The effectiveness of uncooked cornstarch lies in its slow digestibility, taking between two and six hours to be fully digested [2]. Due to the significant clinical risks of hypoglycemia, cornstarch therapy, when adjusted to a patient’s blood glucose level readings, can be a lifesaving treatment that otherwise might require invasive interventions such as intravenous (IV) dextrose infusions and high doses of steroids. An intake of just 30g of cornstarch has been shown to prevent hypoglycemia for an average of seven hours overnight without causing a peak in blood glucose levels in patients with type I diabetes mellitus [3,4]. The case studies in this report demonstrate the successful use of cornstarch therapy in two elderly patients, restoring them to euglycemia.

 Keywords: Cornstarch Therapy; Refractory Hypoglycemia; Euglycemia

1. Avery R. “Cornstarch Fact Sheet 2006”. Barth Syndrome Foundation (2022).
2. Aluri VM., et al. “Glucocorticoids and cornstarch therapy for non-islet cell tumor hypoglycemia: a case report”. AACE Clinical Case Reports2 (2017): e148-e152.
3. Axelsen M., et al. “Bedtime uncooked cornstarch supplement prevents nocturnal hypoglycemia in intensively treated type 1 diabetes subjects”. Journal of Internal Medicine 3 (1999): 229-236.
4. Rake JP., et al. “Glycogen storage disease type I: diagnosis, management, clinical course and outcome. Results of the European Study on Glycogen Storage Disease Type I (ESGSD I)”. European Journal of Pediatrics 1 (2002): S20-S34.