Dr. Danielle Weiss is the founder of the Center for Hormonal Health and Well-Being, a personalized, proactive, patient-centered medical practice with a unique focus on integrative endocrinology. She enjoys giving lectures and writing articles for both the lay public and medical audiences.
Excess glycogen storage occurs when you eat more glucose (sugar) than your body needs for energy at that moment or when you have a medical condition that affects how your body processes glucose and glycogen (which is made from glucose).
Excess glucose makes your blood sugar rise, which starts a chain reaction that changes it into glycogen. Glycogen is then stored in your muscle and liver cells.
Later, when your body needs energy, it converts glycogen back into glucose for quick energy. When something interferes with this process, your body eventually runs out of places to store glycogen. That’s when it becomes a problem.
This article will review the symptoms of different causes of excess glycogen storage, the complications they can lead to, and when you should make an appointment with your healthcare provider.
The Good Brigade
Symptoms of excess glycogen storage depend on the underlying cause. Medical conditions that cause it include metabolic syndrome and a group of rare childhood diseases called glycogen storage diseases (GSD).
Regularly overeating glucose can contribute to the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS). This condition is defined as having three or more risk factors for other illnesses, including heart disease.
Those risk factors include:
It takes medical testing to uncover most of these factors, and they often don’t cause symptoms. The exceptions are a large waistline and hyperglycemia.
Hyperglycemia may cause:
Between about 22% and 30% of Americans have metabolic syndrome. It's considered an epidemic both in the United States and worldwide.
GSD has several subtypes. In some of them, the body doesn’t have the enzymes needed to convert stored glycogen back into usable glucose, so the stores are never depleted.
Symptoms of GSD usually start when a baby is about 3 or 4 months old. Symptoms may include:
About 1 in every 25,000 newborns has a glycogen storage disease.
If metabolic syndrome or a GSD goes untreated, it can lead to serious health problems called complications.
Complications of MetS include:
If you have MetS, talk to your healthcare provider about your risk of these serious illnesses. You may be able to reduce your risk with proper treatment and lifestyle changes.
Complications vary by type of GSD, but they can include:
Frequent bouts of hypoglycemia can eventually lead to:
Prompt and proper treatment can help your child avoid these potential complications.
Glycogen storage disease comes in more than a dozen types. About 90% of cases are made up of four types:
If you have any known risk factors for metabolic syndrome, ask your healthcare provider whether you have other risk factors and what to do about them.
Contact your child’s healthcare provider if you notice symptoms that could indicate a GSD, including:
Excess glycogen storage can be caused by eating too much sugar, metabolic syndrome, or childhood glycogen storage diseases. Glycogen is a source of quick energy, but when you have too much, your body runs out of places to store it.
The only noticeable symptom of metabolic syndrome is a thick waistline. Other signs require medical testing. Untreated, MetS can lead to heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
GSD symptoms vary by type of disease. Common ones include a rapid heartbeat, hunger, nausea, vomiting, weakness, abdominal pain, gout, or kidney stones. Complications can be diseases in major organs and delayed growth and development.
See a healthcare provider if you notice symptoms or risk factors that could suggest one of these illnesses.
Conditions that involve excess glycogen storage can have some scary symptoms and complications. Remember, though, that these diseases can be treated and well-managed.
Work closely with your healthcare provider (or your child’s) to find the right treatments and lifestyle changes.
Johns Hopkins Medicine. Glycogen storage disease.
Kahali B, Chen Y, Feitosa MF, et al. A noncoding variant near PPP1R3B promotes liver glycogen storage and metS, but protects against myocardial infarction. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2021;106(2):372-387. doi:10.1210/clinem/dgaa855
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Glycogen storage disease (GSD).
MedlinePlus. Metabolic syndrome.
American Diabetes Association. Hyperglycemia (high blood glucose).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Metabolic syndrome prevalence by race/ethnicity and sex in the United States, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-2012.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
Stanford School of Medicine Children’s Health. Common symptoms of liver disease.
National Kidney Foundation. Hydronephrosis.
MedlinePlus. Lactic acidosis.
MedlinePlus. Uric acid test.
Cedars-Sinai. High cholesterol.
National Insitutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. What is metabolic syndrome?
Kalra S, Mukherjee JJ, Venkataraman S, et al. Hypoglycemia: the neglected complication. Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2013;17(5):819-834. doi:10.4103/2230-8210.117219
National Organization for Rare Disorders. Glycogen storage disease type 1.
Adrienne Dellwo is an experienced journalist who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and has written extensively on the topic.
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