During my medical career (almost 30 years), I saw several people in consultation who believed they had hypoglycemia. During the 80s, it was believed that reactive hypoglycemia was relatively common and explained this plethora of symptoms. Then, a little research⁶ carried out by a team of endocrinologists from the St-Luc Hospital in Montreal put a damper on all this. This study, carried out on a carefully selected group of patients, notably demonstrated that the majority of people have normal blood sugar levels at the time of symptoms.

The human body is remarkably resistant to fasting. He adapts to it. Even hunger strikers and people who suffer from severe malnutrition in developing countries do not have hypoglycemia… Thus, healthy people very rarely have hypoglycemia.

An explanation for the symptoms must therefore be found elsewhere. Often, we can detect a panic disorder that has not yet been diagnosed, or an abnormal metabolic reaction (with normal blood sugar). Research must continue.

In addition, the majority of “hypoglycemic” patients respond very well to the diet which is explained on PasseportSanté.net. So if there are compatible symptoms and the medical assessment is normal, it is still worth revising your diet, which moreover has only beneficial effects.

D^r Dominic Larose, MD