[Reactive hypoglycaemia, a frequently mentioned functional disorder, yet overestimated in clinical practice]

Malaises are often attributed to hypoglycaemia in nondiabetic people who don't have any other serious medical problem. Reactive hypoglycaemia, the most frequent one, may be considered as a functional disorder. However, its diagnosis is often overused, because not really demonstrated in most instances. The diagnosis of hypoglycaemia should be structured, based upon the Whipple triad. First, the medical interrogatory must search for adrenergic and neuroglucopenic symptoms that suggest hypoglycaemia. Second, if the malaise is due to a hypoglycaemia, it should resume rapidly after the administration of sugar. Third, hypoglycaemia must be confirmed by a measurement of a low glucose level at the time of a malaise. The latter approach is facilitated by the use of home blood monitoring, a strategy that is now preferred to the use of an oral glucose tolerance test, a non-physiological test far from real-life conditions. When the diagnosis is made based upon this triad, the medical interview should precise the severity of the symptoms and focus on the chronology of the malaises, typically 2-3 hours after a sugar-enriched meal in case of a reactive hypoglycaemia. Therapeutic approach of this functional disorder mostly relies on dietary advices.