But how is the connection between stress and low blood sugar levels made? According to doctors stress hormones tell the body that an extra special effort is required to avoid a catastrophe. But the body built for prehistoric times can only react by flight or fight.

When your blood sugar levels are in balance because of a good diet, any excess sugar released with the stress hormones is easily dispatched by muscle cells.

But in the modern day, stress is often endless (a full day at the office) and it does not involve the physical. You might work over the week-end to finish a report, get upset(because of the lack of free time) and promptly your stress levels increase.

In prehistoric times the extra sugar released would have been burnt off. This constant rollercoaster of stress levels breaks down the body's control over blood sugar. Before long your blood sugar level is too high or too low (hypoglycemia).

When the levels drop too low, insulin resistance goes up and eventually diabetes,amongst other serious illnesses, develops.

Very often before serious problems set in, because of the tough modern lifestyle,many people look out for little comforts during the course of the day. They justify comfort food eating instead of a good diet.

And so innocently a daily cake and pastry routine develops. Ordinary hot drinks are never sweet enough. Now it is not just stress unbalancing blood sugar levels. A similar flood of sugar in the bloodstream triggers an outpouring of insulin causing repetitive low blood sugar levels.

After ten or twelve years of such daily routine people then are surprised why lethargy or fatigue set in - often first felt in the early afternoons. Unbalanced diet and low blood sugar levels are beginning to take effect.

Mary, 42, was a classic example of a hypoglycemic. She was having problems at home with her teenage daughter in addition to the demands of a responsible job.

Everyday stress activated her body's reaction. Her heart sped up and her breathing quickened.

Cortisol (the stress hormone) poured into her body. Demand for food increased automatically but the demand was especially for the old favourite, refined carbohydrates - such as white flour, sweets, pop and salty snacks.

Such a diet caused insulin levels to spike and collapse. She was still hungry and constantly reached for more unhealthy carbohydrates.

This cycle of events needs to be broken with a change of lifestyle and a healthy diet plan.

How can this be achieved? The only solution to problems like Mary's is to spend a little time improving your understanding of hypoglycemia and dieting by reading up on the latest information.

That way, when you visit a doctor, at the least you will know what he is referring to when he mentions low blood sugar levels, cortisol and insulin. Understanding of the processes encourages a healthy diet.

This knowledge of dieting and hypoglycaemia should be inexpensive and uncomplicated. Guidelines and good diets should be provided.

The information should provide answers to:

* the kind of cooking hypoglycemics should avoid,

* which foods and vitamins stabilize binge eating,

* coping with withdrawal symptoms after years of eating an unbalanced diet and

* motivate you to persist because of the serious consequences of hypoglycemia.