Stress and diabetes: Here's what you must know!Stress and diabetes: What's the deal? Find out how diabetes and stress are related. Stress affects health in many ways. Diabetes is one of them. Lets start with the basics: What is Diabetes? Diabetes, most commonly type 2 diabetes, is basically a disorder where your blood sugar level goes up because your body do not react properly when insulin is produced. Type 1 diabetes, a less common form, is a disorder where your body doesn't produce insulin, thus resulting in high blood glucose. If you have type 1 diabetes, stress doesn't have too much of an effect as it does on you if you have type 2 diabetes. Why? You'll find out below where the connection between stress and diabetes is explained.
High blood sugar levels and not reacting properly to insulin: That's the problem if you have type 2 diabetes. So How are Stress and Diabetes Related? Well, now you know the basics, so let's move to the real question. As explained above, the problem in type 1 diabetes is that no insulin is produced. When you are stressed, the stress hormones that are released also stop your body from producing insulin. Therefore, if you have type 1 diabetes, no insulin is produced in your body, whether you have stress or not. Type 2 Diabetes: How about for type 2 diabetes? Stress naturally causes a spike in your blood sugar levels. Why is that? When you are stressed, your primary stress hormone, cortisol, kicks in. And do you know what the function of cortisol is? Yes, you guessed it, cortisol's main function is to raise blood sugar levels; to give you energy when you need it. This is not restricted to mental stress only. Even physical stress can bring about these problems with your health. If you are injured on the job, exercising, or by accident, it also has an effect on your blood sugar. But here's the good news. If you are not diabetic, then you don't have to worry because your body will not let your blood sugar levels go off the charts. If you are not diabetic, then having stress will not cause diabetes. What If You Are Diabetic? If you are diabetic, it isn't good for stress and diabetes to both co-exist in your body. Like I said earlier, stress raises blood sugar levels, and since diabetics don't have the mechanism (insulin) to fight this, stress can bring about uncontrollable blood pressure levels. That being said, there are a lot of ways to deal with stress in this website, so your diabetes doesn't have to be elevated further because of stress. Stress and Diabetes: Other Ways Stress Can Affect Diabetes: If you stressed out, it's hard to be in tune with your mind and body. What I mean is, you might take good care of yourself. For example, even I find it hard to remember things and keep track of time when I'm stressed. So you may forget to check on your glucose levels. Or you may not be in good spirit to plan healthy meals. You may drink more alcohol, and you may not exercise. All these practices caused by stress can impact your blood glucose. My Advice As you may well know it, living with diabetes is not an easy task. It shouldn't be made worse by stress. After learning about how stress and diabetes are connected, I'd advise to get help from this website by exploring through different ways to manage stress, so your diabetes doesn't worsen. Understanding how stress and health works is important. And hopefully, after reading this, you have done that. Stay healthy, and keep stress out of your life!
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