How Stress Affects Diabetes & Tips to Manage It
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They carefully examine all references and facts to provide up-to-date and reliable information, aiming to break myths and empower you in your health journey.
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Pranati Deshpande
An experienced Psychologist with a demonstrated history of working in the health care industry among child and adult populations. Skilled in Lifestyle Concerns and Management, Crisis Counselling, Workplace Violence Prevention, EAP services and other related fields in mental health and wellbeing.
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It’s Monday morning, and Manisha, a middle-aged homemaker from a busy neighborhood in Ahmedabad, is already feeling the weight of the week.
Her son has misplaced his school project, her husband can’t find an important document for a meeting, and the sink seems to have chosen to start leaking today.
Manisha feels her heart racing and her head starting to ache as she scrambles to sort everything out.
This is stress. While often associated with high-pressure corporate jobs, stress is a universal experience, affecting everyone from young students to retirees. It does not discriminate by age, career, or lifestyle.
080694 50746What is Stress?
Stress is your body and mind’s response to any demand or challenge. It can be a sudden rush of anxiety over an upcoming exam, chronic worry about personal finances, or the immediate tension felt when dealing with a difficult situation.
Even daily hassles like traffic jams or household chores can trigger stress, impacting your mental and physical health.
Breaking Stress Myths: It’s Not Just for the Workplace!
Stress isn’t just for those in the corporate world. Homemakers, for instance, face daily challenges managing home budgets, children’s needs, and endless chores, which can be quite overwhelming.
Those who work from home might find it hard to separate work hours from personal time, leading to stress. Even retirees might worry about health issues or feel stressed from the loss of social interactions that work used to provide.
Children, too, get stressed; schoolwork and peer relationships can be significant sources of stress.
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How Does Your Body Deal with Stress and How Does This Affect Diabetes?
When stressed, your body prepares for ‘fight or flight,’ a basic survival mechanism. This is similar to how you might react if you unexpectedly stumble upon a snake on a hike.
Instantly, your body gears up either to confront the danger or to run away from it. This response triggers a release of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which increase your heart rate and pump more glucose into your bloodstream to provide extra energy.
For people with diabetes, a spike in glucose due to stress presents significant challenges. Normally, insulin would transfer glucose from the bloodstream into the cells for energy use.
However, in those with diabetes, either insufficient insulin production or ineffective insulin use prevents this process from occurring efficiently. Consequently, this inefficiency in glucose processing often leads to elevated blood sugar levels.
Particularly, stress increases blood sugar, which can complicate the management of diabetes and elevate the risk of serious long-term health issues.
Therefore, recognizing and managing how stress increases blood sugar is essential for maintaining optimal control over blood sugar levels and reducing potential complications in diabetes management.
Stress from diabetes can create a vicious cycle where stress increases blood sugar levels and high blood sugar causes more stress.
Stress Can Make You Forget Having Your Medicines!
Like we mentioned earlier, for those with diabetes, stress can be a silent disruptor of blood sugar control. The physiological response to stress may cause blood sugar to spike, compounding the challenges of managing diabetes.
It can also lead to things like forgetting to take your medications, neglecting exercise, poor sleep, or unhealthy eating, all of which can worsen diabetes control.
Stress in diabetes demands comprehensive management strategies. Managing stress in diabetes is as crucial as managing diet and exercise.
How to Determine if Mental Stress is Affecting Your Blood Sugar?
1. Monitor Your Blood Sugar Levels: Regularly checking your blood sugar can help identify patterns linked to stress.
2. Keep a Stress Diary: Documenting your stress levels and their triggers can provide insights into how they affect your blood sugar.
3. Review Physical Symptoms: Common signs of stress include headaches, muscle tension, or fatigue.
4. Seek Professional Help: A healthcare provider can offer strategies to manage stress and its effects on diabetes.Instead of letting the thought of stress from diabetes affecting your body stress you out, let’s discuss
Here are 10 easy ways to manage stress and calm yourself down in anxious situations.
1. Be Positive
Maintaining a positive outlook can shift your perspective and lessen the burden of stress. Focus on the good aspects of any situation.
For example, if you’re stuck in traffic, instead of getting frustrated, use the time to listen to your favorite music or an audiobook, turning a stressful situation into an enjoyable moment.
2. Accept What You Can’t Change
Recognizing what is beyond your control can significantly reduce your stress. For instance, if your boss is known for being hard to please, rather than stressing every time you need to interact, remind yourself that their mood is not something you can change.
This acceptance can help you stay calm and composed.
3. Learn to Laugh it Off
Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress. It lowers cortisol, your body’s stress hormone, and boosts brain chemicals called endorphins, which lighten your mood.
Picture a scene where you slip and spill coffee in a meeting, and instead of fretting, you laugh it off, making everyone else smile too.
This approach can be especially beneficial for managing the daily challenges and emotional strain that come with stress from diabetes.
4. Seek Help
Sharing your worries can alleviate stress in diabetes. Think of yourself in a scenario where you’re overwhelmed with budget cuts at work.
Sitting down with a colleague to discuss your concerns can provide new ideas and emotional support, making the problem seem more manageable. This support is particularly crucial when coping with the unique challenges that come with stress in diabetes, as discussing feelings and experiences can significantly lighten the emotional load.
5. Practice Meditation
Starting your day with meditation can set a calm tone for the hours to follow, especially beneficial for those dealing with stress in diabetes. Dedicating 15 minutes each morning to sit quietly, focus on your breathing, and release any negative thoughts.
This practice can help maintain peace throughout the day, offering a helpful tool in managing the psychological aspects of stress in diabetes.
6. Take Deep Breaths
Deep breathing is a quick way to reduce stress. For example, before entering a stressful meeting, take a moment to breathe deeply and center yourself.
This can help reduce anxiety and increase your ability to deal with stress.
7. Keep Moving
Physical activity releases endorphins and can improve your mood almost instantly. Consider someone who chooses to take a walk during a lunch break at work.
This simple act not only breaks the monotony but also energizes and reduces stress.
8. Get Enough Sleep
A good night’s sleep improves your resilience to stress. Establish a routine where you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, and create a bedtime ritual to signal to your body that it’s time to wind down, like reading a book or taking a warm bath.
9. Switch Off
Disconnecting from digital devices can greatly reduce stress. Set aside specific times in the evening when you turn off your phone and laptop.
Use this time to engage in activities that help you relax, such as spending time with family or practicing a hobby.
10. Take Time to Unwind
Regularly engaging in activities you love can significantly reduce stress. Teaching can be a very fulfilling yet stressful profession.
For a teacher, gardening every Saturday morning can provide a peaceful break from the workweek and something to look forward to, making stressful weeks more manageable. This is true for anyone, both a working professional or a housemaker.
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How Can We at Fitterfly Help You?
At Fitterfly, we understand that stress is a significant factor in managing diabetes, which is why it’s a core pillar of our diabetes program. Our success coaches are dedicated to helping you identify and manage your stressors through personalized strategies and practical tools.
All interactions with our coaches are 100% confidential, ensuring your privacy is maintained.
For those not enrolled in our full program, we offer individual packages that provide access to the same expert advice and support.
Whether you are part of our program or just looking for specific guidance, Fitterfly is here to support your journey to better health by effectively managing stress and stabilizing blood sugar.
You can avail a single consultation of 60 minutes with our expert Success Coaches (psychologist) for just Rs.750 (market price being Rs. 2000).
How would the one-on-one consultations benefit me?
- You’ll get personal attention to your specific concerns or stressors.
- You’ll receive customized intervention plans based on your specific stressors,
concerns or obstacles. - You’ll benefit from in-depth counseling and therapy with the coach.
Give a missed call on 08069450746 to avail this exclusive offer and to know more about our Diabetes Care Program.
This blog provides general information for educational and informational purposes only and shouldn't be seen as professional advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to my blood sugar levels when I’m stressed?
When you're stressed, your body prepares for 'fight or flight' by releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones increase blood sugar levels by making more glucose available to give you energy. However, for people with diabetes, this can complicate blood sugar management because their bodies cannot effectively use insulin to bring the sugar into the cells.
Can reducing stress help in managing diabetes better?
Yes, absolutely. Reducing stress can significantly improve diabetes management. Managing stress can help mitigate blood sugar spikes and improve overall control of your condition, which is crucial in preventing complications and improving quality of life.
How to reduce stress-induced diabetes?
Managing stress and diabetes simultaneously requires proactive efforts. To reduce the impact of stress on diabetes, it's crucial to adopt stress management techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, regular physical activity, and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule. These practices not only help moderate the body's stress response but also enhance insulin sensitivity. By integrating these strategies, individuals can effectively mitigate the adverse effects of stress and diabetes, improving overall health and diabetes management.
How much can stress raise blood sugar?
The amount that stress can raise blood sugar varies among individuals. Some people may experience significant increases in blood sugar levels, especially if the stress is acute or chronic. Regular monitoring can help you understand how your own body responds to stress.
Can stress raise blood sugar immediately?
Yes, stress can cause an immediate increase in blood sugar levels. The release of stress hormones can quickly raise glucose levels, which is part of the body’s natural response to perceived threats.
Can stress increase HbA1c?
Chronic stress can potentially increase HbA1c levels over time. Since HbA1c is a measure of average blood glucose over the past two to three months, sustained high glucose levels due to prolonged stress can lead to higher HbA1c readings.
Can you get type 2 diabetes from stress?
Stress alone is not a direct cause of type 2 diabetes; however, chronic stress can contribute to its development by affecting lifestyle choices, eating habits, and the body’s glucose metabolism. People under chronic stress may adopt poor eating habits and decrease physical activity, which can lead to weight gain and increased risk of diabetes.
Can stress-induced diabetes be minimised?
Stress and Diabetes are interrelated. If stress has exacerbated existing diabetes, managing stress and following a comprehensive diabetes care plan can help bring blood sugar levels back under control. While stress-induced high blood sugar can be mitigated, once diabetes is diagnosed, it typically requires lifelong management.
Can other mood conditions like anxiety and depression cause diabetes or make it tougher to manage diabetes?
While stress and anxiety themselves do not directly cause diabetes, they can influence behaviors and physiological mechanisms that increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Chronic stress and anxiety can lead to poor dietary choices, reduced physical activity, and hormonal changes that may contribute to insulin resistance, all of which can increase the risk of diabetes.
