Stress in Diabetes

It isn't worth a single penny…

Do you know a prediabetic (an early stage which will develop into the full-scale disease) person can cut the risk of getting diabetes by more than fifty percent? What a stress reliever it is for people who are taking those extra steps to avoid the disease.

But, what if you have already acquired diabetes? Does it make any better to keep thinking about it and taking stress of having diabetes? Does stress really affects diabetes? If yes, how does it?

Research has proved that people who have used easy relaxation techniques have noticed a significant drop in their blood sugar levels over a period of months. In fact about a third of the people lowered their blood sugar levels by one percent or more after a year, this is at par with that of diabetes drugs. So exactly stress affects our blood sugar levels?

To understand this, you just need to understand what happens when you are stressed. Basically, when you are in tension your body pumps out cortisol hormones in response to stress your mind is taking, these hormones are released sparing available glucose for the brain, generating new energy from stored reserves, and diverting energy from low-priority activities (such as the immune system) in order to survive immediate threats. However, extended cortisol secretion results in significant physiological changes. Now, these hormones make your heartbeat and breathing speed increase, they also while sending glucose stores into the blood for making energy available to your muscles results in higher blood sugar. 

So, this implies that, stress is directly proportional to your blood sugar. Higher the stress, higher will be your blood sugar levels. What a Mathematical Biology, isn’t it!!

Now, calm down and give yourself a smile before you start reading further, taking tension over it and emitting those cortisol hormones to take your blood sugar high. We mean it, take a break.

Stress again and you are contributing to insulin resistance. Yes, your diabetes provoked by stress guarantees the insulin resistance. Since you know how diabetes is affected by insulin resistance, we will move on to inform you that stress also makes it difficult for the pancreas to secrete the insulin which is required to move glucose out of the blood. Wicked to make you sick!!

The worst of all, you gain weight when you are stressed. Well, the cortisol hormones we told you about earlier are also known to increase appetite. You would have heard people saying about how they tend to eat more when they are stressed, in fact they tend to munch up whatever fatty, high-calorie and junk snacks are in their reach is due to their hormones. These cortisol hormones also encourage your cells in your stomach to conserve fat. This fat weighs on your belly that increases your risk of heart attack.

Frankly speaking, now that we’ve given you so much information to think about your stress, we are worried if you will be stressed on this “stress” fact too. Diabetes is indeed a disease which affects your lifestyle and it gets exaggerated with the way you handle it.

Now, if you are worried about your children that they may also get diabetes, you have one less thing to worry about. Just register yourself at www.Grass-Diabetes.com and get a detailed report on the risk of diabetes for your each family member depending upon their individual lifestyles. Isn’t it better to know your enemy to fight him rather than going unprepared and fall victim, will you?

Stress affects your lifestyle as it affects your mind. It is highly unlikely that you will think of a good walk or doing exercises when you are stressed due to your growing to-do list at work, peer pressure, health of your child or your fight with your better half. Start by practicing the art of relaxation, do some yoga, train to control your mind and not vice-versa, start seeing the big picture rather than getting stressed in the nitty-gritty’s of life and harming your health.

A few things you can do when you are stressed:

·         Lie down & focus on your body - Be aware of all good & bad things happening within you from toe to top

·         Deep breathing - Focus on your breathe

·         Experience the present - Don’t rush over everything

·         Meditate - Make it a habit

·         Spread your social wings - Build a good social support system in your friends & family to whom you can talk to when in stress

·         It’s not that hard but just keep a small note of all good things in your life - look at it when stressed and feel better

·         Listen to a soothing music or just sing loudly

·         Just run away - not necessarily run, you can walk too - Any form of exercise will help you release good chemicals

·         Laugh out Loud… LOL : )

If diabetes is preventable, just avoid it.

Over two decades of our services to diabetic patients through Singhal Diabetic Clinic located at Haridwar, has made us thinking of the health status of current generation. Be it the fast paced lifestyle lived by our younger friends or the life lived by middle aged generation under tremendous physiological career pressure, all this takes its toll on their health. If this lifestyle is clubbed with your genetic composition i.e. your family’s history of diabetes, the threat of diabetes will be one of the major concerns. As the old saying goes, prevention is better than cure, your knowledge towards your own body and the lifestyle you chose determines your future. You are welcome to explore and know more about your risk of diabetes at www.Grass-Diabetes.com

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In our next issue, we will explore the simpler way to identify the good food & bad food for your diabetes. If you have any queries, feel free to contact us:

Yours,

Dr. M Singhal

Grass-Diabetes.com

Email: doctor@grass-diabetes.com