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Blood sugar and stress

The link between stress and type 2 diabetes

Does Stress cause an increase in blood sugar level?

Yes! Stress causes the adrenal glands to produce stress hormones – adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. These stress hormones prepare the body to either run from or fight back to overcome the stressful situation. One way the body prepares for this response is to release glucose from the liver to provide energy to the muscles and other body cells. This can contribute to a spike in blood sugar. 

Given that we experience various forms of stress throughout the day on a repeated basis, the body tends to remain in this stressful state for long periods, stress has the potential to contribute to the sustained rise in blood sugar levels. 

Cortisol and insulin resistance

Cortisol plays a strong role in how energy is used and stored in the body during and after the stress response. Cortisol makes the body cells not respond well to insulin. This makes it difficult for the body cells to absorb the sugar in the blood and may keep sugar levels elevated for long periods. This insulin resistance  leads to pre-diabetes when it happens for a long time. This is how stress contributes to pre-diabetes. 

Stress and lifestyle 

Stress often drives people towards unhealthy eating habits. Cortisol causes a craving for high energy fatty and sugary foods so that the body will have energy to cope with stressful situations. These cravings may lead to frequent eating of fatty and sugary foods which in turn lead to spikes in blood sugar in the short-term. It also leads to weight gain in the long run. This makes it difficult to manage and reverse pre-diabetes. 

Stressful situations also make people explore harmful habits that appear to relax or provide an escape from the stressful situation. These harmful habits include excessive alcohol intake, smoking, and other abuse of substances. These habits also make it difficult to manage and reverse pre-diabetes. 

How do you prevent or manage pre-diabetes during stressful situations?

Now that you have understood how stress contributes to pre-diabetes, it is important to reflect on your current situation to identify the stressors that are within your control and those that are not. Get support to reduce the ones that are within your control while at the same time, developing mindfulness to manage stress and the associated cravings. One way to manage cravings is to ensure that you have healthier snacks available instead of unhealthy options with lots of sugar, salt, and fats. 

More importantly, it is important to take relaxing breaks to help you remove yourself from stressful situations for short periods during the day. 

The Viedial App: Getting help  

Viedial offers coaching for managing stress. It is important to reach one of our trained health coaches or therapists to discuss stressful situations in your life and how to cope with them. The Viedial app also offers you a personalized approach to eat healthy when you are under stress. You can also track your daily blood sugar readings with the Viedial app to know how the coaching program is helping you to reduce stress and improve your health. 

Source

  1. Hewagalamulage, S. D., Lee, T. K., Clarke, I. J., & Henry, B. A. (2016). Stress, cortisol, and obesity: a role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity. Domestic animal endocrinology, 56 Suppl, S112–S120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.domaniend.2016.03.004
  2. Tsatsoulis, A., Mantzaris, M. D., Bellou, S., & Andrikoula, M. (2013). Insulin resistance: an adaptive mechanism becomes maladaptive in the current environment – an evolutionary perspective. Metabolism: clinical and experimental, 62(5), 622–633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2012.11.004

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