Dr. Ahmad Shahzad
Founder | Lyallpur Diabetes Foundation
Consultant Diabetologist | Educator | Advocate for Preventive Care
Stress management is not only a way to protect your mental health but also the key to avoiding such severe diseases as diabetes. Studies indicate that chronic stress may elevate blood sugar levels, insulin resistance, and unhealthy lifestyle choices, which are all risk factors of type 2 diabetes. Realizing that stress is closely related to blood sugar, and managing stress can be learnt to achieve significant changes in maintaining good health and preventing diabetes.
Understanding the Connection Between Stress and Diabetes
Stress has physiological and behavioral influences on diabetes, and they may lead to elevated blood sugar levels, heightened insulin resistance, and more challenging self-management. Although it is not a direct cause of diabetes, chronic stress is a risk factor that can lead to type 2 diabetes.
The physiological connection
When you get stressed, your body goes through its fight-or-flight reaction and gives you a burst of energy in case of a perceived threat. This reaction is initiated by discharge of stress hormones, mostly cortisol and adrenaline.
The most important physiological effects are:
- More glucose production: Stress hormones get the liver to make more glucose and put it into the bloodstream to use as energy.
- Insulin resistance: Cortisol causes the cells in your body to become more resistant to insulin, or sugar, cannot get into the cells easily. This makes blood sugar levels soar among diabetic patients.
- Impaired insulin secretion: There is some evidence that stress hormones can directly suppress the production and secretion of insulin in the pancreas.
In non-diabetics, this glucose spike is transient. But in a person with diabetes, or at risk, this long-term dysregulation may impose challenges on the body to process the sugar in an effective way.
The behavioral connection
Stress may also exacerbate diabetes management by affecting how a person behaves. In times of stress one can:
- Have unhealthy behaviors, like emotional eating, eating high sugar comfort foods, drinking more alcohol, or smoking.
- Self-care, such as physical inactivity, irregular blood sugar levels or forgetfulness about medication.
- Undergo sleep disturbances, since stress may interfere with sleep patterns. Insomnia is associated with insulin resistance.
In people with diabetes, it may create a vicious cycle of stress with the effort necessary to cope with diabetes itself, which is also a cause of stress (so-called diabetes distress).
Does stress cause diabetes?
Although stress does not directly lead to diabetes, studies indicate that chronic stress is a risk factor of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Predisposition: In individuals with underlying risk factors, such as obesity or a family history of diabetes, stress hormones at elevated levels may gradually cause insulin resistance, which may ultimately result in the development of the disease.
- Even in non-diabetic individuals, moderate or intense acute elevations in blood sugar level can occur due to physical or psychological stress (such as during a critical illness or surgery), a phenomenon known as stress hyperglycemia. In other situations, this may reveal insulin issues that have not been diagnosed. Individuals with stress hyperglycemia are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes in future.
How to manage stress to help control diabetes
Stress management is a critical component of diabetes management. Strategies that are effective will include:
- Exercise: Exercise is a known stress-lowering activity that also lowers blood sugar levels and increases insulin sensitivity.
- Relaxation methods: To reduce cortisol and relax the mind, incorporate deep breathing, yoga, meditation or mindfulness in your daily process.
- Get enough sleep: You should get 7-9 hours of good sleep each night. A normal bedtime schedule would help in sleep and stabilize the level of glucose.
- Healthy coping: Learn to find healthy coping responses to stress. Bad habits such as comfort eating and drinking should be avoided and instead done with things one likes.
- Get support: Discuss with family, friends or a diabetes support group. A mental health professional can be a great help in case stress or distress is overwhelming.
- Monitor your patterns: In the case of diabetes, trapping stress levels and blood glucose levels can help you determine your own triggers and the way to cope with them.
Effective Stress Management Techniques for Diabetes Prevention
Adopting effective stress management techniques can significantly lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by reducing cortisol levels and improving lifestyle habits. The best approach is to incorporate a variety of mental and physical strategies into your daily routine.
Mental and emotional strategies
- Be mindful and meditate. MBSR programs can enhance emotional and glycemic control. Giving yourself a few minutes a day to practice your breathing or employing a guided meditation app can help clutter your brain and trigger the relaxation response in the body.
- Take deep breathing exercises. To overcome a state of panic, you can use a simple form of deep breathing, inhale, four seconds, hold, seven seconds, exhale, eight seconds. This can calm your nervous body and reduce your heart rate.
- Visualize a calm place. When in a stressful situation, close your eyes and visualize a tranquil location, using all senses. This is a guided visualization, which may trigger serenity and relaxation.
- Reframe negative thoughts. Spotting negative thoughts may stop a negative spiral and enable you to concentrate on what you can control. As an example, instead of getting the thought, I cannot do this, rephrase it as, I will do this step by step.
- Your gratitude. Writing about good things can make you feel better overall and can help you start viewing your life through a different lens than stress.
Lifestyle-based strategies
- Include physical exercise. One of the better stress relievers is exercise. It triggers endorphins, better moods, and can reduce blood glucose. Goal: 150 to 180 minutes of moderate aerobic work (such as brisk walking) in one week.
- Prioritize quality sleep. Sleep deprivation and chronic stress contribute to one another and may increase insulin resistance. Scheduling: keep a regular schedule of sleep and establish a worry-free sleepy routine to build better sleep.
- Eat wisely. Stress reduces good eating habits, and therefore underlines well-balanced, healthful meals. Do not use high fat and sugar comfort foods. Whole grains, fruits and vegetables are also good sources of fiber and can help control blood sugar.
- Set aside “me time.” Spending some time on something pleasurable like gardening or listening to music or reading helps a lot to eliminate stress and enhance relaxation.
- Limit your digital connection. Excessive use on social media may elevate stress, as well as divert attention in self-care. Create space to step out and get into the real world.
Supportive strategies
- Lean on social support. Having friends and relatives is a buffer to stress. Talking to the vulnerable about how things go can make you feel less encumbered and more supported to make healthy lifestyle changes.
- Join a support group. Talking to other individuals with similar health issues can offer a feeling of community and helpful coping skills.
- Work on time management. In case you get stressed by commitments, get to know how to prioritize, say no to added commitments and delegate where you can. Stress can also be minimized by dividing large tasks into smaller ones that are more manageable.
- Seek professional guidance. In case stress appears overwhelming, a mental health expert will be helpful in offering meaningful coping mechanisms. CBT will allow you to alter your reactions to stressors.
You may also like to read: Benefits of Physical Activity for Diabetes Prevention
Final Thoughts
To sum up, stress management is an effective and useful approach to lessening the risk of diabetes. Mindfulness, exercise, proper diets, and healthy habits can help individuals balance both mental and physical health. Having long-term blood sugar control and stress management as a priority, in addition to having a healthier lifestyle and well-being, are beneficial.
FAQs
How does stress affect diabetes?
When the stress does not disappear, it may increase your blood sugar level and predispose you to complications of diabetes. It can also influence your mood and your appearance self, and this can begin to influence your emotional health.
How does stress impact insulin resistance?
They discovered that the elevations of stress-induced levels of sympathetic activity, in the case of patients in psychological stress, affected insulin sensitivity, likely via alterations in adipokine or catecholamine circulation.
Which relaxation techniques lower blood sugar?
Activities and relaxation techniques, such as yoga and mindfulness-based stress reduction, can also be used to repair insulin release issues in individuals with chronic diabetes receiving medical care.
Is there a connection between anxiety and blood sugar?
Blood sugar and anxiety are correlated, and it is important that diabetic patients should know this. As you will see, one can easily cause the other.