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Does Stress Cause High Blood Sugar


What Are Symptoms Of Depression

Why does stress increase blood sugars

Too much stress sometimes can lead to depression. People with diabetes are more likely to be depressed than the average person. You may be at risk for depression if you have any of the following symptoms for more than a week:

  • Feeling sad or irritable
  • Having lost interest in activities you enjoy
  • Feeling worthless

High Blood Sugar: Causes Complications And How To Lower Blood Sugar

Your body breaks down glucose for energy using the insulin produced by the pancreas. This is required for our bodies to function. Illness can have an impact on the way our pancreas functions. Read this to learn how high blood sugar can affect your health.

7 minute read

Your body requires energy to function, and this energy comes from food. Specifically, your body breaks down glucose for energy using the insulin produced by the pancreas.


Type 1 and type 2 diabetes cause impairment to this breakdown of sugar in the body, causing blood glucose levels to become irregular. When glucose is not broken down into energy, it can build up in the bloodstream and then becomes a health problem.

Your pancreas produces insulin, which breaks down glucose. With type 1 diabetes, the cells that produce insulin are mistakenly attacked by your immune system. As a result of this autoimmune condition, blood sugar levels can become dangerously high without intervention.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when your body no longer responds to insulin as well as it should and then also causes glucose to accumulate in the blood.

Stress Hormones Can Cause Blood Sugar To Soar

When most people wake up, their stress hormones shoot up. And its not JUST because life is stressful .

We were designed that way. Cortisol helps you get alert and ready for the day. So when you wake up, your hormone levels jump by 50-75 percent in just half an hour.


Those levels slowly drop over the next 16-18 hours, until its time to sleep again. Then your body shuts off the cortisol so you can get some rest.

But it turns out that natural pattern changes when you have diabetes. The new study finds folks who are diabetic no longer get that a.m. spike followed by the slow, gentle decline.

Instead, your levels are already high when you wake up. And they remain flatter throughout the day. Which, in turn, can lead to trouble with blood-sugar control over the long term.

Researchers say it reveals how vital it is to control stress and cortisol levels when you have diabetes. They suggested mindfulness exercises or even yoga. And research shows it works. A recent meta-analysis found mindfulness practices led to drops in cortisol levels, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and fasting blood sugars.

There are apps you can use on your smartphone and free videos on YouTube if you want to give it a try.


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Can Stress Cause Prediabetes Or Type 2 Diabetes

Saying that stress causes prediabetes or type 2 diabetes isnt entirely accurate.

What is more accurate is that the physical response to stress, as well as the habits that are often associated with stress, all contribute to a higher risk for type 2 diabetes.

On the physical side, recent research has shown that oxidative stress and chronic inflammation two common side effects of chronic emotional stress can directly increase insulin resistance and inhibit beta cell function.

As these are the two direct contributors to the development of type 2 diabetes, this is a relatively direct link between stress and diabetes risk factors.


On the mental side, many of the behaviors that are commonplace in stressed individuals comfort eating, not exercising as much as theyd like, poor sleep, elevated consumption of drugs and alcohol, weight gain, and a poor diet are all risk factors for type 2 diabetes.

In this way, not only does stress directly increase your risk of type 2 diabetes through physical responses, but its likely that many of the habits you might resort to during times of stress may also contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes.

Why Stress Is So Bad For Your Heart

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Simply having diabetes hurts your heart. More than 68% of people ages 65 and older with the condition die from heart disease.

The findings from the new study suggest that being stressed long-term or depressed is tied to higher levels of C-reactive protein, a sign of inflammation in the arteries.

Behavior plays a role, too. “It’s a catch-22,” says Eliot LeBow, LCSW, a psychotherapist and certified diabetes educator. “Attention, concentration, and motivation are all essential to diabetes self-management, but when you’re depressed you lack these things and are less likely to take care of yourself.”


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How Does Cortisol Affect Your Blood Sugar

Not only can cortisol contribute to unwanted high blood sugars, but its also essential for treating low blood sugars, too. Lets take a look.

When cortisol levels are high

When cortisol production increases beyond a healthy baseline, it blunts your bodys sensitivity to insulin. This means you need more insulin during those hours in order to keep your blood sugar in your goal range.

While your body does produce cortisol 24 hours a day, there are certain times of day anyone can expect to be producing more, like first the thing in the morning.

If you manage your diabetes with insulin, this also explains why you may notice that you need more insulin in the earliest hours of the day, and with breakfast.


As soon as you wake up in the morning, your body produces a surge of cortisol, explains the Society for Endocrinology. This surge is critical for simply starting your day and functioning fully now that you are awake!

And if your overall baseline cortisol needs increase due to constant, ongoing stress, youll notice that your baseline insulin needs increase, too.

You can read the post How to Avoid High Morning Blood Sugars for more information and practical tips for dealing with morning highs.

When cortisol levels are low

On the flip side, without enough or any cortisol you would struggle with constant hypoglycemia .

Roller Coaster: Female Hormones

When a womans hormones change, so does their blood sugar. Keep a monthly record of your levels to get a better idea of how your menstrual cycle affects you. Hormone changes during menopause may make blood sugar even harder to control. Talk to your doctor about whether hormone replacement therapy is a good idea.


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Your Diet And Anxiety

Many health professionals have said that contemporary Western diets are often overloaded with unhealthy sugars and fats. But anxiety disorders are not likely to be caused by diet alone. Rather, it is believed that a poor diet can trigger or make anxiety symptoms worse by changing the bodys functioning and making it harder for the body and mind to cope with stress.

Thats why those that genuinely want to fight their anxiety may need to look beyond mere dietary changes in order to effectively reduce their anxiety.

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Can High Blood Sugar Cause Mental Confusion

Does stress cause high blood sugars?

Can high blood sugar make you confused?


Late symptoms of prolonged, elevated blood sugar levels are blurred vision and possibly numbness in your fingers and toes. Severely high levels of blood sugar may cause confusion or a coma.

Is mental confusion a symptom of diabetes?

Diabetes can affect a person’s mood, causing rapid and severe changes. The symptoms of low blood sugar levels that might contribute to mood swings include: confusion.

What happens to your brain when your blood sugar is high?

Long-term diabeteseither type 1 or type 2has many consequences for the brain and for neurons in the brain, says Novak. High blood glucose levels can affect the brain’s functional connectivity, which links brain regions that share functional properties, and brain matter. It can cause the brain to atrophy or shrink.


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Why Low Blood Sugar Makes You Anxious

When your blood sugar drops, your body tries to bring it up. It pumps out , a âfight or flightâ? hormone that, among other things, tells your to make more glucose .

Adrenaline also makes your race and your palms sweat. And it can make you feel cranky and anxious. These are warning signs that your blood sugar is too low. If it stays there, your body puts out more hormones, including one called , also known as the hormone, partially because it helps control things like your mood and fear.

Put adrenaline and cortisol together, and youve got a recipe for .

Less Stress Can Help Lower Blood Sugar

Mental health can affect how your body manages diabetes.


You don’t need to be a research scientist to understand that emotional turmoil can wreak havoc on your physical health. Ongoing stress causes even more serious trouble: It can make you more likely to get conditions ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to ulcers, and can worsen these ailments if you already have them.

If you have diabetes, stress hormones can raise your blood sugar levels. And recent research shows that people with the disease who are stressed or depressed are more likely to have a stroke, heart attack, or other serious cardiac condition.

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Can Stress Cause High Blood Glucose

Lifestyle

It is commonly known that certain foods, illness and lack of exercise can increase blood glucose levels. However, another factor that can increase blood glucose levels is stress. Managing stress is quite complicated. To make it even harder, each type of stress can affect blood glucose levels differently. Its all highly individual. So, how can stress cause high blood glucose and what can you do about it?

Does Emotional Stress Affect Blood Glucose Levels

The Effects of Low Blood Sugar on Your Body

Studies are relatively clear on the fact emotional stress raises your blood glucose in the short term.


This happens because elevated emotional stress levels can elicit a biological fight-or-flight response. Then, your body releases cortisol that increases your blood glucose so that you have energy available to survive.

In the case of chronic stress, this process happens again and again, which can be very damaging for both your mental health and your immune system.

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Stress And Weight Gain

After your stressful event subsides, cortisol attempts to replenish the blood sugar that you lost. As sugar provides quick energy, you might crave a sugary fix.

If stressed-induced comfort eating worsens sugar cravings, what happens to all that extra sugar?


Your body tends to store unused excess sugar< sup> 6< /sup> , first as glycogen in your liver and muscles until storage capacity is met, and then as fat in your adipose tissue.

When you consistently eat sugar, your body will use it for energy without needing to access the glycogen stored in your liver and muscles, or the glucose converted to fat and stored in your adipose tissue. The more energy you consume that you donât burn, the more that gets stored in your fat tissuesâand the more weight you can gain.

Is It Only ‘negative Stress’ That Affects Blood Sugar

Even positive life changes can cause blood sugar to swing, says Amy Campbell, RD, a certified diabetes care and education specialist, and a contributor to DiabetesSelfManagement.com. Planning a wedding, moving to a new city, getting a job promotion such happy stressors can also send your fight-or-flight hormones into overdrive.

A past review cited the definition of stress as the physiological or psychological response to an external stimulus, regardless of whether that stimulus is good or bad. That means that if you experience a significant change in your life whether it’s positive or negative its a good idea to keep an extra-close watch on your blood sugar.

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How Can I Avoid Anxiety

Appropriate stress management may be key to avoiding conditions such as anxiety. Relaxation techniques include:

  • Breathing exercises
  • Meditation
  • Self-hypnosis

Relaxation methods such as the ones listed above are all be effective in relieving stress. Mindfulness based training in combination with diabetes management are proving an invaluable approach to aid the process of acceptance, while alleviating anxiety and stress.

Research conducted at the psychology department at Stanford University used brain imaging technologies to examine the effect of mindfulness training on social anxiety. They reported that participants who completed the mindfulness course showed reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression and demonstrated an enhanced self-esteem.

Mindfulness practices help to adjust the relationship one has with their panic and anxiety with acceptance, compassion and awareness.

This methodology has been shown to be significantly more effective in the long term. It has been scientifically proven to enhance quality of life and allow the practitioner to develop a disassociation with panic and anxiety, meaning they no longer need these states to define who they are or how they live their lives.

How Are You Sweetening Your Coffee What You Add To Your Cup May Affect Your Blood Sugar Levels

What damage can high blood sugar and oxidative stress cause?

Whether you were recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or have been living with the condition for several years, you know how fickle blood sugar levels can be, and how important it is that they stay controlled.

Proper blood sugar control is key for warding off potential diabetes complications, such as kidney disease, nerve damage, vision problems, stroke, and heart disease, according to the National Institutes of Health . Plus, keeping your levels in check on a daily basis can help you stay energized, focused, and in a good mood, explains Lisa McDermott, RD, CDCES, a diabetes specialist with the Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network.

According to the American Diabetes Association , proper medication, effective meal planning, regular exercise, and regular blood sugar checks can all help you keep your levels within a healthy range. The ADA recommends blood glucose stay within 80 to 130 milligrams per deciliter before meals and below 180 mg/dL two hours after the start of a meal. Furthermore, the organization recommends getting an A1C test, which measures your average blood glucose over the past two to three months, at least twice per year if your levels are stable and you are meeting treatment goals.

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How Can You Determine If Mental Stress Is Affecting Your Glucose Levels

Keeping track of additional information, such as the date and what you were doing at the time you were stressed, may help you determine specific triggers. For example, are you more stressed on Monday mornings? If so, you know now to take special steps on Monday mornings to lower your stress and keep your glucose in check.

You can figure out if this is happening to you by capturing your stress and glucose levels. If you feel stressed, rate your level of mental stress on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten represents the highest level of stress. Write this number down.

After rating your stress, you should check your glucose levels. Continue doing this for the next couple of weeks. Before long, you may see a pattern emerge. If you notice that your glucose is regularly high, its likely that your mental stress is negatively affecting you blood sugar.

Causes Of Anxiety For People With Diabetes

People with diabetes may become anxious over a variety of things. These can include monitoring their glucose levels, weight, and diet.

They may also worry about short-term health complications, such as hypoglycemia, as well as long-term effects. People with diabetes are at higher risk for certain health complications, such as heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke. Knowing this can lead to further anxiety.

But keep in mind that the information can also be empowering if it leads to preventative measures and treatments. Learn about other ways one woman with anxiety feels empowered.

There is also some evidence that anxiety may play a role in causing diabetes. One study found that symptoms of anxiety and depression are significant risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes.

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How To Prevent Anxiety Over Hypoglycemia

Most likely, if you havent already been diagnosed with hypoglycemia, youre simply experiencing anxiety. Its perfectly normal to feel as though your anxiety symptoms must be the result of a health problem, and not anxiety, since in many cases anxiety mimics serious health concerns.

Anxiety is more common than many of the health disorders it mimics and unfortunately people with anxiety commonly experiencing health anxiety which may cause further concern over the symptoms they experience.

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The Effect Of Stress On Blood Sugar

Can Stress cause Diabetes?

Stress triggers an increase in the body’s levels of the fight-or-flight hormone cortisol, as if you were under attack, explains Roger McIntyre, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Toronto in Canada. In response, the body releases extra energy into the bloodstream in the form of glucose.

When chronically heightened, cortisol works against glucose control even in people who dont have diabetes, Dr. McIntyre says. Yet people with diabetes are unable to properly process and store that glucose because of insulin resistance, meaning that glucose accumulates even more in their blood in times of stress.

Everyone gets stressed out at times, but its important to understand that theres a difference between short-term and long-term stress, he says. While lifes inevitable acute stressors getting stuck in traffic, bickering with a family member cause a temporary rise in blood sugar, its the factors that can lead to chronic stress, such as an unhappy marriage, a cruel boss, or the COVID-19 quarantine, that can cause serious damage.

Diabetes is even considered to be an independent factor in the development of depression, according an analysis published in June 2019 in Preventive Medicine Reviews. That means that if you take two otherwise identical people, the one with diabetes is significantly more likely to struggle with depression.

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