What stress does to bg levels

[KathyCP]

HI, i've just had a pretty graphic illustration of what stress can do to my bg levels - i only test a couple of times during the day twice a week, but on those days i always do it first thing when i wake up. over the last year or so, my morning bg has usually been 5.5mmol or less, unless i'm not very well, when it can go up a bit higher. last sun morning it was 5.2mmol, but on wed morning it was 6.2mmol - i've not been ill and i didn't eat anything unusual over the intervening days. however, i had a couple of really stressful days (work-related) between sun and wed; since then, things have calmed down again, and this morning my waking bg was back down to 4.7mmol. i remember my gp telling me when i was diagnosed with t2 (with a fasting bg of 19mmol) that stress doesn't have any major impact on bg levels - but at that time i did wonder, as i'd spent probably about 5 years working in constantly stressful situations, regular 15 hour days with tight deadlines, etc. - one of the things i did after diagnosis was to address my work-life balance, which is now much better than it used to be, and in fact, early this week was one of the first times that i found myself in that situation again. i know it's only a very small blip, and only backed up with a couple of readings, but it does make we wonder whether i should aim to be much more mindful about how stressed i'm getting. anyone else got any experience/ideas on this front?

 

[mytype1.life]

Hi KathyCP,

I'm T1 and can confidently say stress affects my BS.

I'm not an expert but I found the best way to think about it was the fight or flight response. During stressful times your body often reacts by giving you extra glucose to deal with the situation.

I'm sure you'll get much more detailed responses but hope that helps a little

 

[carty]

I find that even "good" stress can up my Bgs e.g. preparing for a holiday or looking forward to a visit from family
CAROL

 

[Jo_the_boat]

........then you get stressed........then your glucose shoots up........then you get more stressed ........then..... Oh dear.

 

[biren1973]

From my experience too, stress impact quite lot on type 2. In fact I do believe that stress is the main reasons for my diabetes. More research should be done which will unlock the mystery of stress impact on bg

 

[lowedb]

Yes. I would agree that stress increases BG. As I understand it, it's the cortisol released. The stress can be physical (i.e. pain or illness) or mental (stress at work). Back in June I had a week where my BG was higher than it had been for a while, though I hadn't changed what I was eating. I was actually on holiday so I would have expected stress to be lower, but I was suffering some muscle pain at the time, and there was also a stress issue. Sure enough once the stress factor was gone, and whatever was causing the pain went, my BG came back down, and my A1c is still good. Another really stressful week recently and I could see the effect it was having on my BG tests during the day.

It's also worth noting quite what an impact work stress can have on blood pressure. I had to record mine for a week ready for my appointment last Friday. I finished work for a weeks holiday on Friday, and got to spend a couple of hours up at our allotment before taking the last one and going to see the Dr. The difference on the Friday reading was quite remarkable, so much so I had to check three times. 140 ish had come down to 100 ish! My Dr actually said 'you know what your problem is, then'.

 

[phdiabetic]

Totally agree, stress has a HUGE impact on my numbers. My doctors actually mentioned to me that it is a factor that can affect my blood sugars, but I still haven't found a solution to it. I play tournament chess, and when I'm playing my blood sugars are sky high due to the stress and tension. No amount of bolus or temp basal seems to get me back down again.

 

[Sam50]

I would absolutely agree that stress impacts on BG levels. Hubby ( he's the diabetic one not me) is a very cortisol sensitive person. If he has deadlines to meet at work, a poor night's sleep, fighting a cold or in pain then his BG shoots up. Even on holiday it went up cos the plane was delayed !! corresponding rise in BP as well.

Stress is at the root of a lot of health issues in my opinion. I am convinced that 4 years working long days in a high pressured office was a big contributory factor in his case xx

 

[KathyCP]

HI, thanks everyone for your info/comments - seems like stress is an under-researched area for diabetes, which is a pity, since there are very few of us (if any) who can live a completely stress-free life. So I guess it's about minimising it as much as we can - if circumstances permit, I try and do positive visualisations and deep breathing when I feel I'm getting stressed, but that doesn't always work. I no longer monitor my blood pressure if I'm feeling stressed, because as far as I am concerned, there's just no point - it'll be up!

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

Here's some interesting reading regarding research on stress and it's affect on diabetes:

http://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/content/18/2/121

 

[KathyCP]

Here's some interesting reading regarding research on stress and it's affect on diabetes:

http://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/content/18/2/121

thanks NoCrbs4Me, this looks really interesting.

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

thanks NoCrbs4Me, this looks really interesting.

You're welcome. You can find even more info just by googling "stress and diabetes".

 

[Saramel]

Although many members of my family have T2 diabetes, I was diagnosed about 10 years earlier than the others. My GP was adamant that my diabetes had probably been brought on early because of the stress of looking after my Grandfather who had dementia and lived with us.

 

[moggilicious]

Yes, definitely, it's stressful enough having diabetes, so I'm trying to do relaxing things and cutting out the stress in my life as much as possible.

 

[James2]

i used to be in a very demanding and stressful job and my experience was that defiantly had an impact on BG levels and it also for a shorter period raised my BP . the impact on my BG seemed to last longer

 

[Diabetes_Type_1]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I was diagnosed as a Type 1 ten months ago.

 

[clanders]

Hi, I'm type 1 and brittle. I find that my BS can go up or down due to stress. Indeed it was exceptional work based stress which precipitated the brittle diabetes. You're doing the right thing in managing your work/life balance