Apart from the obvious eating too many carbs I've started to notice other patterns that adversely effect my BG readings. Normally my lowest BG readings are around 11.00am and 3.30pm which are my +2 hour readings post breakfast and post lunch.
This morning at 11.00 I was on a moderately stressful conference call, a question and answer session where I had to provide most of the answers! BG reading during the call at 11.00am was 7.6 well above the mid 5's I normally have. 15 mins after the call finished at 11.30 it was down to 6.4
Last week a similar thing. I had to drive to London for a meeting, got stuck in traffic and was stressing that I would arrive late. Stopped to get petrol and as an aside did a BG reading was 9.4 again at the time of day I would expect a mid 5's reading.
Anybody else experience this effect or know why it happens?
Next thing that effects my average BG levels is the frequency I need to pee. On days I pee a lot my BG's seem to be higher any idea's why?
None of this particularly worries me I'm more interested if anyone knows the physiology of why it occurs.
Stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine prepare your body for a fight or flight response, part of this process is to signal to your liver to release glucose into your blood stream in preparation for an increase in physical activity. The threat to your person doesn't have to be physical your body makes no distinction between mental or physical stress and will react in the same way to both.
As to the more frequent urination.. blood glucose is only processed by the kidneys when it reaches a certain concentration (around 13mmol/l).. so if your sugars are over this then that could be the cause.. otherwise some people get an anxiety response to stress that can cause them to need the loo... or it may just be your body dumping excess hormone that the stress has induced.
Most informative thank you Pneu. My sugars rarely go above 6.5 as I've read and taken on board other very useful info you have provided so the peeing must be down to something else. Could be something to do with dieting and weight loss I suspect.
Personally, I think it's round the other way. Your Bgs aren't higher when you pee a lot, you pee a lot when your BGs are high. This is absolutely the normal way your kidneys try to get rid of excess sugar. That's also why you get thirsty:- extra water helps the kidneys to keep flushing. I know you say it can't be the BGs because you keep them low, but you also said that on these days your BGs are high, due, as Pneu correctly said, probably to the cortisol you're producing when stressed.
Anyway, it's a theory!
totally agree with Grazer about the high BGs causing the frequent urination and the effect od 'stress hormones'. As a T1 who normally keeps very low glucose levels the only thing that makes me able to drive is that as soon as I get into a car stress hormones make my glucose levels rise. My highest levels since diagnosis were on a journey where we needed to use snow chains for about 50km... almost everyone else was stopped by the gendarmes but as we were returning from skiing we had chains . I wasn't even driving but my levels rose from the 4s to the mid 20s.
I'm pretty sure my BG's are staying within my current range of 5 to 6.5 the majority of the time. I was diagnosed Type 2 in early December and from that day onward I have strictly followed a carb intake of on average around 60g / day. I am testing 7 times a day (before each meal and at + 2 hours) with the occasional extra +1 hour reading when I am trying out different foods. I have an experienced Type 1 son who keeps me on the straight and narrow as well. Everything gets recorded in a spreadsheet with lots of pretty colours and graphs which I also find a really useful aid to keeping good.
The jumps from stress are immediate and obvious, the jumps from "peeing more" seem to just up my overall daily average by at most a point on that day. They may well be just statistical flukes but I asked the question just to see if anyone else had seen a similar effect. On those days it has happened (today is one hence why I asked) I have eaten my standard 60g ish intake.
So it seems on the stress issue I should go freak out my GP by asking for tranquillisers to lower my BGs! :twisted: :lol:
Of course, stress itself can make you pee more. Part of the "fight or flight" routine. (get rid of excess weight before running away from danger) Can't tell you how many times I had to pee before giving a public speech!
