causal factors of diabetes

There are some theories on stress and the development of Type 2.
From what I have read, major stressful events like loss of a partner, redundancy, divorce, major illnesses increases the risk by increasing cortisol production. This influences the action of insulin in your system. Also, the major stress factors sometimes result in strokes, heart attacks and blood tests reveal diabetes which was not evident before. IMHO there has to be a predisposition to diabetes.
Managing work stress is the answer to high blood sugars when under pressure, easier said than done and not just applicable to males. I often ask myself if I can change the outcome by stressing and if I can't then why am I stressing?

If you google, "stress related diabetes" there are some that agree and some that disagree. I think the jury is still out.

I don't know if you meant just type 2 or all types, but just for completeness: nobody knows what causes type 1. There are various theories (including stress as a trigger) but it has everyone stumped. Unlike type 2 it occurs in similar proportions across all socio economic and ethnic categories in the UK. Like type 2, it is on the increase, but nobody knows why for sure although there are lots of theories.

Diabetes describes a symptom that can have many many causes (after all the years of study you think they would have nailed one by now!). But the link between them all is the failure of the Glucose/insulin chemistry in the body. Insulin is a hormone and it doesn't take a brain-surgeon (or even an endocrinologist) to realise that the function of hormones has a strong psychological aspect so I think that it is almost certain that stress and mental health will have a huge impact on all types of diabetes both causal and management related.

I am sure there are studies out there and a lot of personal experiences in this forum - I hope we'll hear some...

I recently had a prolonged horrendous time at work at the hands of management. I think this is what brought about the onset of type 2 in my case. I know that I had a genetic disposition from the old man, but I'd been eating and living reasonably healthy and had even managed to pack up smoking before the onset. The thing with stress is that it often has numerous side effects as well as the obvious release of particular chemicals in ones body. When stressed we exercise less, we drink more, we may smoke more. The effects of stress often leave people lethargic and seeking some form of comfort, be this in food or intoxicants. So essentially we do further damage to our bodies when we are already in a bad way due to the stress, in order to alleviate it! Then bang! Diabetes rears its head...

I think causal factors, of type 2 at least, are due to a mixture of environmental and genetic factors. However, the stark rise of incidence of the condition, globally, even to people without familial history apparently, indicates that environmental factors play a big part. Work in the modern age involves infinitely less physical exertion than at any time in our known history, that can't help! I mean, I do wonder sometimes, if it is even biologically natural for men to spend a large part of their waking life in front of a screen sitting at a desk, or in a car like many of us do?

Does the lack of physicality in modern life mixed with the easy availability of rich foods play a big part in the rapid growth of the condition we are witnessing? I think so.

Screw all of this, let me find my bearskin and club......

There is a small study on the internet performed on university students with no history of diabetes no family history of diabetes and perfect fasting glucose readings. All are in their twenties. They were monitored for a few days with same foods and then were put under stress with same food. The stress in my opinion was really minimal. They were more or less playing games were they could win a small amount of money. Nothing like real stress in real life. The result was that every students glucose level changed. Instead of the high after food beeing at about 1 hour the average high was 2 hours after eating and took longer to get back down to normal. Even though they went back to their normal levels before their next meal they all together were high much longer than when not under stress. I thought it was a very interesting study. Cheers, Helga