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How does stress affect BS?

B

bethan90

Well-Known Member
Messages
94
Hello!
I've been t1 since 2001, and in recent years my BS have been very up and down. However, recently they are much better controlled and I've been making a huge effort. I've been revising for an exam which I've been absolutely dreading, and have been under a massive amount of stress. During my exam period I didn't notice much affect on my BS, however the exam was yesterday and since yesterday evening my blood sugars have been ****! Woke up 15.1, when normally wake up 6-8. Porridge shot me up to 19, even after taking correction dose. Finally got them down to 8 this evening. I've changed my cartridges in case they were effected by the sun/heat some how.

My question is... Could it be a delayed response to stress? Or is that not normally how it works?
Thanks
 
In times of stress the hormones released make the liver secrete glucose and this is why we see our bg shot-up, if you went to bed high then you would undoubtedly wake to high levels as you did this morning, I find if my bg is in double figures as yours were this morning then my correction factor can double to what it would be if my bg was under 10mmol, so perhaps the correction dose wasn't enough to bring your bg down to normal levels post -breakfast.

Not sure about a delayed effect on bg caused by stress as I would expect to see a rise straight away and after correcting to come down within a few hours, I'm teaching my son to drive at the moment and I've noticed some higher than expected bg readings lately.

Good luck with the exam results! :)
 
I know stress sends my levels high and they stay that way for a while after, so could be delayed stress. Hope you did well on your exam.
 
I am 67, semi-retired [if only] and have been a Type 1 diabetic since 1999. I also have an underactive thyroid ?HYPOthyroid? since 1999 and have had, since 2006, DH [a close cousin of coeliac - an allergy to gluten and wheat].

I am puzzled by the forum on the effects of stress. This last year I have had two paramedic episodes when under severe stress at work - this seems to be the OPPOSITE of received wisdom [BG goes UP because our liver releases glucose, adrenalin impact etc] and wonder if anyone else has reacted to stress like me?

My HbA1c is only reasonable [7.7], I do lots of exercise and I tutor in Accounting and Economics for 30 hours each week at two Oxford tutorial colleges.

I look forward to meaningful responses and am also interested in other multiple auto-immune conditions folk.

Is the thyroid gland the conductor of our auto-immune orchestra?

PS it seems to be better to graze during a day rather than have just 2-3 sit-down meals in the day?
regards from Brian Thomas
 
Hi

During a recent course at work which addressed stress, we were told that for the amount of time that we are stressed, it takes twice as long for the body to get rid of the stress induced hormones - e.g. one hour of stress produces hormones which take two hours to remove from the body, one day of stress takes two days to remove, etc. I guess that there is a 'knock on' effect on BS when some people experience stress, but it seems that just as we all deal with it in different ways, it affects our bodies differently too - some have raised BS and some seem to be unaffected.
 
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