I’ve got a little Rat Terrier dog named Sneakers. He’s a little dog, and like most little dogs he’s very nervous and stressed 24/7. The vet says it isn’t good for him. He shakes, barks, and is always on guard. That said, he is still handsome as can be. Nervous, sure, but also snuggly and handsome. (Stick around towards the end for a cute pic!)
I was talking to my kiddo about his level of stress when someone knocked at the door. Both Sneakers and I jumped up. My daughter laughed and said Sneakers and I act just alike.
While Sneakers barked, I could feel my entire body getting wound up and soon my Dexcom G7 started screaming about a jump in my sugar. That made me start to think about stress and how it relates to my diabetes. I’ve been a practicing diabetic for over 30 years and over time I have learned that everything impacts blood sugar. Usually in a bad way, but sometimes in a neutral way. Of course, sometimes your glucose can drop in exactly the way you want, but how often is that?
Knowing that everything affects everything, it is good to know about the things that are more dangerous, both short and long-term. First of all, stress really isn’t good for anyone, and recognizing danger signs could really help you in the long run.
Symptoms of Long Term Stress
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure.
- Tense muscles
- Decreased digestion
- Hormone release; cortisol and adrenaline
- Other physical responses
- Rapid breathing, cold hands and feet, dry mouth, nausea, increased sweat production, dilated pupils, and a distorted sense of time.
- Skin issues
- Stress can trigger a rash, often appearing as pink or discolored hives that can itch, burn, or hurt.
- Body temperature increase
So what are the critical impacts for diabetics?
I’m told that cortisol and adrenaline can have an extremely negative outcome for diabetics. These hormones activate our flight or fight response. Adrenaline is known for increasing your heart rate, and blood pressure, and giving you that burst of energy you get when stressed. Cortisol on the other hand is known to increase glucose levels to provide short-term energy for your system in case there is a real threat at your door.
When the body experiences high levels of instant stress it destabilizes your blood sugar and exhausts you so that your spikes are much higher than would be usual. As bad as that seems, long-term stress leads to not only dangerous blood sugar spikes, but over time constant surges do extensive damage to all of your body systems.
What’s worse is that higher cortisol levels can cause body tissue to be less sensitive to insulin, which is a fancy way of saying the sugar in your bloodstream stays there and your levels go up. That forces you to take more insulin, which as we are learning now, makes your body spiral into that creates that outcome where Type 2 diabetes is a relentlessly progressive disease that can’t be reversed and can’t be stopped. We already know that isn’t true, but we have to fight this battle on every front.
So it should be easy to fix, right? Just calm down and your blood sugar goes down, right?
Well, not really. While the stress hormones cause blood sugar to go up, there’s only one hormone that can make it go down: insulin.
This traps people in a cycle. The everyday stress of life and especially of life as a diabetic causes you to need more insulin which only heightens insulin resistance. So what are you to do?
As a first step, natural long-term remedies can help bring stress and blood sugar levels down. Things like everyday meditation, regular exercise, reducing caffeine, consuming large amounts of water, and other common stress-reducing methods work great.
The most important step in managing this problem is information. That starts with asking questions, (the questions that I can answer I will, and perhaps there are other followers of my social media accounts that can answer too.) In this case, sharing is caring. Different suggestions work for different people in different ways. My daughter uses knitting, which would drive me nuts. I use music, big band is best for me.
We will provide you with the most options we can and you can throw your choices into the discussion. I’m looking forward to hearing your questions and sharing your answers to others’ questions. Building this community is our best choice and chance to heal ourselves and each other.
There’s hope and just remember, you don’t have to rely on insulin forever as long as you know how to fight back against your diabetes.
P.S. Here’s a picture of Sneakers!
Leave a Reply