Are You Diabetic? De-Stress Yourself

Stress has been the culprit of many diseases. It is more harmful to diabetic people. Though stress is sometimes hard to avoid, putting our health on top priority should help us find ways to avoid stress-causing situations. Read on.

Stress and diabetic patients

In a fast-paced society where people live at a breakneck speed, it overpowers your precious resources and time due to numerous social, personal and work obligations. However, emotional and physical stress can take a greater toll on health especially with diabetic people.

The blood sugar rises when somebody is stressed. The main function of epinephrine and cortisol hormones is to raise blood sugar so energy will be boost when it is needed the most. For example, when faced with danger or when fighting, blood sugar rises to help meet the challenge. Both emotional and physical stress can cause the hormones to increase, including blood sugars.

Diabetes and stress

Normal people have mechanisms in the body to control the blood sugar from rising abnormally. However, diabetic patients lost or lack these mechanisms so they cannot keep the blood sugar out of control. Due to lack of insulin, these hormones cannot be coped up so blood sugar levels rise during stress. Out-of-control blood sugar can result to complications like kidney problems, blindness, nerve damage, heart attacks and strokes.

Many situations can cause us distress, upset and stress such as being laid off from a job, business failure, relationship breakup and many more. These generally can cause worse effects on the blood sugar. It is important that we identify the situations that cause us stress. One of the best ways is to record the stress level you have to figure out eventually what are the events that make your blood sugar go up, especially if you are already diabetic. Some can feel their sugar going high if they are fighting with a spouse or missing the morning train.

De-stress yourself

Once the stress-causing situations are identified, find ways to chill them out. You may take up meditation, yoga or deep breathing, relaxation therapy or cognitive behavior therapy wherein you re-evaluate what causes your aggravation and change that behavior and view life in a more appropriate approach. Talking to a therapist, stepping back from the situation, eliminating caffeine, healthy eating, exercise and keeping a relaxing hobby like knitting, reading poems or hot bathing can be of great help too.