Understanding and Managing the Relationship between Mental Stress and Diabetes

Mental stress can worsen your diabetes and diabetes is a constant stressor. This is a devastating loop and that’s the catch! Many people don’t realise that thinking about diabetes won’t make it any better. So, in this blog, I bring you all about Mental Stress and Diabetes.

A wise lawyer once told me, “I cannot undo what has already been done. Diabetes is my reality and I have to live with it. There is no divorce happening here. But I am not letting it win and ruin my life; I am not letting it take over. I am going to live every moment as happily and as blissfully as a normal person until death knocks me down.”

These wonderful words spark a positive attitude towards life and towards the management of this chronic disease. The very thought of not letting the disease win and ruin your life makes you more proactive, focused, conscious, and aware.

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But what about stress?

Is there a door to shut which can stop stress from creeping into our lives?

After all, we are living in a breakneck society where we toil from dawn to dusk just to afford our existence. Added to that, are the personal frets, the strains of a failing relation, a heartbreak, financial crack, work whacks or some other mental barricade.

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Mental Stress and Diabetes – Clinical Cases

We all go through the dark tunnel of stress and anxiety at some point in our life. But problems start creeping when the tunnel ceases to end.

My friend, a software engineer in TCS, once told me that ever since his wife got diagnosed with breast cancer, his blood glucose levels consistently reported high.

Another friend agreed that the problems in his daughter’s married life worsened his complications. A reputed heart surgeon who was diabetic accepted that spying on his wife stressed him a lot and worsened his diabetes. 

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These and many more cases imply direct proportionality between stress and diabetes!

Mental Stress and Diabetes

Stress causes the body to switch on the “fight-or-flight” mode. Stress signifies danger and it results in the release of hormones like epinephrine and cortisol. These hormones are responsible for raising blood sugar to help boost the energy needed to fight or flight the situation.

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People who are not diabetic have compensatory mechanisms to control the raised levels of glucose in the blood. But for those with diabetes, these mechanisms are shunned; insulin is either unavailable (Type 1) or incapable (Type 2) of transforming glucose into energy which results in a spike in their blood glucose levels.

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Uncontrolled or poorly managed blood glucose levels can bring a bag of troubles including life-threatening complications like heart diseases, stroke, blindness, kidney problems, diabetic neuropathy, diabetic foot etc. 

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No doubt cortisol is a culprit that takes our blood glucose levels on a ride. There are other ways stress can strain your records. As it is widely reported, a stressed person often skips workouts, miss to take medicines on time, care for food or do all that are important to manage diabetes.

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Not just that, mental stress is also a leading cause of sleeplessness which is proven to have an association with elevating blood glucose levels. Furthermore, stress activates our fat cells and increases our food cravings thus resulting in fat cell deposits in the abdomen, obesity and many other linked ailments. 

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Seven Simple steps to strike stress out of your life:

• Meditate your worries away. There is nothing more effective in beating stress than the calmness of mind that lets all your negative thoughts, fear and anxiety evaporate.
• Identify your triggers and try to avoid them.
• Practice Yoga for good health and a relaxed mind.
• Indulge in fun outdoor activities that release the happy hormones in your body.
• Read motivating books and listen to inspirational videos.
• Consult a therapist or an Ayurvedic expert for alternate solutions.
• Remember you are only as stressed as you think! 

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If you still have some queries on stress and diabetes, feel free to contact us!