Why Stress Management Is Important For Diabetes Management

If you have diabetes, you’re probably thinking of ways to manage your diet, exercise more often, and you’re probably working with your doctor to manage your medications. Maybe you’re even trying some herbs and supplements to lower your blood sugar. 

But are you putting in serious effort to manage your stress levels?

Stress can cause spikes in blood sugar. When you’re stressed, your body is flooded with stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline. 

Cortisol reduces the ability of your muscles to soak sugar out of the blood stream. It also leads to the production of glucose in organs like the liver and decreases the ability of your pancreas to produce insulin. All of this keeps your blood sugar levels high.

In the short term, this stress-induced spike in blood sugar is beneficial to humans. It provides readily accessible energy for the body to help us survive dangerous situations. This was a survival mechanism that evolved within us and other animals. 

However, chronically high blood sugar leads to insulin resistance. Insulin tells your cells to make use of the sugar in your bloodstream. Insulin resistance is when your cells resist that command from insulin. It’s like insulin is knocking on the door telling your organs, muscles, and other tissues to let the sugar in but nobody’s answering the door. Insulin resistance is the underlying problem in type 2 diabetes.  

There is evidence that stress management can improve blood sugar and reduce HbA1c levels. Most studies use some sort of mindfulness training to help participants manage stress. It’s unfortunate that there are not more diverse studies in this area because people respond so differently to various stress management approaches. Not everyone likes meditation and there are many other ways to calm down your nervous system.

While high stress is certainly not the only important factor to consider for type 2 diabetes, it can make managing the condition more difficult. Whether you’re thinking about preventing diabetes or managing it, stress management should be an important part of your diabetes plan.