Stress Management and Diabetes
Stress is an inevitable part of life that can significantly affect mental and physical health. For people with diabetes, stress can be particularly problematic as it directly influences blood sugar levels. When we experience stress, our bodies release hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which cause blood sugar levels to rise. Prolonged stress can keep blood sugars chronically high, leading to complications and reduced diabetes control over time.
Developing proactive stress management techniques is therefore vital for people with diabetes. By managing stress, individuals with diabetes may achieve better blood sugar control and reduce their risk of complications from their disease. This blog post outlines some of the most effective stress management techniques for improving well-being and diabetes control.
Understanding the Link between Stress and Diabetes
To manage stress effectively as a person with diabetes, it is important to understand the direct link between stress and blood sugar levels. When we experience a stressful event, the adrenal glands release hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, into the bloodstream. This triggers our “fight-or-flight” response, which is an evolutionary survival mechanism that provides a burst of energy to respond to threats. Adrenaline and cortisol stimulate the release of glucose to provide this energy, primarily by directing the liver to convert its stored glycogen into glucose. They also inhibit the insulin from working (like without stress), meaning glucose cannot be removed from the blood for storage in cells as effectively. The result is spiking blood sugar levels.
Prolonged or repeated stress keeps levels of these glucose-elevating hormones consistently high, often leading to chronically elevated blood sugars. People using insulin need higher insulin doses to maintain blood glucose in range. The effects of stress can persist long after the actual stressful event or period, continuing to reduce diabetes control. Understanding this relationship is the first step toward minimizing the effects of stress on people with diabetes.
Lifestyle Changes and Routines
Implementing positive lifestyle adjustments and daily routines can provide the foundation for managing stress for individuals with diabetes. Key areas to focus on include diet, exercise, sleep, and relaxation practices.
Diet: Maintaining a healthy diet is important for balancing blood sugars as well as providing energy and nourishment to help cope with stressors. Diets high in nutrient-dense whole foods and healthy fats can help stabilize mood and blood sugars by leveling out energy. Limiting refined carbohydrates and sugars prevents extreme blood sugar fluctuations. Portion control also promotes stable blood glucose readings.
Exercise: Workouts help relieve both mental and physical stress. Activities like brisk walking, cycling, or strength training promote endorphin release for an uplifted mood while also increasing insulin sensitivity and allowing blood glucose to be used effectively by working muscles. Starting an exercise plan does not have to be daunting; simple daily movements like short walks are already helpful. The key is choosing an enjoyable activity that can realistically fit into regular routines. Exercise is also an opportunity for mindfulness, focusing awareness on the present physical sensations rather than stressful thoughts.
Sleep: Adequate, restful sleep is essential for effectively coping with daily stressors, yet stress itself can directly interfere with getting necessary sleep. Having a calming pre-bedtime routine, keeping the bedroom dark and cool, avoiding electronic devices before bed, and practicing meditation and relaxation can all promote restful sleep. Speaking to a doctor about ongoing sleep disruptions may provide helpful solutions for some. Sleep regulates appetite, metabolism, and mood, thereby optimizing sleep, regulating stress hormones, and enhancing blood sugar balance.
Mindful Living: Relaxation practices essentially elicit our body’s natural relaxation response to counter the fight-or-flight activation from perceived stress. Simple practices like mindful breathing, visualization, and yoga provide periods of rest and recovery from stress response throughout the day to prevent overload. This helps moderate cortisol spikes from acute or prolonged stress exposure. Over time, regular relaxation lowers average daily cortisol levels for better diabetes regulation.
Tip from my diabetes: For me, it is the combination of a low-carb diet, low-intensity workouts, and mindful living that makes my diabetes management easier. And by having better blood sugar control and less volatility, it also reduces stress.
Self-Monitoring
Diligent diabetes self-monitoring provides vital feedback to see the real-time effects of stressors on blood glucose readings. Periods of higher-than-normal readings can highlight stressful times when additional management efforts are required. Documenting daily events, mood, diet, and other factors alongside blood glucose readings can reveal important correlations. Many meters and continuous glucose monitors have apps and downloadable reports to observe trends.
Self-monitoring enables reflection on which circumstances consistently elevate readings to make proactive plans. It also provides motivation and accountability in following stress management measures. Responding to subtle changes and trends for those using intensive insulin regimens will optimize control during stressful times, preventing prolonged hyperglycemia. Discussing downloaded data from glucose monitoring with healthcare providers also elicits objective guidance.
Cognitive and Emotional Coping Skills
While lifestyle measures help manage day-to-day stresses, developing helpful thought patterns, coping skills, and emotional intelligence provides resilience against uncontrolled stress. Learning to challenge unhelpful thoughts, engage in positive self-talk, reframe situations more constructively, and meditation cycles prevent blowing things out of proportion, which elevates stress.
Our thought patterns directly influence our emotional and physiological response to any potential stressor. Excessive worrying about hypothetical futures or pessimistic views often becomes self-fulfilling through chronic stress responses. Alternatively, focusing on solutions, keeping perspective, and having an attitude of learning rather than judging when facing difficulties can moderate reactionary emotions.
Enhancing emotional awareness and intelligence allows individuals to sense rising stress levels sooner to engage in coping strategies before reaching a fever pitch. Identifying, accepting, and constructively expressing difficult emotions prevents internalizing stress. Assertive but respectful communication skills greatly reduce conflicts and misunderstandings that trigger emotional stress. Being self-aware also helps recognize personal limitations and avoid unnecessary burdens that lead to feeling overwhelmed. Another solution is to appraise situations realistically, let go of excessive responsibilities or pressures, and lower stress levels. Also, establishing boundaries and saying no when on the verge of being overburdened is essential self-care.
Building Social Support
Humans are inherently social beings, making positive social connections vital for coping with all sources of stress. Social networks provide tangible help to ease burdens and provide emotional comfort, reassurance, and new perspectives that reframe challenging situations. However, excessively venting emotions can further ingrain unhelpful mindsets and dwell on the negative. Finding the right balance between vulnerability and constructive action is ideal.
People can also join diabetes support groups to share experiences and effective coping strategies relevant to their condition. For some, individual counseling provides more personalized stress management guidance. Support can also come from intimacy in trusting, communicative relationships. Prioritizing non-judgmental social connections minimizes isolation during stressful times.
Tip from my diabetes: Your immediate family and your close friends are worth gold for dealing with diabetes. I also find it stress-reducing to go sometimes on diabetes Facebook pages to see that I'm not the only one with challenges to manage my diabetes.
Mastering Stress Management Techniques
Implementing positive lifestyle measures, self-monitoring blood sugars, developing cognitive and emotional coping skills, and strengthening social support all help minimize daily stresses. Practicing specific stress management techniques equips individuals with the ability to calm the fight-or-flight activation during acutely stressful episodes. Breathing, mindfulness meditation, and visualization are techniques that can be applied in most settings with some practice.
Stress undeniably influences blood sugar levels and diabetes control through its effects on glucose-elevating stress hormones. Developing techniques to minimize and constructively respond to all sources of stress should be a top priority for individuals with diabetes to enhance well-being and avoid complications.
No single method will universally eliminate stress, so a multi-pronged approach across lifestyle, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors provides the best chance at resilience. While momentary lapses will occur, persisting in the process leads to cumulative benefits over time. Partnering these personal efforts with professional care from doctors and diabetes educators further optimizes the potential for long-term gains. Remember, there are always ways to positively influence wellbeing, regardless of circumstances.
