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Diabetic Health Clinic Newsletter 26/10/2015
Stress and blood sugar levels
Greetings,
This week we look at the question of stress. We have been asked so many times if stress can raise sugar levels. The simple answer is yes. So the question is what happens in the body to bump up the sugar levels?
When the body is under stress, the adrenal glands trigger the release of glucose stored in various organs. This will often often lead to elevated blood sugar levels.
As you can imagine if a person has diabetes this can be an additional issue that they have to deal with, as after a period of stress it can be quite difficult to get the blood sugar levels under control.
People generally correlate stress with an emotional issue. Often if someone is anxious, depressed, or they have something major to worry about we think of the situation as stressful. We rarely think about physical exertion, the lack of nutrition, or the use of chemical substances as a stress, but they are!
Let’s for a moment have a look at some situations which are classified as stressful. A death in the family can be extremely stressful, as can a accident or a financial crisis. Pain can also be a stress, as can taking or using any form of drugs.
A good definition of stress is anything a person experiences that changes the control that they have over their emotions or their body.
With that in mind lets have a look at the adrenal glands. They are located just above the kidneys and their job is releasing hormones when a stressful situation occurs.. The hypothalamus area of the brain when stress occurs, sends a chemical signal to the adrenal glands. The glands then become enlarged and they start to produce two hormones, epinephrine, better known as adrenaline and norepinephrine.
When these hormones find their way into the blood stream they prepare the body for the well known “fight-or-flight response”. Heart rate starts to accelerate, blood vessels get wider as does the airway. There is an increase in muscle tension and blood pressure.
The reason why our body produces norepinephrine is to ensure that blood pressure does not fall, it is also important to understand that epinephrine is a important blood sugar regulating substance. It converts the fat that is stored in the cells and in the liver into sugar or glucose when there are times that blood sugar levels drop. The time that this most often happens is in-between meals when a person starts to become hungry.
The reason why the body increases blood glucose levels in the blood stream is because it is getting its fuel supply up in case that a lot of energy is used to deal with the stressful situation. If you are going to be running away from a dog that is chasing you because it want to bite you, there will be lots of energy required to try and get you out of trouble.
The release of epinephrine helps facilitate the accessibility to sugar and therefore fuel for energy.
For diabetics it is important that where possible stressful situations are avoided and if one does occur it is important to ensure that everything is done to keep blood sugar levels under control.
This week we added the following items to our web site:
Infographic:
Himalayan salt is good for us and table salt is not, but do you know why?
Click her now to find out.
Joanne & Peter Pratt.
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Newsletter No. 127 – 26/10/2015
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