Monday 1 February 2016

How Stress Affects Your Blood Sugar

The cold hard truth



By living with diabetes and by taking your prescribed medication, you are under the constant daily threat of dying of a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, succumbing to blindness, amputations, neuropathy, hypertension, nerve system disease, high cholesterol, depression, and falling into a coma. Those are just the side-effects of living with diabetes.

Now lets add the side-effects from the drugs that are supposed to "help" you; hepatitis, liver problems, acidosis leading to death within hours, heart attacks, stroke, increased risk of cancer, weakened immune system, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, heart failure, etc.

Everyone knows that diabetes, both Type 1 and Type 2, involves properly controlling the body's blood sugar level. This can be affected by the type, frequency, and amount of foods that are consumed. But there is another factor that is also a major contributor to blood sugar levels and complication: stress. In fact, it has more to do with managing diabetes than you can imagine.

When your body is under stress it will automatically respond in the only way that it knows how... which is to release hormones. Hormones run everything from a woman's menstrual cycle, to a person's moods... to body functions. But when hormones are released, so is sugar. That's why under extreme periods of stress our bodies are able to perform some extraordinary acts as it is burning up the excess reserves of sugar that are stored in it.

But instead of rapid bouts of stress that are soon over, what about stress that continually builds over time? If short bursts of stress release extra sugar into the blood spontaneously, what does a continuous level of stress release? That's right: it releases sugar too, but over a longer period of time. And to a diabetic, this is not good news.

Releasing additional levels of sugar due to stress, in addition to what is extracted from your food intake, only ups the limits of sugar that is present in your bloodstream. This is the one thing that diabetics don't need. Now, stress is not only causing the diabetic to worry more, but it is now affecting their overall health.

One common side effect form stress is to either skip meals or skimp on meals. Skipping them altogether is disastrous for anyone, but the effects are amplified in diabetics. This is one thing that they cannot afford to do. This results in blood sugar levels plummeting and brings on an onslaught of complications too numerous to mention.

Almost as dangerous is skimping on meals. Taking the easy way out by consuming unhealthy snacks or fast food is equally as effective in sabotaging your blood sugar level. That's why eating healthy is so critical for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics. Healthy food helps to equal healthy sugar.

Stress can also affect the body by cutting out exercise. People think they simply do not have time. But a healthy cardiovascular system is essential to maintaining optimal blood sugar levels.

Sleep, or lack of sleep, is another way that stress can creep into our lives. Not getting enough rest taxes the body, which causes stress, which causes insomnia, and so forth. It is a wheel in a gerbil cage that you won't be able to get off of until your body gives out. For an average person, this would mean exhaustion. For a diabetic, the consequences can be much more severe.

To discover answers to questions you may be asking yourself about Type 2 Diabetes, Click Here
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6079670

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