Stress Can Worsen Diabetes Symptoms

Diabetes is a condition that requires consistent control in order to minimize the effects the disease has on your health. When you have good glucose control, you can have a similar life expectancy of someone who doesn’t have the condition.

But when stress is in the picture, it can impact your day to day health as well as your long term health. When you’re under stress, your body immediately kicks into gear and raises your hormone levels in an attempt to fight back against whatever the stress is.

The rise in hormone levels introduces a flood of cortisol. In people with a normal metabolic reaction to stress, the blood sugar then returns to normal. Those who have diabetes don’t have the same results.

When someone who has diabetes experiences stress, the body isn’t able to process the glucose released by the hormone reaction. As a result of that, the glucose isn’t absorbed or used.

Instead, it remains in the blood and you’ll notice that when you check your glucose level. If you’re subject to a constant barrage of stress and the body’s hormone reaction to stress, it causes long term elevated stress levels.

This leads to ineffectual glucose management, which in turn causes your diabetes and the related symptoms to spiral out of control. You can have stress that’s physical or emotional, but your body doesn’t differentiate between the types of stress.

It simply reacts to the stress itself. You can have headaches, fatigue, stomach pain, shoulder pain and mood swings as a result of stress. Because a diabetic can’t get their glucose back into balance the way that someone without diabetes naturally can, your health is put at risk.

Uncontrolled glucose levels can lead to nerve damage, skin infection or rashes, dental problems, kidney damage, heart attacks, blindness and loss of limbs. When the stress is being controlled and the glucose levels are within range, someone who has diabetes doesn’t face those issues.

But when the stress isn’t under control, then your diabetes won’t be either. The longer it goes uncontrolled, the more damage you’ll experience to your body. For someone who has diabetes, stress raises your blood pressure.

Many people with diabetes have borderline hypertension or have already been diagnosed with high blood pressure. Because the stress raises the blood pressure, that can cause more problems for your heart.

Stress is bad for anyone - but it’s twice as bad for someone with diabetes. In order to be able to regulate your glucose, you must find a way to eliminate the stress. If you’re in a stressful situation or you have chronic stress, learning how you can eliminate stress or remain calm can help prevent your glucose from constantly being high.

Stress Will Defeat Your Anti Aging Efforts

You might be doing all that you can do outwardly to slow the signs of aging. You may be practicing a good skin care routine, making sure you get enough sleep, exercising regularly and eating healthy.

But all that effort is wasted if you live with chronic stress. Stress is one of the big factors when it comes to sabotaging your anti-aging efforts. The toll begins deep within your body on a cellular level.

Stress damages your mitochondria. Your mitochondria are structures known as organelles that are within your cells. Your mitochondria reacts to various factors, both physical and mental that can change your health, both short and long term.

The job of the organelles is to create energy for your body. When the mitochondria become impaired due to stress, a number of events take place that you may not even realize.

The first thing is that you become open to developing ongoing cell damage, inflammation and disease. The organelles filter your life and are instrumental in dealing with how your body as a whole reacts to stress.

When you let stress go and you don’t deal with it, the mitochondria can reach their limit. They simply aren’t able to cope with a high volume of stress. As a result, the clock starts ticking and the signs of aging multiply.

You’ll see things like skin damage, hair that loses its luster, muscle weakness, organ damage, cognitive problems and vision or hearing issues. Stress doesn’t just age you at a cellular level.

It also affects your brain. Stress can age your brain and even make it shrink in size. That’s because stress causes a reaction within the body that alerts the brain’s hypothalamus.

As a result, the brain pushes for a greater production of cortisol. Left unchecked, this flood of cortisol impedes the brain’s ability to work properly. The stress interferes with the synapse function, eliminates viable brain cells and stunts the cortex.

At the same time, the cortisol flood causes a loop effect, meaning it can make the effect of stress on your brain even greater. This causes age related issues like forgetfulness, inability to concentrate and confusion.

Studies have linked high cortisol levels in the brain to cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Many people don’t realize that vision is impacted by stress and vision loss can occur as a result.

You can experience things like glaucoma, retinopathy and other age related eye problems. Stress damages the nerves within the eyes because of the higher levels of cortisol in the body.

It’s the same thing with your hearing. Stress can hasten the decline in your hearing. It can cause things like tinnitus, hearing loss, partial or full deafness. Stress can cause high blood pressure, too, which causes damage to your blood vessels.

Vessels are impacted throughout your body - including in your ears. If you don’t minimize or get rid of stress, you will feel and see the effects. It’ll make you feel older than you are and your appearance will change to reflect what’s going on in your body.


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Cheers, Warren Tattersall

Related Reading: https://www.thehealthsuccesssite.com/stress-management.html