Can Stress Cause Diabetes?
Can stress cause diabetes? That is a difficult question to answer. It is thought that inappropriately managed stress is a main factor in almost every illness. Does this stress cause diabetes? Let’s explore this issue.
Type 1 diabetes is also referred to as juvenile diabetes since it begins in childhood and early adolescents. It is caused by an inadequate amount of insulin is produced. Because it does not start later in life, we can deduct that Type 1 diabetes is possible very unlike to be caused by stress.
But it can cause problems with Type 2 diabetes which is known as adult onset diabetes.
- Stress can be mental or physical
- It can cause difficulties with diabetes by sidetracking the diabetic from proper care of affecting blood glucose levels directly
- Learning to relax and making changes in lifestyle can help with reducing mental stress
Stress happens when something causes the body to perform as if it was under attack. Stress sources can be physical, like illness or injury. Or they can be emotional or mental such as problems in your job, health, finances or marriage.
When stress does occur, the body prepares to take action. This groundwork is called the “fight-or-flight” response. In this response, levels of many different hormones arise up. The net effect is to make a lot of energy which is stored such as fat and glucose available to cells. These cells then primed to help the body run away from the danger.
The problem is that in those individual who are diabetics, this fight-or-flight response does not work correctly. Insulin is not always able to let the energy which is extra into the cells, therefore glucose increase in the blood.
Most sources of stress tend to be long-term threats. An example, it can often take many months to recover from surgery or the loss of a spouse. Stress hormones which are designed to deal with short-term danger stay turned on for a long time. Because of this, long-term stress can produce long-term high blood glucose levels.
There is a theory which says that stress filled lives increase the risk of diabetes by increasing the levels of hormones such as cortisol and decreases stages of sex steroids such as testosterone, which has been known to manipulate the insulin actions.
So as to whether stress can cause diabetes – the answer is really no, but it can add to the problem of making Type-2 diabetes worse.
