created: 30.09.2004
last modified: 30.09.2004
Not seldom one appointment follows the other. Time to relax or even for sight-seeing is way too short. But you should take care that the load doesn't get too heavy, especially as a diabetic.
Stress is subjective
Stress and diabetes, that's a world of its own. There are the most different personal experiences on the topic of stress. Some people it doesn't affect at all, but for others it can have extreme consequences, since it is known that stress can quite unsettle a diabetic's blood glucose level. To understand the connection and effect, we first of all need to clarify how to define "stress", and what happens to our body in so-called stress situations.
What exactly is stress?
In general we divide between two forms of stress. There's the so-called "positive" stress that helps you to maintain a healthy tenseness, to face certain physical or mental demands awake and attentively. What effects a disease like diabetes is "negative" stress, which means a kind of tension that we sense as a burden.
Stress has an effect on the glucose metabolism
But what happens exactly when we feel stress and how can that have an effect on diabetes? Stress makes our brain and nervous system to produce and pour out hormones that pit our body into a state of tension: the heart beat goes up, the heart pumps the blood faster into the vascular system and the blood pressure rises. All these reaction originally had the purpose to prepare the human body as quickly as possible for a fight or to try to escape. In these situations the body needs a lot of power and energy and tries to get that mainly from the blood glucose. The glucose production increases and so does the blood glucose level.
Diabetics face a double strain
Who is constantly under tension and exposed to situations that are connected with considerable strain, be it physical or mental strain, is in a worse situation, if he's diabetic or running a risk of diabetes: stress can worsen the blood glucose value. In addition all the things that need to be taken care of, in case of a chronic disease like diabetes, mean more stress in general.
Relax a lot more often
Every diabetic should attend structured diabetes therapy and training courses to be able to approach the disease a little bit more laid-back. Diabetics who suffer from frequent and constant stress, for whatever reason, should look out for opportunities to build back excessive tension. The possibilities to learn and employ techniques to build back tension with guidance are manifold. The range goes from autogenic training over yoga to progressive muscle relaxation.
Especially during a business trip the motto for diabetics should be: stress avoidance is stress prevention, because for a stressed diabetic the blood glucose value gets especially stressful.
