Doctors frequently recommend that people with diabetes work to reduce the amount of stress in their lives. This near-daily occurrence for some has a surprising impact on your blood sugar levels. Yes, stress causes blood glucose to rise. So, those who deal with a lot of challenges and lead busy lives end up having more spikes and needing to take more medication just to keep their levels under control.
It’s not a great thing to have to worry about!
Thankfully, there may be a way for those who can’t cut out the stressful things in life to de-stress in just a few minutes each day.
Why Does Stress Cause Your Glucose To Rise?
You may be wondering what the connection is between anxiety and blood sugar. Well, when you are under stress your body starts readying itself for a fight. This is a part of that ages-old fight or flight instinct. It doesn’t matter that you might not do either. Your body will work to free up the energy to fight or run away.
The body releases a number of hormones, like glucagon and adrenaline to trigger the manufacturer of glucose by the liver and raise blood sugar levels. It also releases cortisol and human growth hormone to make the body’s tissues more insulin resistant. Don’t worry if this seems contradictory. The muscles have another mechanism to absorb glucose when needed during activity.
For about six to eight hours after the event, your glucose remains difficult to control because as a diabetic you either don’t produce insulin to bring it back down or your body is already more insulin resistant. Some people will even experience a rapid drop in blood sugar levels after a spike.
Meditation to De-Stress
There are a number of proven benefits to meditating daily. It can help reduce inflammation, increase your attention span, and improves your productivity levels. Meditation is also able to calm anxiety and stress. This surprisingly active type of brain training actually affects the structure of the brain.
Research has shown that mindfulness meditation helps shrink the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for the fight or flight response. Plus, the connections between this area and the rest of your brain grow weaker.
In the short term, think minutes, meditation helps you relax tensed muscles, slows your breathing, and slows down your heart rate.
When you meditate every day, you’ll gain immediate and long-term gains that will help you to remain calm during difficult situations. This, in turn, will help keep your blood sugar levels from rising.
[expand title=”References“]
Blood Sugar & Stress. URL Link. Accessed November 9th, 2017.
20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today. URL Link. Accessed November 9th, 2017.
What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain? URL Link. Accessed November 9th, 2017.
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