Diabetes and Stress
Stress occurs when, for some reason, something causes initial disruption in your body. Sources of stress are physical such as injury or illness. These can also be mental problems like marriage, job, health or financial etc.
When there is stress, the body prepares to fight it. This preparation is called response to fight. In this response the levels of many hormones increase. Its overall effect is that a lot of stored energy like glucose, fat etc. becomes available to the cell. Then this cell starts preparing for the process of getting the body out of danger.
In people who have diabetes, this process of fighting stress does not work properly. Insulin is not always available to provide extra energy to the body cells, hence glucose (sugar) comes into the blood. The damage from these sources is not short-term. Just as it takes several months to recover from surgery, stress hormones that are adapted to deal with short-term threats turn into long-term threats. As a result, long-term stress causes chronically high blood sugar levels.
Many long-term sources of stress are mental. Sometimes your brain resists even non-threatening events as if they were harmful. Like physical stress, mental stress can also be short-term. Like being stuck in a traffic jam, it can also be a long-term problem like working for a disgruntled boss or caring for elderly parents. During mental stress, the body releases hormones which are harmful. Enemies that are in your mind can neither be fought nor driven away.