Diabetes can be difficult to manage. Sometimes people can feel overwhelmed. Check blood sugar levels regularly, eat healthy, exercise regularly, take medications, and other health-related decisions on a daily basis must be made. People may also be concerned about low or high blood sugar, medication costs, and the development of diabetes-related complications such as heart disease or nerve damage.
When all this becomes too much to bear, one can develop diabetes. This is when all the worry, frustration, anger, and exhaustion make it difficult to care for yourself and meet the daily demands of diabetes.
Cortisol, a stress hormone, pumps more sugar into the blood, increasing blood sugar levels that are difficult for people to control through diet, exercise and medication. Managing stress is essential for everyone’s health but is especially important for people with type 2 diabetes because it causes the body to react by increasing the risk of diabetes complications.
While we can’t eliminate stress from our lives, there are some things we can do to reduce stress while maintaining diabetes control.
