Eliminating Stress to Prevent Insulin Issues

It’s well known that when you have to deal with stress, it can lead to physical symptoms. You might feel more tired than usual or start having stomachaches or headaches as a result of the stress.

When you have diabetes, stress has an impact on the way that your body is able to use insulin. Having diabetes means that the cells within your body don’t react the way that they should to the production of hormones.

As a result of this, you lose insulin production. When you throw stress into the mixture, it also adds to the insulin resistance that your body experiences. On top of that, the same reaction to stress that’s causing your cells to not be able to react properly to insulin also makes your blood glucose numbers go higher than they should.

When this happens, you can experience swings in your glucose. Stress makes your body undergo many different changes. Your blood gets pumping because your heart rate increases and you can stay in this state of elevated glucose levels until either the stress is dealt with or you add or increase medication.

Dealing with stress is going to happen and you’re always going to have things occur that trigger your stress hormones. But the key to preventing insulin issues when this happens is found in eliminating the stress.

There are different avenues that you can take to not only manage the stress, but to change how it affects your glucose levels. Some people focus on using one technique to handle stress while others use a variety of techniques together.

Use whichever stress management coping skills work for you. Some of the top ways that you can get rid of stress is through relaxation and guarding your thoughts. When you allow your thoughts to dwell on stressful things, your body will react and show signs of stress.

Use relaxation activities to stop stress from having an impact on your insulin needs. You can take up yoga or other meditative exercises. Some people have found it helpful when they feel stressed to simply go for a walk. Getting out in the fresh air and walking often works to clear your mind and free your thoughts from stress.

Breathing exercises are also helpful. You can learn how to use deep breathing to inhale and exhale to relieve stress and even to prepare for situations you think might get stressful.

Make sure that you don’t sit around. When you’re under stress, it can be bad to sit around with nothing to occupy your mind. This can allow the mind to focus on the stress and you’ll end up feeling bad physically.

Then the stress will cause your glucose to rise. Try to be as active as possible. Join a walking or exercise club. Get involved in a hobby that requires you to move such as taking up tennis or golfing.

Choose relaxing hobbies that you truly enjoy. Make sure that you have a day just to pamper yourself. If you’re like most people, your days are filled with things to do and you have an ever-growing list of things that you have to finish.

Having things hanging over your head can make you feel stressed. Give yourself a day off where you spend it doing something that you really want to do, not something that you have to do.

Read a book. Take in a movie, go window shopping or go sightseeing. Get involved in relaxation techniques that are known to eliminate stress. These might be ones such as guided imagery.

You can find classes that teach this technique or you can learn to do it in the privacy of your own home. Sometimes we have stress because we simply have too much on our plates.

If you’re like most people, you have certain things that you prefer to do yourself so that you can know that they’re done right. It can be difficult to learn to let go and allow others to help, but by sharing your load with others, you can help alleviate insulin issues.

While you can’t help some of the stress that comes your way, there are some kinds of stress that you can prevent. If you know that an unimportant discussion is going to end in an argument, then don’t take part in the discussion.

Little issues can become big irritations that can lead to stress. Rather than allowing that to happen, don’t handle frustrating things that you don’t have to deal with. This can be something like making sure you don’t interact with that colleague who gets on your nerves or refusing to let yourself be pushed into taking part in activities with others that you don’t really like being involved with.

Choose relaxation over stress. Head to a spa for the weekend and sign up for a massage. Studies have shown that getting a massage is a great way to reduce stress and lower the hormones that can cause your blood glucose numbers to rise.

Make sure that you get plenty of exercise. You’ve probably been told how exercise benefits someone with diabetes. This is true. Getting physical can cause you to lose excess weight, which can make your body become more sensitive to insulin.

It can also help you be able to sleep better at night. It improves your oxygen rate and strengthens your muscles. But on top of that, exercising gets rid of stress by flooding your body with feel good hormones.

So, you feel better physically and emotionally. When you get rid of stress, this allows your body to be able to use the insulin in the right way - which will also help you feel better physically and mentally.