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Tense Day

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M

mhtyler

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I had a tense day yesterday. Has anyone experienced sudden glucose rise over feeling tense? Mine went to 7.2, which is a safe range, but it was higher than usual and wouldn't drop until evening.
 
yes. I guess it's the liver that does the dumping of glucose.

if I do physical work, my bg will rise a bit then fall a bit some 30 mins after activity stops.

The liver dumps glucose in order to facilitate activity. When that activity stops, for a while, muscles replenish their energy stores (glycogen I guess) and bg will drop without the aid of insulin. It's the only tissue that can do this as far as I'm aware. Others (like nerve/brain tissue) can utilise ketones.

Feeling tense has the same sort of effect. It causes stress hormone secretion (mainly cortisol, I think) which triggers storage organs to dump glucose.

edit: this isn't a specific thing to diabetes. what is specific about it is that in the diabetic the dump of glucose is measurable for a time with the meter. in the non-diabetic the endocrine system tunes the glucose concentration to non-diabetic levels and it's very quick.
 
Your jolly ole fight or flight bodily process is fully operational - QED. Increases blood glucose a silly amount for a silly amount of time. Why were you feeling tense - something temporary, or what?
 
As others have rightly said above - Cortisol (stress hormone) and/or Epinephrine (adrenalin - fight or flight/physical exertion hormone) most likely the cause.

en.wikipedia.org

Blood sugar regulation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
PerSpinasAdAstra said:
As others have rightly said above - Cortisol (stress hormone) and/or Epinephrine (adrenalin - fight or flight/physical exertion hormone) most likely the cause.

en.wikipedia.org

Blood sugar regulation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Today after 33 days I took a break from the Newcastle...just for today. I was stressed yesterday, but today I was experiencing shortness of breath, and not for the first time on this diet. I'll be back on it tomorrow, but I must figure out why this is happening.
 
Shortness of breath can be a symptom of other problems that you might not be aware of so please do take it seriously. Just to confirm - are you taking any medications at present, particularly anything related to your heart? Did you check with a doctor before starting the very low calorie diet to be sure the doses of any such medications don't been to be changed? I have next to no medical knowledge though I know shortness of breath is one of those 'don't ignore' symptoms that are worth talking to a doctor about.
 
PerSpinasAdAstra said:
Shortness of breath can be a symptom of other problems that you might not be aware of so please do take it seriously. Just to confirm - are you taking any medications at present, particularly anything related to your heart? Did you check with a doctor before starting the very low calorie diet to be sure the doses of any such medications don't been to be changed? I have next to no medical knowledge though I know shortness of breath is one of those 'don't ignore' symptoms that are worth talking to a doctor about.
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Yes, I'm taking this seriously. Yes, I discussed my diet with my doctor before starting. No, I'm taking no medications that need to be changed. When this first started, and as I said it was intermittent, I increased vitamins and electrolytes. I thought that resolved the issue, but not so. I discussed this with my Wife and we feel an increase in nutrition is in order, and so I'm going to increase my caloric intake from just over 700 to about 900, adding in an additional shake and some hard-boiled eggs. We'll try that for a week. That's about a 15 per cent increase in calories and will slow weight loss, but if it resolves the issue then so be it.
 
By the way, the day off that I took included some high carbs and my sugar rose to 10.7, and this AM I'm only down to 8;4. While I realize I'm only halfway thru the weight loss, and I really did overload carbs, its not a good sign that my pancreas is recovering at all. I'm not clearing glucose very well. It's not certain at this point, but its a bitter pill to swallow if true. Nevertheless, weight loss is still so important in both clearing my liver and recovering what health that normal weight will bring. It's a consolation prize, but an important one.
 
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mhtyler said:
By the way, the day off that I took included some high carbs and my sugar rose to 10.7, and this AM I'm only down to 8;4. While I realize I'm only halfway thru the weight loss, and I really did overload carbs, its not a good sign that my pancreas is recovering at all. I'm not clearing glucose very well. It's not certain at this point, but its a bitter pill to swallow if true. Nevertheless, weight loss is still so important in both clearing my liver and recovering what health that normal weight will bring. It's a consolation prize, but an important one.
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It's probably too soon to tell how well it's working. Liver fat is thought to come down very quickly as it's like a short-term fat storage depot for the body - rises quickly in caloric surplus; falls quickly in caloric deficit. Pancreas fat on the other hand isn't the same, and to the best of my knowledge nobody is certain of the best conditions to bring about a rapid reduction in ectopic fat in the pancreas.

These slides based on the 2 year results of the D1RECT study might provide some reassurance, particularly the 'Maximal insulin response' graph, which shows considerable improvement between month 4 and month 12. 'First phase insulin' response appears to have increased a little between month 12 and month 24. It might not work for you of course but at a guess you'll probably have to wait some time after passing the 15Kg weight loss point to judge the effects.

 
PerSpinasAdAstra said:
It's probably too soon to tell how well it's working. Liver fat is thought to come down very quickly as it's like a short-term fat storage depot for the body - rises quickly in caloric surplus; falls quickly in caloric deficit. Pancreas fat on the other hand isn't the same, and to the best of my knowledge nobody is certain of the best conditions to bring about a rapid reduction in ectopic fat in the pancreas.

These slides based on the 2 year results of the D1RECT study might provide some reassurance, particularly the 'Maximal insulin response' graph, which shows considerable improvement between month 4 and month 12. 'First phase insulin' response appears to have increased a little between month 12 and month 24. It might not work for you of course but at a guess you'll probably have to wait some time after passing the 15Kg weight loss point to judge the effects.

Click to expand...
I will look at this. This is very much appreciated.
 
Yep!

Years ago young woman giving a talk to HCPs at a conference who was one of the first people I met who wore a sensor shared CGM trace showing a steep ‘bump’ with the stress of the presentation!
 
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