stress and blood sugar levels

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

sue63

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent
Hi everyone

Just thought I would ask advice about stress and the effects on BS.

Joel is in his final year at uni and is quite stressed out about work etc....he has loads on. His BS have been higher than normal so he went to see his doctor today who has increased his lantus to try to bring his readings down. His doctor said it is stress that is causing the rise as J is quite good with his diet.

Is it normal for stress to affect BS levels?

Thanks everyone
 
Yes Sue it is , ive recently gone back to work after some time off and a few days before my bs rose , my DSN said they were due to stressing about going back to work , once i went back bs returned to normal 🙂
 
To my basic understanding, yes it does. However, stress affects each person differently.

Your body's natural response to increasing demands is to increse the energy available, this raises blood glucose.
 
Hi Sue,

My boyfriend is diabetic and stress and a heavy workload affects his blood sugar levels also. He has often commented on it.
 
Yes stress can change things.😱

However, I would want to know more before putting the lantus up as your son is newly diagnosed isnt he? It could be that he is coming out of honeymoon and all of his requirements need changing or it could be that he is coming down with something - even a cold can put levels up days before it comes out. So whilst its good that something is being done - you need to be sure what the reason is behind the higher levels too, otherwise there could be a day when levels suddenly drop if this is illness and the lantus will be out. I would say that he needs to do lots more checking once his lantus is changed just in case this is a blip or he is brewing an illness.🙂Bev
 
Thanks everyone for replying so quickly.......I think he has been running a bit higher for a few weeks now ( 2 or 3 ) ...this fits in with his work pressures!!

I will text him though Bev to make sure he tests a lot. He is newly diagnosed and we have really had to figure out a lot of this ourselves. We have changed teams to a bigger hospital right by us and his hospital appointment has just come through for februaury 2011...we have had 1 appointment in July......this seems quite a long gap to me?????

Trouble is J is so busy and stressed he hasn't much time to think everything through at the moment though he is good at testing 🙂 I have asked for him to go on the DAFNE course very soon and hopefully this will happen as we are still getting to grips with all this!!
 
Stress raises blood sugar levels because of the release of the hormones adrenalin and cortisol - these have the effect of making the liver 'dump' extra glucose from its stores into the bloodstream. This is so that, in a non-diabetic, they have extra energy for 'fight or flight'. Unfortunately, in a diabetic person it simply raises blood sugar levels! 😱 I've had to raise my lantus over the past few weeks as I have been under a lot of stress, but now that this has eased a little I am having to drop the lantus again, and have decreased it by 25% over the past few days.

Unfortunately, this is another of those things with diabetes where it's impossible to give any hard and fast rules, you just have to learn through experience what, if any, adjustments you need to make.
 
Stress can affect BS levels but it depends on the individual too, my brother's BS goes quite high when he is stressed but he does get stressed out quite easily. I don't tend to get stressed that often and my BD doesn't get affected by it so much.

Uni pressures will probably have an effect but definitely tell him to test loads, as said above, as it may not be stress, being early days with diabetes.
 
sue63 said:
Thanks everyone for replying so quickly.......I think he has been running a bit higher for a few weeks now ( 2 or 3 ) ...this fits in with his work pressures!!

I will text him though Bev to make sure he tests a lot. He is newly diagnosed and we have really had to figure out a lot of this ourselves. We have changed teams to a bigger hospital right by us and his hospital appointment has just come through for februaury 2011...we have had 1 appointment in July......this seems quite a long gap to me?????

Trouble is J is so busy and stressed he hasn't much time to think everything through at the moment though he is good at testing 🙂 I have asked for him to go on the DAFNE course very soon and hopefully this will happen as we are still getting to grips with all this!!
Click to expand...

Newly diagnosed children are seen every 3 months for a long time and I would expect adults to be treated the same. Would your son be ok to check at 3am for a couple of nights? Changing the lantus might make a big difference and if he is going to go low then 3am is the time to check - he doesnt have to check every night - just a couple to begin with.🙂Bev
 
Thanks everyone..... I have rung him to tell him to test a lot and to be fair he does. His lantus has only been increased by a very small amount.

I will ring the hospital monday to try to get an appointment in his Christmas hols..it complicates matter a lot when he lives in 2 cities and will probably move again next year!
Thanks again x
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top