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Managing Diabetes

Stress and diabetes: managing stress and glucose levels


Jan. 22, 20255 min read

Stress and diabetes

Have you noticed your blood glucose increase when you are injured, during a stressful presentation or test, in an argument, or even during high-intensity exercise? Physical, mental, and emotional pressures like these can all be experienced by the body as stress.1
Our bodies’ natural responses to stress involve a release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol and results in raised glucose levels.2 While the body’s response to stress is meant to be protective,1 it may not always be in response to a negative stressor, as is the case with intense exercise. Regardless of the cause, these stressors can create obstacles in managing diabetes.

How does stress affect diabetes?

Day-to-day stressors can be challenging to avoid and affect people with diabetes in different ways. With real-time continuous glucose monitoring (rt-CGM) you can learn how different types of events or situations affect your glucose and helpful ways to manage them.
When you are under stress or feel symptoms related to stress such as fast heartbeat, rapid breathing, muscle tension or nervousness, consider taking note of your glucose before and after or logging an event in your Dexcom G7 app.* Over a few weeks you may notice a pattern and identify a specific situation triggering a stress response. Recognizing these situations and using your rt-CGM to see how they relate to your glucose can put you in the driver’s seat to reduce or avoid them.

Common stressors may often be short-term, and glucose levels typically lower after the source of stress goes away. Constant or long-term stress, however, can take a toll on your mental and emotional well-being. If stress is affecting your overall health and diabetes management, talk to your healthcare team about what you are going through and strategies that can help.

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*Smart devices sold separately. For a list of compatible devices, visit dexcom.com/compatibility.
1. Epel ES, Crosswell AD, Mayer SE, et al. More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2018;49:146-169. doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.001 2. Marcovecchio ML, Chiarelli F. The effects of acute and chronic stress on diabetes control. Sci Signal. 2012;5(247):pt10. Published 2012 Oct 23. doi:10.1126/scisignal.2003508 3. Edwards MK, Loprinzi PD. Experimental effects of brief, single bouts of walking and meditation on mood profile in young adults. Health Promot Perspect. 2018;8(3):171-178. Published 2018 Jul 7. doi:10.15171/hpp.2018.23 4. Martina de Witte, Ana da Silva Pinho, Geert-Jan Stams, Xavier Moonen, Arjan E.R. Bos & Susan van Hooren (2022) Music therapy for stress reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Health Psychology Review, 16:1, 134-159, DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2020.1846580 5. Lewis, D. (2009), Galaxy Stress Research. Mindlab International, Sussex University, UK. 6. Smyth JM, Johnson JA, Auer BJ, Lehman E, Talamo G, Sciamanna CN. Online Positive Affect Journaling in the Improvement of Mental Distress and Well-Being in General Medical Patients With Elevated Anxiety Symptoms: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Ment Health. 2018 Dec 10;5(4):e11290. doi: 10.2196/11290. PMID: 30530460; PMCID: PMC6305886.
BRIEF SAFETY STATEMENT: Failure to use the Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitoring System and its components according to the instructions for use provided with your device and available at https://www.dexcom.com/safetyinformation and to properly consider all indications, contraindications, warnings, precautions, and cautions in those instructions for use may result in you missing a severe hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) or hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) occurrence and/or making a treatment decision that may result in injury. If your glucose alerts and readings from the Dexcom CGM do not match symptoms, use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. Seek medical advice and attention when appropriate, including for any medical emergency. RX ONLY. The t:slim X2 insulin pump with Control-IQ technology is indicated for patients with type 1 diabetes, 6 years and older. BOXED WARNING: Control-IQ technology should not be used by people under age 6, or who use less than 10 units of insulin/day, or who weigh less than 55 lbs. For full safety information, visit tandemdiabetes.com/safetyinfo.

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