COLUMBUS, Ohio: We are experiencing particularly stressful times, but managing stress is important to overall well-being, and we present a wide range of serious health problems that can accompany high stress, including high blood pressure and heart disease.
A new study by researchers at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center found that stress can be especially damaging to the more than 30 million Americans living with type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Joshua Joseph, an endocrinologist at Ohio State University who led the recent study, said that there are four important pillars for diabetes control and that stress is often overlooked.
“One, physical activity. Two, diet. The third one we’re talking about is sleep. So make sure people get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. And then the fourth one we’re talking about is stress,” said Joseph.
Joseph, along with other researchers, studied the effects of stress on people with type 2 diabetes by measuring their levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
In healthy people, cortisol levels have natural peaks and valleys, but the study showed that diabetics who consistently experienced stress or depression had maintained cortisol levels throughout the day.
“What we saw was that those who had a flattening of that rhythm, so they did not have such a good peak and did not drop so much at night, that they had increased glucose in the same period of time. So there was an association between the change in cortisol and change in glucose, “Joseph said.
Janice Harris tests her levels three to four times a day, but beyond testing, she likes to listen to her favorite playlist during the day to de-stress and try to keep her blood sugar level back to normal.
“I’ll even listen to music at work, try to listen to music to calm myself down so I’m not out there and my blood sugar is normal so it’s not a problem during the day,” Harris said.
Joseph conducted his original study and is now leading a new research trial that will examine whether mindfulness meditation and actions like Harris’s can reduce stress in people with type 2 diabetes, which in turn would lower their blood sugar level. .
“I can tell you that from the clinical point of view of the patients I see with diabetes, that among those patients who have high levels of stress and high levels of depression, especially during those times when they have difficulty controlling that, their blood sugar in the blood the numbers increase, “said Joseph. “Anyone with diabetes, my recommendation would be to control stress levels and control depression. That may be through various lifestyle behaviors that we all do, but it may also be through medication for some people.”
During the study, the researchers did not find that cortisol affected glucose levels in people without diabetes, however, many believe that cortisol plays an important role in preventing the development of the disease and continue to investigate the connection.
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