Stress can make it harder for a person to control their diabetes. When a person is under a lot of stress, certain hormones are released. This is called the “Fight or Flight” response. For a person with diabetes, this response does not work well. Insulin is not always able to let the extra energy released by the body into the cells and as a result, blood glucose (sugar) rises.

Making things worse, many kinds of stress are not short-term threats. For example, it may take many months to recover from surgery. Stress hormones that usually deal with short-term threats will stay on for a longer time and the result is long-term high blood glucose.

Long-term causes of stress can be in your mind, such as worrying about taking a test. Your mind reacts to a nondangerous event as if it were a real threat, and the body pumps out stress hormones that cause blood sugar to rise.

For some people with diabetes, relaxation therapy seems to help. Learning how to relax can be an important part of blood glucose control. If you are experiencing stress, ask your doctor to recommend a course of action that you can take.