This is the conclusion of my series on Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. I’m led to talk about how depression will raise your blood glucose (sugar) levels. Stress can affect people differently. With the coronavirus pandemic reigning worldwide, I thought it wise to share with the readers the urgency of how stress plays such a vital part and works against those suffering with Type 2 diabetes.
The type of stress that you experience can also have an impact on your body’s physical response. When people with type 2 diabetes are under mental stress, they generally experience an increase in their blood glucose levels.
According to the National Institute of Health’s National Center for Biotechnology Information, “Stress is a potential contributor to chronic hyperglycemia in diabetes. Stress has long been shown to have major effects on metabolic activity. Energy mobilization is a primary result of the fight or flight response. Stress stimulates the release of various hormones, which can result in elevated blood glucose levels.”
“Although this is of adaptive importance in a healthy organism, in diabetes, as a result of the relative or absolute lack of insulin, stress-induced increases in glucose cannot be metabolized properly,” the center says. “Furthermore, regulation of these stress hormones may be abnormal in diabetes. However, evidence characterizing the effects of stress in type I diabetes is contradictory. Stress is a potential contributor to chronic hyperglycemia in diabetes. Stress has long been shown to have major effects on metabolic activity. Energy mobilization is a primary result of the fight or flight response. Stress stimulates the release of various hormones, which can result in elevated blood glucose levels.”
Finally, the NCBI says, “Although this is of adaptive importance in a healthy organism, in diabetes, as a result of the relative or absolute lack of insulin, stress-induced increases in glucose cannot be metabolized properly. Furthermore, regulation of these stress hormones may be abnormal in diabetes. However, evidence characterizing the effects of stress in type I diabetes is contradictory.”
Blacks, Indigenous and Latino Americans all have a COVID-19 death rate three times or more of white Americans, who experience the lowest age-adjusted rates. Of the more than 240,000 U.S. deaths catalogued in a Color of Coronavirus update (documented through Nov. 10), here’s the breakdown: Asian (8,687), Black (46,211), Indigenous (2,251), Latino (46,912), Pacific Islander (334) and white (123,429).
Readers, allow me to close this month out with my mother’s personal story. Mother Fannie Estelle Grant died on Christmas Day 2000. This year is my family’s 20th without Mom. Talk about stress! We learned of mother’s diagnosis 12 years before she died. None of us knew what we were in for. When you hear me sign off at the end of my radio show each week, I always say “My people perish for the lack of knowledge.” Now that I know what we can do to turn things around once you’re diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I cannot repeat these steps enough: one, lose weight; two, change your diet, and three, exercise 30 minutes, five days a week.
My family has slowly started to celebrate Christmas again. Mother Grant suffered for 12 years with Type 2 diabetes, and with major complications as a result of her having had this disease. My family skipped Christmas for nearly 10 years. However, I now cope by using angelic Christmas tree ornaments. The majority of my ornaments are crystal angels, in memory of my mother!
Lyndia Grant is a speaker/writer living in the D.C. area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs Fridays at 6 p.m. on 1340 AM (WYCB), a Radio One station. To reach Grant, visit her website, www.lyndiagrant.com, email lyndiagrantshowdc@gmail.com or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on Twitter @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.
