I’d like to know how emotional stress affects your readings and how you manage the changes.
I honestly don’t think about it or put the two together…i use a sliding scale… before meals… sometimes it’s best to look at sugars as “life just happens.”
Emotional stress seems to elevate my bs readings in addition to my blood pressure. Taking a walk lowers both. Stress is especially reflected in my fasting bs readings.
A lot, Stress just kills my BG and it kills it high. Used to attend board meetings where i would get complained to a lot. I was so scared every month. Anyway, my BG woudl shoot up like a rocket on the 4th of July. Usually at least 200 points. Stress is a killer.
rick phillips
Stress=much higher. Maybe around 75 pts higher than where I should be. Never had it lower BG. Then the highs cause more stress. I do deep breathing, take a walk (if possible), try to put things more in perspective & remember what my grandmother said, “If it won’t matter in five years, it doesn’t mattert.” Sometimes these work, sometimes they don’t. When we’re upset by something, it’s hard to not react. Difficult for me to shrug things off. Wish I could.
Same for me, stress makes BG go high, really high. I hate correcting BG that are not a result of food.
Stress sends me soaring! I can go up 100pts or more. I have been 120 bs and then shoot up to the 300’s just with stress. Hard to correct too…I have often slammed later and then I have a severe hypo. I am doing better handling stress now, just seem to kinda go with the flow more. Get over things alot faster. Maybe I have just gotten numb to it? LOl
Like others have said, stress sends me really high. I can have perfect blood sugar and then have a stressful meeting or interview coming up and have it shoot up to 14-17 (250-300) and stay there despite corrections … then as soon as whatever it is has passed and I’m not feeling stressed, it goes right down to normal again.
stress sends my bg sky high, but i seem to be more sensitive to my insulin so sometimes i totally crash. when I am sic and under that kind of stress i tend to stay low but will spike really high if i eat anything.
omg emotional stress… it can make me SKYROCKET. I will jump into the 200s and 300s and not be able to get them down no matter what I do. I’ve been under emotional stress that no amount of “flushing the ketones” or injections or lack of food and lots of water would help. Emotional stress sends me into ketoacidosis.
Imagine that. “Hey, guys I’m really stressed out… oh ■■■■ now I’m in an ambulance because I can’t breathe and my blood feels like fire… oh I have to stay in the ICU for a week? Cool… Nah, I’m cool. No stress at all. Thanks.”
In general stress sends me low, but it can send me high. It probably has to do with the type of stress. Chronic low-grade stress (like the two weeks before Christmas when I have so much to get done and for the most part hate doing all of it) sends me low, so that I can munch on Christmas cooklies almost at will. It probably helps that many Christmas cookies are high in fat and they’re not the best for treating lows. Whatever, chronic stress equals Christmas cookies for me.
In many ways I’ve always felt that stress is like exercise to my body and that’s why I go low. Since I’m post-menopausal I have fewer hormones floating around my body than you younger members, so maybe that plays a part in this. However, when I was younger I also went low from stress.
Sudden stress or things that are really, really stressful for me can send me high.
My problem is that I feel exactly the same in both situations, so I have to rely on my CGMS and meter. I still have a hard time pumping lots of insulin when I’m high from stress because I really do feel low.
Carolyne,
Stress takes me up to 295, as shown on a CGM. I tamp it down with insulin. I use all the breathing, music, etc. modalities.
When stressed my BG increases sometimes to over 300!! I take a bolus and go to my happy place to unwind. My pasture with my horses works every time! Animals, especially cats, many times will help lower blood pressure too. It works for me.