Then how come blood sugars don't come back down "naturally" when I meditate to get myself calmed down or simply just calm down?
I know this is probably a really stupid question, but I can't get this question off my mind so I would really appreciate any thoughts amyone would like to share.
When I get stressed it has a huge impact on my BG control. I can be on a nice fasting levemir smooth ride, check my BG and be at 95, have something stressful happen, check my BG 15 minutes later and it will have spiked to 175, so of course I correct it with my Novalog.
I decided to experiment a few times and not correct and waited for up to 2 hours of honestly feeling calm, but (of course) my BG stayed high.
Stress also makes my blood pressure spike, but as soon as I calm down my blood pressure lowers. So thanks for indulging me in my stupid question.
Because once the glucose is released into your blood, only exercise or insulin will mobilize it to come out. The fundamental problem in diabetes is (a) lack of insulin for type 1 or (b) insulin insensitivity in type 2. In a non-diabetic person, the pancreas would release insulin when the stress hormones cause the body (primarily the liver) to release glucose , so the BG remains flat.
With diabetes, this no longer happens automatically (or works imperfectly) so you have to do it manually with a correction.
It is just as if you ate some sugar. SOMETHING has to make the sugar move from the blood into the cells of your body and that something is INSULIN. Some muscle cells have the ability to take in glucose without insulin, which is why exercise can also lower glucose. But if you do nothing, the high BG will stay there.
Thanks HPNpilot, that was a really clear and concise answer. But one part of your answer really struck me if I understood you correctly, are you saying that stress hormones can cause my liver to release glucose because I certainly never really thought about that. The way my doctor explained it to me was simply that stress caused my body to flood with Adrenaline.
I'm glad I asked my stupid question because your answer has lead me in the direction of looking into all the stress hormones that can affect my BG. Maybe I can find a better solution to keeping these hormones from affecting my BG so intensely.
Your Dr. is right - when you are stressed, the body releases adrenaline and other stress hormones like cortisol. Glucagon is also released. These in turn signal the liver to synthesize glucose - a process called gluconeogenesis ("creating new glucose"). This is part of the body's "Flight or Fight" response to stress.
The same mechanisms get invoked when you have an extreme low. It triggers release of adrenaline, cortisol and glucagon to cause the liver to release glucose to pull you out of the low. It's the adrenaline that makes you feel nervous and shaky in an extreme low.
I am not sure there is much you can do to stop these reactions to stress other than removing the stress :-).
Remember stressed spelled backwards is "desserts"
You may find this wikipedia page on the "fight or flight" response
interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight-or-flight_response
You can also read about the effects of adrenaline here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenaline
In particular:
Adrenaline acts by binding to a variety of adrenergic receptors. Adrenaline is a nonselective agonist of all adrenergic receptors, including the major subtypes α1, α2, β1, β2, and β3.[10] Epinephrine's binding to these receptors triggers a number of metabolic changes. Binding to α-adrenergic receptors inhibits insulin secretion by the pancreas, stimulates glycogenolysis in the liver and muscle, and stimulates glycolysis in muscle.[11] β-Adrenergic receptor binding triggers glucagon secretion in the pancreas, increased adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) secretion by the pituitary gland, and increased lipolysis by adipose tissue. Together, these effects lead to increased blood glucose and fatty acids, providing substrates for energy production within cells throughout the body.[11]