How stress trigger
diabetes.
Stress is a known trigger for many
conditions, from skin complaints such as psoriasis to irritable bowel syndrome.
But increasingly studies suggest that it may also be linked to type 2 diabetes,
no matter how healthy your lifestyle.
Research published in the journal
Psychosomatic Medicine last September found that those under extreme pressure
at work were 45 per cent more likely to
develop the
condition than those under minimal pressure. The results were based on a
13-year study of 5,000 men and women.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not produce enough
insulin or becomes less sensitive to its effects. Insulin acts like a key to
allow sugar into cells and if, for example, someone is overweight that key
works less well.
One theory is that the stress hormone cortisol may also
alter the body's sensitivity to insulin.
'Stress leads to a rise in cortisol, a steroid hormone, and
sometimes when you give individuals steroids (drugs that resemble cortisol) at
a high dose, this impedes the action of insulin,' says Naveed Sattar, professor
of medicine at the University of Glasgow.
Professor Andrew Steptoe, a psychologist and epidemiologist
from University College London, says his research shows that people with type 2
diabetes react to stress differently - but whether this is what caused their
diabetes or is a result of it, is not clear. In a study of 420 adults, his team found that those with
type 2 took longer to recover from a stressful event - their blood pressure and
heart rate took longer to return to normal than those without diabetes. The
results were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
'Everyone responds to stress with an increase in pulse rate,
blood pressure and release of stress hormones,' says Professor Steptoe. But there was a difference in the length of this response
between the healthy participants and those with type 2 - 'Ninety minutes after
a stress experience they still hadn't returned to normal levels, unlike the
healthy participants'.
Furthermore, Professor Steptoe found that the type 2
diabetics had higher levels of cortisol.
'It might be that they are more exposed to stress, or that
they are in a state of high-level activation of the stress response.
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