I’m curious…how frequently do you guys notice stress spikes in your blood sugar? Do you employ any different strategies to manage those highs compared to other spikes?
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Ughhhhh yes! I can literally feel stress hormones sliding into my blood stream when I’m stressing myself out in tennis matches and it also happens (less frequently) when my family is getting my goat. I know that those highs are more difficult to break than regular highs so I hit them harder. I’ve also recently tried more rigorous “self talk,” which might be working? There is literally no reason for me to stress when I am playing tennis, so I’ve created a few mantras that seem to be working (keeping BS down/steady) the past few times I’ve played (I am just getting back to tennis after being out for the past 3 years b/c of my damn shoulders). I will be v interested to hear others’ experiences and recommendations.
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I use a larger bolus correction, or set a dual wave bolus on pump. Can then cancel extended portion if see it dropping too quickly.
CIQ may not be aggressive enough with increased basal, due to IOB, so my extended bolus picks up to do similar.
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Emotional stress is always harder the most stubborn. Physical stress like today riding the return into the wind balanced out the drop in BG from my demanding legs by causing it to rise slightly.
After a hard ride like this, BG continues to rise from 80mg/dl to 105mg/dl in 30 minutes without eating anything in 2 and a half hours.I attribute that to good stress causing a release of glucose from the liver.
Emotional stress is worse, because I think there is not the using up of glucose by muscular activity.
This is my experience, whether that’s true for others, I don’t know.
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I get these every time I get a migraine @T1Allison which is 3-4x monthly minimum.
I’m currently using a Tandem with CIQ. On a migraine day, I just let it run. The fewer beeps, lights, or other sensory stimulations the better.
I’m no Dr and have no medical basis for my statements, just personal experience but I do agree with @JessicaD and @CarlosLuis and their statement’s. Emotional stress is STUBBORN. It takes gobs of insulin (at least for me) no matter how much exercise I throw at it, how many shots straight into large muscle groups before a rigorous row it’s seemingly impervious to insulin until …it isn’t.
I have a hard time getting emotional lows under control. The best technique I have found is to start with the reason for the emotion and then insulin and exercise with food. I have at best a 40% success rate, so there is serious room for improvement. I hope someone here has a better technique, I would love to learn a new one.
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I just found this 10 question stress test, for what it’s worth:kissing_smiling_eyes:
I was so relaxed I didn’t post the link
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I went through some serious periods of stress in May and June. The only strategy I had was a shxt load of insulin. The amount of insulin I used was off the rails.
But normal stress levels, like a stressful meetings, I let ControIQ deal with it and then after the meeting adjust as needed.
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You’re lucky I’m not attending your meetings, for some reason I seem to raise everyone’s stress levels. Mostly I see them as a unproductive waste and try to force some real value out of the hour. This irritates the others who just want it over.
I will say that I got some stuff handled that was being sloughed off.
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Stress spikes for me are hollow highs. I will go up about a hundred points for the duration of the stress. Usually a couple of hours. I do not bolus the spike because i crash down after 2 or so hours which is around the time that the extra insulin i would have bolused kicked in. That creates two stressful situations instead of one. I also put my Omnipid 5 in manual mode so it doesn’t give me extra.
The one thing Ive learned is to totally avoid all food during a stressor. It never works out and i can have a nice meal after im in a good place mentally and bg wise.
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Know yourself, that’s the key.
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I had to stop working 12 years ago, because stress will send me DKA ridiculously quickly (I worked in finance).
I tried to do further education to change careers and the stress of exams, put me in hospital.
Even being anxious sends my levels through the roof. My GP and I say that my fight or flight response in my body is overproductive.
In high anxiety times or stressful situations, I just have to go into my sick day management.
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Wow, that is extreme! I’m sorry but totally understand. Stress also abnormally effects my BGs. I mostly work from home but when my insulin sensitivity decreases drastically when I have urgent deadlines!
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When waking up in the middle of the night and my head won’t stop unpleasant stressful thoughts and the CGM starts alarming, I can see why stress can be so damaging even with out diabetes. Of course we can just take a bit of insulin.
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I have had the same issue for years and high blood sugars with stress. Now I have a Tandem with CIQ and counting on it helping since I have a job after being retired for 3 years. My sugars quite frequently are high with any little bit of what my body “perceives” as stress.
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I have this issue too. I’ve worked in a high stress environment for 38 years (self-employed divorce lawyer), and I’m an anxiety neurotic to boot (for as long as I can remember). I’m also a stress eater, which complicates it even further. Since I’ve become type 2, I’ve noticed a definite correlation between periods of excessive stress/anxiety and otherwise unexplained BG spikes. Sometimes it makes me so tired I can’t get off the couch, and often interferes with my already poor sleep. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for what to do about it, but know that you’re not alone.
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