Another Great Reason to Stress Less

By Editorial Staff

We all feel stress sometimes and we all struggle to deal with it, even if we've been taught the right and wrong ways to handle stressful moments. For some reason, when stress piles up, everything we've learned about how to avoid it goes right out the window, at least temporarily. So let's take a different approach and consider the consequences of stress, particularly a potentially dangerous one research is linking to stress: high blood sugar (hyperglycemia).

Chronic high blood sugar has been linked to a host of health issues including fatigue, vision problems, diabetes, obesity, kidney / liver dysfunction and more. The classic cause of high blood sugar is consuming too many processed, sugary, carbohydrate-laden foods, which rush into your bloodstream as glucose. But stress? Yes, stress can do it, too.

Fortunately, reducing stress can have the opposite effect, a point emphasized in a recent study in the journal Obesity. Women who participated in a stress-reduction program not only felt less stressed after eight weeks compared to women who participated in a health education program that focused on diet / exercise; they also had lower blood sugar levels. In fact, women in the health education program experienced no change in blood sugar during the study period.

Click here to learn more about the dangers of stress, and here for great tips on how to deal with stress when it inevitably strikes.