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November 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
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INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
Stress and Diabetes
By John A.
Patterson MD,
MSPH, FAAFP,
Mind Body Studio
I will never forget
my patient who developed Type 1,
insulin-dependent diabetes after
her spouse was violently murdered.
While there is no research supporting a causal link between the two, it
seemed to us both that the intense
emotional trauma of this sudden,
tragic, life-altering loss was a contributing factor to the onset of her
diabetes.
Since stress is a natural consequence of life, it cannot be reduced
to zero, but effective management
of stress can help prevent the onset
of diabetes and manage it once it
develops. Although we hear a lot
about stress and intuitively know
what it is, it isn’t easy to define.
The American Institute of Stress
tells us, “While everyone can’t
agree on a definition of stress, all
of our experimental and clinical
research confirms that the sense of
having little or no control is always
distressful – and that’s what stress
is all about” (www.stress.org/whatis-stress/).
Stress can involve your physical,
mental, emotional and behavioral
reactions to perceived danger. Even
perceptions of danger that you
are not consciously aware of can
have an adverse impact on your
physical, mental and emotional
health. You are hard-wired to feel
threatened by things that seem
uncontrollable in your work life,
home life and environmental surroundings. This lack of control
often involves interpersonal relationships with other people and
their behaviors, attitudes and positions of power or control over cer-
You are hard-wired to feel threatened
by things that seem uncontrollable
in your work life, home life and
environmental surroundings.
tain aspects of your life. But stress
can also be an internal, intra-personal reaction that may be primed
by your genetic inheritance or life
experiences in fa Z[ K]