It is believed that almost all illness conditions can be caused by stress.
Is it really true? We shall examine whether diabetes can be caused by stress.
Diabetes can be classified into two major types.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is commonly known as juvenile diabetes. This is due
to the fact type 1 diabetes is diagnosed when a person is still young - from
a couple of years old to teenage. Type 1 diabetes arises because the body
produces insufficient insulin and the patient is said to suffer from insulin
deficiency. Young children are normally not under great stress, it is fair to
believe that stress cannot be the cause of type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus usually occurs later in life, after the age of forty.
Most diabetes patients suffer from type 2 diabetes mellitus. In type 2
diabetes mellitus, the problems arise because
1. Either the body does not produce enough insulin, or
2. The insulin produced is ignored by the cells in the body (known as
insulin resistance), or both.
In order to understand type 2 diabetes mellitus, it is important to discuss
first what insulin is and the roles it plays in human body functions.
The food that we consume and store are big molecules. Before the cells in
our bodies can make use of the food, it has to be broken down into simple
sugars. In our body, the simple sugar is glucose which has a molecular
formula of C6H12O6. Glucose in the blood is what we normally refer to as
blood sugar, because glucose is the main type of simple sugar in our blood.
The glucose in our blood has to be maintained to within a narrow range from 0.
7 mg per ml to 1.1 mg per ml. When the glucose level falls below 0.7 mg per
ml, "hypoglycemia" is said to have occurred. When the glucose level rises
above 1.8 mg per ml, "hyperglycemia" is said to have occurred. Both "
hypoglycemia" and "hyperglycemia" can cause problems to our bodies.
The glucose level in our bodies is controlled with the help of insulin, which
is a hormone that regulates metabolism in our body. Insulin helps the cells
in our bodies by taking glucose in our blood to the cells for the cell to
breathe to produce energy so that life can be sustained.
When the glucose level in the blood rises, more insulin is secreted into the
blood to help the cells in our bodies such as muscle cells, red blood cells
and fat cells to absorb the glucose out of the blood, thus lowering the blood
glucose level.
When the glucose level in the blood falls, more glucagon, which can be seen
as a counterpart to insulin, is secreted into the blood to stimulate liver to
release the glucose it has stored in its cells into the blood stream, thus
increasing the blood glucose level. Glucagon also induces the liver and some
of the muscle cells to break down protein molecules to produce glucose.
If the glucose is built up in the blood instead of being absorbed by the
cells, there are two detrimental outcomes. In the first place, if the cells
do not get the glucose they need to live, they die. In the second place, a
long period of high blood glucose level can hurt the vital organs in the body
such as eyes, kidneys, heart and brain. In order to treat "hyperglycemia" or
high blood sugar level, insulin is introduced into the body orally, through
injection or intravenously.
"Hypoglycemia" or low blood glucose level condition can happen when there is
insufficient food in the stomach or when more insulin is introduced than
there is food in the stomach for it to act on. This often happens when a
patient is hungry or injects insulin in anticipation of food consumption, but
the food consumption is delayed or insufficient food is consumed. Symptoms of
"hypoglycemia" include strange behavior, strange facial appearance, clumsy or
jerky movements, seizure, confusion, tingling sensations around the mouth,
dizziness, sweating, headache etc.
The usual reason explaining why stress leads to sickness is the weakening of
our immunity system caused by stress. However, from our discussion on the
mechanics of metabolism and diabetes, there is nothing to associate our
immunity system with diabetes (type 2).
There seems to be evidence that among those who have undergone life-changing
crisis such as death of a spouse or financial difficulty a higher percentage
among them have developed diabetes. However, although such circumstantial
evidence seems to suggest a link between a higher proportion of people under
greater stress and diabetes, we cannot conclude that stress cause diabetes.
There is a belief that stressful life events increase the diabetes risk by
increasing levels of the hormone cortisol and decreasing levels of
testosterone. This is because a higher hormone cortisol level and a lower
hormone testosterone have been shown to influence the action of insulin, in
particular, insulin resistance. George Davey Smith and colleagues from the
University of Bristol in the UK conducted a research project to test this
theory but the results were inconclusive.
Based on the evidence to date, we cannot conclude that stress does indeed
cause diabetes. It is therefore not wise to attribute diabetes to stress
because we could be barking the wrong tree.
Reference:
The Truth About Diabetes
Stress, the Silent Killer
