These daily de-stressing techniques can save your life

Constant daily stress could be putting you on the fast track for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

Scientists are finding that stress plays a more central role in the development of disease, especially if your stress is triggered every day.

Fortunately, there are a multitude of highly-effective, drug-free “de-stressing” techniques you can start today. Especially after you determine which technique is best for you. More on that in a moment, but first I’d like to talk a little bit more about the very real, very serious effects stress can have on your health — especially your metabolism…

Stress injects sugar into your blood stream

Research shows there are several ways that stress can adversely affect your blood sugar.

For instance, frequent anxiety activates a metabolic pathway that promotes a pro-inflammatory response. And when that response becomes a near daily occurrence, it increases your blood sugar levels.

Not only that, but stress can also negatively influence your hormones.

In a Duke University Medical Center study, researchers compared stress management techniques in one group of diabetics to standard diabetic counseling in another diabetic group. Stress reduction techniques included:

  • Breathing techniques
  • Mental imagery
  • Modification of behavioral responses
  • Progressive muscle relaxation

After one year, those in the stress management group had markedly better control of their blood sugar.

And according to one of the researchers, this can be chalked up to the effects on the hormones. As they explained, “Experiencing stress is associated with the release of hormones that lead to energy mobilization — known as the ‘fight or flight’ response.

“Key to this energy mobilization is the transport of glucose into the bloodstream, resulting in elevated glucose levels, which is a health threat for people with diabetes.”

And of course, it’s a threat to those at risk of diabetes too.

Stressing out on the workaday grind

In Dr. Marc Micozzi’s Integrative Protocol for Defeating Diabetes, he refers to stress as “the hidden culprit” behind type 2 diabetes. And that culprit has a way of rearing its ugly head in work-related situations.

Dr. Micozzi cites a study where German researchers followed more than 5,000 working adults for over 12 years. At the outset, none of the participants had type 2 diabetes.

Based on a survey about perceived job stress, the researchers divided the cohort into two groups.

  • Low Stress: Those who had undemanding jobs or demanding jobs where they had control over their work.
  • High Stress: Those who had demanding jobs but little control over the details of their work.

Dr. Micozzi describes the results: “Almost 300 cases of type 2 diabetes developed during the 12-plus years of the study. And the ‘high stress’ group had a 45 percent greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes than the ‘low stress’ group!”

And even when researchers eliminated other type 2 diabetes risk factors (such as weight, family history of diabetes, physical inactivity, and smoking), job stress still stood out as a major risk.

And there’s one more revealing finding in this study…

Dr. Micozzi explains that the researchers attempted to link their findings back to more obvious risk factors. For instance, they considered that stress might prompt people to eat more unhealthy foods, smoke, drink, or avoid exercise. But in the end, they concluded: “It was the effects of stress, pure and simple, on the body’s metabolism and physiology.”

Tapping in to your personality type

As I mentioned above, we have a wide range of options when it comes to mind-body techniques that relieve stress — meditation, music therapy, yoga, and behavioral modification, just to name a few.

But before you begin exploring any of these methods, Dr. Micozzi says “you should learn which personality type you have. For example, hypnosis or meditation works well for some personalities, but not for others.”

To help you quickly and easily determine which mind-body technique might work best for you, Dr. Micozzi and psychometrics researcher Michael Jawer have developed a Personality Boundary Survey.

Their survey is inspired by the Myers Briggs scale — a personality test that’s widely used by many corporate human resource specialists. With just a few simple questions and answers, you can determine which stress-busting technique will most likely work for you. (Click here to take the survey.)

But most importantly, getting stress under control is essential for managing your blood sugar levels so you can prevent diabetes, or successfully control the disease if you already have it.

Dr. Micozzi’s Integrative Protocol for Defeating Diabetes explores the stress issue at greater length, along with his supplement, dietary, and lifestyle recommendations to help keep blood sugar in check, and prevent — or even reverse — type 2 diabetes. Click here to learn more about this essential protocol, or to enroll today.

SOURCES

“Stress Management Can Help Control Glucose In Type 2 Diabetes” Science Daily, 12/27/01. (sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011227074503.htm)