Usually good Diabetes Management starts with 100% Plantbased foods, but prudent stress management is just as important!
Lower Cortisol/Adrenaline is key
From my own experiences I can tell even while eating completely plantbased for a long while and getting off all medicine and insulin (!) that way stress can get you into unexpected troubles again!
Examples are usually not so easy to discover when having the eyes on common and well-known stress sources as work, relationships, traffic, family and neighbours. And yes: problems there can give high Cortisol levels and even high Adrenaline levels, but that gets even more problematic when you can't truly get your hormone levels down due to unknown personal issues at home/in your daily behavior! Feeling 'at ease' is not enough to calm those hormones...
Unexpected causes of high levels
A number of reasons of high Cortisol levels staying high were very surprising to me. I figured them out linking high capillary blood values the morning after with things I did the evening before:
1. Watching violent /scary movies
2. Listening to violent/loud music
3. High Impact Sporting (HIIT)
4. Dialogue on Social Media
5. Drinking coffee, sweetener tabs
6. Using the phone after 21:00
Ad1: pumping up the violence and tension immediately pumps up the stress hormones and even when you feel okay again going to bed: your Cortisol doesn't go down, resulting in a high sober sugar level! Avoid watching (those) movies during training/rowing.
Ad2: violent & loud music has the same effect as violent/scary movies. Avoid that music during your evening training.
Ad3: HIIT training is advertised as being ideal for Diabetes but I tried it (rowing, treadmill, weights) but it will raise your Cortisol and it won't go down. Never use it during an evening session!
Ad4: Social media are usually not very 'social', but filled with mocking, abusing and asocial people looking for people they can insult, mock, call names or at least cause a dispute. Causing the Cortisol levels to go high and stay high!
Ad5: Drinking coffee -caffinated and decaf- causes a glycogen dump and high sugar values. Sweetener tabs also cause a glycogen dump with the same results. Using them both at the same time is even more destructive however good the intentions may be. Stop drinking coffee and stop using sweetener tabs completely. Drink green tea to get energy and drink chamomile tea to unwind and Rooibos tea.
Ad6: Blue screens (PC, Laptop, Phone) cause high Cortisol and combined with all kinds of stress, news, etcetera causes Cortisol to stay high resulting in high sober values the next day. Stop activities after 21:00 or at least 2 hours before you go to sleep!!!
Stress got me into trouble again!
I never expected after getting my sugar values down 8 years later still eating 100% plantbased yet my values would go up again due to these stress factors!
Surely eating too late some days (after 19:30) or an occasional snack between meals can also pull you down, but not that severely. Now I know stress is THE FACTOR!
Ending the day smoothly
Drink Chamomile tea, inhale the vapor of it. Stop with phone, PC and laptop before 21:00 or at least 2 hours before going to sleep. Listen to friendly music calming you down at a friendly sound level.
In bed: while laying inhale 4 seconds, exhale in 8 seconds for about 4 minutes. If you think of sudden problems don't expand on them. Pop those thoughts and pray shortly that God will protect you, your body and mind, your thoughts and even in your dreams (!) and ask that in the name of Christ Yeshua. Inhale in 4 seconds, exhale in 8 seconds.
Combining these measures with a 100% plantbased foods and getting fat out results in excellent blood sugar values as I experienced again. Eating plantbased only on the longer term couldn't win of my daily stress. Now I know this and act accordingly it is easy to get my values down and keep them down!
Singing praisesongs calms too!
Singing calms down the Vagus nerve by triggering the parasympathetic nervous system, helping to immediately lower your heart rate and shift you out of "fight or flight" mode. The vagus nerve, also known as the tenth cranial nerve, is the body's primary relaxation pathway. Smiling during my morning abs before rising does the same by the way, so measuring your capillary blood sugar will be lower too then! Abs burning off rest sugars and smiling during exercises calming the Vagus nerve and thus triggering the parasympathetic nervous system.
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