High blood sugar is linked to anxiety

[Case] In May 2014, Professor Yu Xiaonian from the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine of the Aviation General Hospital received a patient with suicidal tendencies. The 61-year-old woman attempted suicide many times but failed. Her family’s comfort and comfort had no effect, so she decisively sent her to the hospital. Seek medical attention. The patient's family members felt that her temper had become very bad since more than half a year ago, she was often suspicious, and family relationships were always tense. It eventually progressed to the point where he attempted suicide multiple times. The outpatient psychiatric examination revealed that the patient had severe anxiety and depression. Diagnosed with "severe anxiety and depression", he needs to be treated with anti-anxiety and depression drugs. By asking about the disease history, we learned that the patient had a 13-year history of type 2 diabetes. Therefore, Professor Yu specially selected drugs that had less impact on blood sugar and asked the patient to return for follow-up appointments on time.
One and a half months later, when the patient came back for a follow-up visit, his mood improved significantly and he took the initiative to talk to the doctor about his diabetes. She said that she has a 13-year history of diabetes and has been taking various hypoglycemic drugs, such as biguanides, α-glycosidase inhibitors, etc., and has changed a variety of drugs, but her blood sugar has not been well controlled, with fasting levels above 8 milligrams. mol/L, while postprandial blood sugar is higher, often around 19 mmol/L, and hypoglycemia may occur from time to time due to medication.

The doctor also recommended her to use insulin treatment, but this woman still took oral medication, and her blood sugar remained in a state of being uncontrolled and unmanageable.

The patient's daughter told Professor Yu a recent interesting incident: "One day, my mother wanted to eat watermelon and asked us to buy it, but her blood sugar was not well controlled, so we didn't dare to give it to her, but On this day, my mother said that she felt that her blood sugar had improved and she wanted to eat some watermelon. Because she used to always feel dry and bitter in the mouth, but recently this feeling has significantly reduced, and it is midsummer, so she really wants to eat some watermelon."

The next day, I took my mother to the community to check her fasting blood sugar. The result was only 5.5 mmol/L. Neither of us could believe our eyes! The community doctor asked us to buy a home blood glucose meter to monitor blood sugar at home. After continuous monitoring for a month, the fasting blood sugar dropped to below 6 mmol/L, and the hypoglycemia no longer occurred, and the postprandial blood sugar also dropped significantly. During this period, the patient's use of hypoglycemic medications remained the same as before, which was really an unexpected surprise.

Emotions can have such a big impact on blood sugar!

Yes, emotions can have a great impact on human health. The above case is a fairly typical example of emotions affecting blood sugar levels. Bad mood not only leads to psychological or mental illness, but also has adverse effects on multiple organs and systems of the body.

In fact, whether it is a newly diagnosed diabetic patient or an old patient with diabetes for many years, even many clinical endocrinologists may have ignored the impact of emotions on blood sugar. For some patients, long-term anxiety and psychological stress may be important factors leading to persistent poor blood sugar control.

Many conditions may be related to anxiety

In fact, everyone will have anxiety and stress. This is a normal emotional reaction. However, if anxiety or stress is excessive, some physical discomfort will occur and even lead to disease. The following symptoms or performances are related to anxiety, and you can be judged through the corresponding scales. For example, you feel more nervous and anxious than usual; you feel scared for no reason; you feel weak and tired easily; you are easily upset or panicked; you have numbness and tingling in your hands and feet; you suffer from stomach pain and indigestion, etc.

When anxiety occurs, we should deal with it head-on rather than avoid it. At this time, professionals need to provide medical treatment based on individual circumstances. In addition, when some of the following situations occur, you may also need to go to the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine for treatment. You may gain new insights like the patients in the case.

Personality changes or impulsive behavior. Some people used to be easy-going and patient, but after suffering from diabetes, they become agitated, irritable, and often get into arguments with others.

Sleep changes. Some people always have difficulty falling asleep or waking up early. Many people attribute this to their age and poor sleep quality. If you only have poor sleep once or twice occasionally, it is not a big problem, but if you have long-term poor sleep, you need to seek medical advice. Once you find out the reason, it may be caused by anxiety disorder.