Stress and Health

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I found this article and I thought it was a good reminder to keep up with the

breathing

exercises for us who are feeling stress and/or anxiety:

" Researchers are slowly zeroing in on the long-suspected link between stress and

type-2

diabetes, which accounts for 90 percent of all diabetes cases. Anxiety is now

believed to

exacerbate diabetes by raising levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which

regulates

insulin and blood-sugar levels.

Subjects who completed stress-management training, in which they were instructed

in

deep breathing and muscle relaxation, had significantly lower levels of

hemoglobin.

Elevated hemoglobin levels are a red flag for type-2 diabetes sufferers.

For patients already in control of their diabetes through proper diet and

exercise, a

reduction in stress " might bring them to near normal [hemoglobin] levels, "

" ...feelings of fear, lack of control and depression, which contributed to

chronically high

levels of the stress hormone cortisol. These people are at potentially higher

risk for

diabetes, " says lead researcher Surwit, Ph.D., of Duke University

Medical Center. "

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20021122-000001.html "