According to a survey published in March 2022 by the American Psychological Association (APA), 87 percent of adults agreed that the past two years have been marked by one crisis after another. Participants cited the war in Ukraine, inflation, and economic concerns as new stressors and the ongoing pandemic as a recurring one.

Stress is a normal human reaction that is expressed in a feeling of emotional or physical tension. Stress enables us to address challenges and threats and can sometimes be a very positive reaction that helps us to take action in specific situations.

But stress can also have a significant impact on our mental and physical health. Recognizing the causes of stress in our lives and taking steps to manage and reduce stress can help us to maintain our well-being and live a healthy life.

Stress can be acute or chronic. Both can cause a wide range of side effects, but chronic stress can have bad long-term effects on one's health. Chronic stress can lead to anxiety, depression, and physical health problems such as heart disease, digestive issues, T2D and headaches.

There are specific hormones that are released by experiencing stress – these hormones are not harmful in the acute phase but if they are continuously released in the long run they can also lead to chronic hyperglycemia (excess of glucose in the bloodstream) , thus leading to insulin resistance and type II diabetes ¹.  People with T2D may experience an increase in their blood glucose levels as a result of stress and people with type 1 diabetes may have a more varied response. This means that they can experience either an increase or a decrease in their blood glucose levels.

Some basic tips of how to deal with stress

1. Recognize the symptoms of stress and how it affects you
2. Determine what specific situations or encounters are causing you stress and try to change them or avoid them
3. Learn what relaxing exercises or activities are likely to help you to reduce the stress and practice them
4. Eat healthy and try to stay away from foods and drinks that tend to increase anxiety levels such as caffeine
5. Engage in physical activity that you like and makes you feel good

At TempraMed we understand that life can get very stressful especially with diabetes and for that reason we developed the VIVI Cap to eliminate a small part of the stressful aspects of having to inject insulin, carry it around with you and keep it safe in appropriate storage conditions.

1. Regulation of glucose homeostasis by glucocorticoids. Kuo T, McQueen A, Chen TC, Wang JC. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2015;872:99–126. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]