Sunday, April 29, 2012

Does stress affect my risk of getting diabetes?

The perception of stress differs greatly among indi- viduals.  What  one person may perceive as stressful, another may not. For this reason, stress is quite hard to measure in real-life  situations. Artificial measures of accepted stress, such as electric shocks or depriva- tion of sleep, are very hard to apply to day-to-day life. However,  people  who  report  that  they  are   more stressed, regardless of the actual nature of the stress itself, are more likely to suffer from diabetes. Further- more, it has  recently become apparent that measur- able physical and  psychological stress, such as that caused by sleep deprivation and social stress, is more likely to be associated with the presence of diabetes. Thimay in part explain the difference  in the fre- quency of diabetes found in people of similar genetic backgrounand  measurable physical characteristics (body weight, amount  of exercise, etc.) in different regions  and societies. Exactly how perceived stress, whether  physical,  social, or  psychological, leads to diabetes is not yet understood.

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