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Coping

Stress can raise blood glucose. Any type of illness, infection, stress (emotional or physical), surgery, dental problem, injury, etc. will cause stress on your body. When this occurs, your body needs more energy to "fight" this stressor, so it releases hormones (they're called "counter-regulatory hormones") that tell the liver to release extra glucose to provide you with this much needed energy. These hormones also inhibit the effect of insulin-which means you become somewhat insulin resistant. As a result, blood glucose rises, and typically an insulin-requiring person will need more insulin during a stressful event. Likewise, a person taking oral diabetes medication may require a temporary increase in the dose; and a person who is diet controlled could, in some instances, temporarily require oral medication.

How high can stress raise glucose? There is no specific "limit" to how high the glucose can rise, as this would depend on your type of diabetes, whether or not you produce any insulin, and the severity of the stressor.

Check your monitoring technique. Naturally it would be wise to verify your glucose monitoring technique as well: check to make sure your meter code matches the code printed on the vial of strips; verify that your strips have not expired and that you have stored them properly; run a control solution test to make sure your monitoring system is working properly. Please review the related question at right: "Comparing Meter to Lab" for further information.

Contact your physician. Most importantly, check with your physician to help you determine both the cause and the appropriate treatment of your elevated glucose.