Can mental stess increase diabetes

Answer 1

Hormones often act or counteract to maintain relatively ideal conditions in the body. During stress (physical and mental) stress hormones are released. These stress hormones are antagonists to insulin; while insulin decreases blood sugar concentration, stress hormones are increasing it.

That reaction is normal for fight or flight situations, and is counteracted/normalised by other hormones as the situation changes back to normal. In diabetics, however, the normalisation is less efficient, as they already have difficulties maintaining reference range blood glucose levels. Prolonged stress is not helpful for diabetics.