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Study shows stress reduction could help diabetics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stress reduction techniques such as relaxation and breathing exercises can work as well as some drugs to control the effects of diabetes, researchers have reported.

Nearly one-third of diabetes patients who regularly practised the techniques lowered their blood sugar levels by 1 percent or more, a team at Duke University Medical centre reported.

"The stress management techniques, when added to standard care, helped reduce glucose levels," medical psychologist Richard Surwit of Duke, who led the study, said in a statement on Thursday.

"The change is nearly as large as you would expect to see from some diabetes-control drugs," added Surwit, whose team's findings were reported in the January 2002 issue of the journal Diabetes Care.

"These techniques are simple, quick to learn, and have been shown to work for multiple conditions, including coronary syndromes," Surwit added. "There are many self-help books and other commercially available materials about stress management from which patients can learn these techniques."

His team worked with 108 patients with type II or adult-onset diabetes. All the patients took part in five 30-minute educational sessions about diabetes.

Half also got stress management training taught by nurses or graduate students specifically trained for the study. After a year, 32 percent of the patients taught stress management had a 1 percent or higher reduction in blood glucose levels -- a basic measurement of their diabetes. Only 12 percent of the patients who did not get the stress training had such a reduction.

Surwit found no differences between the groups in weight, diet or exercise -- all of which can affect the course of diabetes. But he said stress can also affect diabetes directly.

"Experiencing stress is associated with the release of hormones that lead to energy mobilisation -- known as the 'fight or flight' response," Surwit said. "Key to this energy mobilisation is the transport of glucose into the bloodstream, resulting in elevated glucose levels, which is a health threat for people with diabetes."

Story filed: Thursday December 27, 06:19 AM REUTERS