I devote a lot of my non-work, non-sleep time to food preparation and exercise. Or, it feels that way. Let’s break it down for an average weekday:

24 hours in a day – 9 hours working – 7 hours sleeping – 0.5 hours showering – 1 hour for various chores = 6.5 hours left over for everything else.

I do not spend 6.5 hours working out and prepping meals. It’s more like 1 hour in the gym and 1.5 hours food-prepping. That’s 4 hours left.

Sometimes those 4 remaining hours have no noticeable impact whatsoever on my blood sugars (I have to fit in as many Quantum Leap reruns as possible in there SOMEWHERE, and Star Trek isn’t gonna watch itself, either). Basically, the manatee state of being —

has no real blood-sugar impact.

Other times, though, what I do outside of my normal routine can massively impact blood sugars. The “why you should care” here is similar to why you should care about the impacts of food and activity — it’s an indicator of what’s going on inside your body. Let’s take a look at some of the non-food, non-exercise impacts to blood sugars!

1. Stressful situations — raise blood sugars

Stress, even if it’s not perceived, raises blood sugars. It’s pretty well-settled science, too, and it makes a lot of sense. Your body perceives the need to be ready — to move quickly, to react quickly — and for that, your body needs energy (aka sugar, aka glucose). To do this, the body reduces insulin production, increases glucose release from the liver, and makes itself less responsive to insulin by pumping out more growth hormone and cortisol.

You’re primed. You’re ready to run from that lion/fight that rival/birth that baby/beat the final boss in the game you’ve been trying to finish for ages.

And now, you’ve got a high blood sugar that won’t respond to extra doses of insulin. Lovely.

Sometimes the stress is obvious. I had sticky high blood sugars while I sat for the bar exam, for instance. Rest assured, I felt that stress.

But other times it’s not as obvious. You might feel completely calm, and yet, you’ve definitely got a stress response. The first time I noticed this was upon admission to an inpatient research trial. I felt completely fine. I’d been on the prescribed regimen for months. We were at the home stretch — just two nights in a hospital-owned house to go.

My blood sugar spiked to five times normal and WOULD NOT drop, despite multiple insulin injections. I was seriously stressed even though I felt perfectly fine.

This cuts across pretty much every aspect of life.

Big meeting? High.
Soccer game? High.
Some {bleep} driver cuts you off while you’re on the highway? High.
Lift heavy weights? High.
Fight with a loved one? High.

Needless to say, I try to live a pretty zen life if for nothing else than the sake of my health.

2. Travel — raises blood sugars

There’s some debate about the impact of high altitude and blood sugars. That’s made tougher by altitude’s potential impacts on blood glucose testing devices — how do we find out whether altitude really impacts blood glucose when the very machines we’d test with are impacted? Ultimately, though, the science isn’t quite settled.

That said, travel is stressful.

A couple weeks ago I was on one of the roughest flights I’ve experienced. Consistent sudden changes in altitude, massive air pockets, extreme turbulence, and an unusually high-speed landing caused that stress response we just talked about. Sticky high blood sugars invariably followed.

My sugars are generally higher than expected even when things go smoothly. There’s always a chance of travel plans going awry, and the knowledge of that chance must always be in the back of my mind, inching those growth hormone, cortisol, and liver glucose levels up.

In short, find a way to get your zen on when traveling.

3. Massages — lower blood sugars

Do you need any other reason to get thee to a massage therapist? C’mon, it’s good for you. It’ll make your body more responsive to insulin — you’re just watching out for your own health. Right? 😉

That’s how I justify semi-regular massages, anyway. Convenient that it’s true (if only for a few hours, but who’s counting?).

There are no systematic reviews of placebo-controlled, double-blind research trials on the subject.

How would you placebo-control a massage study, anyway?

But what research is available tends to show that massage does offer some blood-sugar benefits, and there’s quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that says the same. My own experiences with massage track this — my blood sugars almost always drop noticeably during and in the hour following massage therapy.

This may get back to stress yet again — does massage relax you so that your body reduces its growth hormone and cortisol levels, making it more responsive to insulin? Perhaps.

It may well also turn on what kind of massage you get. I’m definitely not in the hurts-so-good camp. I can inflict pain by foam-rolling myself and avoiding the $60 to $100 price tag, thank you very much. I’m after relaxation. If I did go for a sports massage, I can imagine that eliciting a stress response and sending my sugars up.

But I’m a creature of comfort. Not gonna lie — I don’t plan on finding out what a sports massage would do to my blood sugars. Bring on the semi-regular light-medium Swedish massages.

4. Berberine — lowers blood sugars

This is the one and only supplement I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a TON) that has any positive impact on my blood sugars. What’s more, it’s reasonably well-studied, with reproducible, clinically significant effects.

The only way I’ve found to avoid the blood-sugar spikes caused by coffee and fat-free Greek yogurt is by taking berberine 15 minutes before consumption. It requires some planning, true, but when you have to take medication 15 minutes before eating anyway, what’s one pill?

5. Steroidal medications — raise blood sugars

A stress-like response again! Steroidal medications increase liver glucose production and decrease the body’s insulin sensitivity. And steriods can be in some interesting places. Oh Flonase, why do you have to work so well and yet skyrocket my blood sugars?

Don’t get me wrong — elevated blood sugars are no reason to avoid steroids when they’re prescribed. TAKE YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS. But it’s worth chatting with your doctor about this side effect and to see whether you’ve tried all other reasonable options before going through a course of steroids.

6. Making it through the night — raises blood sugars

It’s not uncommon for diabetics to experience a dawn phenomenon — a rise in blood sugars during the early morning.

As dawn (the natural wake-up time) draws closer, the body releases more growth hormone, cortisol, liver glucose, and adrenaline in preparation for waking up and starting the day.

Wow, this sounds familiar — awfully similar to the stress response.

And the blood-sugar results are often the same.

7. Environmental heat — lowers blood sugars

I don’t get in saunas or hot tubs. Admittedly, that’s mostly because I don’t trust they’ve been properly cleaned. If in fact they haven’t been cleaned, they’re a perfect little breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria, fungi and molds. If they have been cleaned, saunas might be fine, but the caustic chemicals in hot tubs are a little much.

I’m just not into it.

That said, saunas and hot tubs pretty consistently lower blood sugars. They are relaxing in the same way massages are. There’s also something about the heat, specifically. Perhaps it’s the increased heart rate and dilated blood vessels heat causes (a bit similar to exercise). I see this after my normal showers — I pretty much always see a relatively significant blood-sugar drop, so much so that I won’t shower if my blood sugars are on the lower side of normal.

8. Insufficient sleep — raises blood sugars

I’m not sure why, but even moderate sleep deprivation — we’re talking one night’s worth of limited sleep — reduces the body’s insulin sensitivity and raises blood sugars.

We might be dealing with stress yet again. In any case, here’s another reason to get your zzzzzs. Might I suggest a massage, followed by a nap?

It’s in the best interests of your health.

I swear.

9. Colds and injuries — raise blood sugars

Stress by another name. Same thing. Same blood-sugar reaction.

Imagine the blood-sugar fun when I dropped a 35-lb (16-kg) dumbbell on my right foot, breaking my big and second toes. I had to deal with higher blood sugars for weeks while my body got over the initial healing stages.

10. Cinnamon — not a damn thing

I don’t care that your mom’s shaman’s aunt cured her diabeetus by taking cinnamon. It doesn’t do a damn thing, at least not for me.

It’s delicious, though.