Does stress raise your blood sugar when you eat carbohydrates?
Stress raises blood sugar through stress hormones. Eating carbohydrates on top of that likely amplifies the rise, because the body is less able to process glucose at that moment.
Stress raises blood sugar through stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones force the body to release extra glucose while at the same time making cells less responsive to insulin. As a result, blood sugar rises even if you have not eaten anything. Eating carbohydrates on top of a stress response can amplify that rise, but the studies on this have been conducted in seriously ill or post-surgery patients, not in healthy people dealing with everyday stress.
How strong this effect is in a hospital setting is shown by large analyses covering tens of thousands of patients. In people admitted with a heart attack or stroke, high blood sugar caused by stress was linked to a 67% greater chance of dying. In patients with heart failure, the chance of dying from a cardiovascular cause was more than twice as high. These are severely ill people, not healthy individuals after a stressful meeting.
The underlying process is well understood: the higher the stress-related blood sugar spike, the more severe the inflammation and cellular damage in the body. A mild, short-lived rise can help the body in an emergency, but a high or prolonged rise is harmful, even in people without diabetes.
That the stress response can be actively reduced is confirmed by two studies in people. In older patients undergoing abdominal surgery, targeted stress-reducing nursing care led to lower blood sugar levels and lower adrenaline levels compared with standard care. In patients having hip surgery, taking duloxetine (a medicine used for anxiety and mood disorders) led to notably lower blood sugar and lower cortisol levels compared with a dummy pill. The two outcomes were directly linked: less anxiety meant a smaller rise in stress hormones and a smaller rise in blood sugar.
This answer draws on five large analyses covering a combined total of more than 180,000 hospital patients, plus two studies in surgical patients where treatments were compared head to head. The underlying process, whereby stress hormones raise blood sugar, is well established and confirmed in controlled studies. What is missing is direct evidence in healthy people experiencing everyday stress while eating carbohydrates. The effect in ill people is large and consistent, but whether the same process is clinically meaningful in healthy people has not yet been tested in controlled studies.
Can leucine affect your blood sugar or insulin?
Leucine prompts the pancreas to produce insulin. Your blood sugar only falls as a result if carbohydrates are also present. High leucine levels in the blood are more likely a signal of an already disrupted metabolism than the cause of it.
Does taking glutathione supplements make sense, or is it broken down in your gut?
Standard glutathione tablets are largely broken down before they reach your bloodstream. Newer formats such as liposomal or under-the-tongue dissolvable varieties achieve higher blood levels.