February 23, 2024 • 45 mins
Strap in for a riveting journey with me, Dr. Dwain Woode, as we tackle the often misunderstood nexus of diabetes and stress and how mastering this connection can transform your health. Imagine the sheer power of your body's stress response, akin to the adrenaline surge I experienced during a high-stakes white-water rafting escapade, a story I'll share in vivid detail. This episode peels back the layers of managing diabetes through the lens of our body's innate physiological fireworks, presenting strategies to dial back insulin levels and ramp up sensitivity with a nod to the surprising benefits of fasting.
As we recount the heart-pounding rafting adventure, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat, learning about the body's impressive stress response mechanisms—hormonal spikes giving you near superhuman strength in peril. Yet, these exact mechanisms, when fired too often, can wreak havoc, leading to ulcers and even fertility challenges. We'll dissect the stages of stress response, from alarm to exhaustion, unraveling the science behind why your heart races and you become hyper-alert and the implications these reactions have on chronic conditions like diabetes.
Moving beyond the thrills, I'll guide you through crafting an arsenal of stress management tools to bolster your well-being and keep your blood sugar in check. We'll discuss the art of problem-solving and how taking a structured approach to life's hurdles can significantly lower stress-induced health risks. By embracing practices like meditation and exercise, you'll learn to channel stress constructively. Join me, Dr. Dwain Woode, as we empower you with the knowledge to navigate the choppy waters of stress and diabetes, ensuring a smoother sail toward optimal health.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dwain Woode (00:00):
If you have been paying attention and seeing
what's going on around thecountry and around the world in
terms of health, then you knowthat diabetes is one of those
diseases that continues toplague us Over 460 million
people around the world 37million in the United States
alone that suffer from diabetes.
(00:21):
And here in this space, thequest for this year is how do we
put diabetes and remission, howdo we get off of the medication
?
And in this episode, we'regonna talk about stress and its
effect on blood sugars.
That's right, stress has aneffect on blood sugars.
And here in this space, becausewe want to put your diabetes
and remission, because we wantto reverse diabetes, we're gonna
(00:44):
spend some time tonight talkingabout how stress and the
hormones in our body affects ourblood sugar.
If you're new to me, I'm DrDwain Woode, that's Wood with an
E the E stands forendocrinology.
Here on the channel, I educate,I empower and I encourage you
to take charge of your health,your life, avoid complications
and go to the next level.
We're creating the life we'vealways wanted and in this year
(01:07):
2024, our new theme is New Year,new you MUSIC.
(01:33):
So what's been our path so far?
Over the course of the lastmonth we've done several shows
and on our channel you'll seethose shows there, starting with
the very first show that we did.
What are the first steps toreally take charge of your
health?
How do we get ourselves ready?
We introduce fasting as one ofthose key components that we're
(01:54):
gonna be using throughout thisyear.
Y'all we talked about whichdiabetes medications you should
initially talk to your doctor.
By getting off, we talked aboutsome medications that you may
want to discuss.
By getting on, we talked aboutsome of those medications that
suppress the appetite.
Then we had a discussion abouthow do we go about adjusting
those medications, bringing themdown and then, last week, how
(02:17):
to navigate our triggers as wemove into.
What are we gonna do?
How do we get this moving?
How do we get this going?
The key thought that we havehad is that diabetes is really
not a sugar problem.
The blood sugars that we haveare consequences of whatever the
underlying problem is with ourdiabetes.
(02:39):
The underlying problem, as youguys remember, is insulin.
We're talking specifically toadults with type 2 diabetes.
Insulin, because of the natureof what it does, it has an
effect on so many other parts ofthe body.
So, while insulin is a potentlowerer of blood sugar.
(03:00):
It also has the ability to makeyou hungry.
It has the ability to make youput on weight, retain weight.
It has problems or implicationsin fatty liver disease, a
metabolic syndrome, obesity, ahigh blood pressure, and on and
on and on.
And so our goal in all that wedo is first of all, to suppress
(03:21):
the insulin or decrease theamount of insulin that we're
taking in, which was why wetalked about those medications
that were secretagogues thatforced the body, or makes the
body, make insulin.
We also talked about decreasingthe amount of total insulin
that we're taking.
Insulin in the body is a normalhormone.
It does what it's supposed todo at the levels that the body
(03:43):
normally makes.
It is when that insulin levelbegins to rise that then not
only does it now help to manageblood sugar, but it starts to
have significant implications inthe other things that it's
doing.
You know, we always think thatif a little bit of something is
good, then more of it is better,not necessarily with insulin.
As we start to get higher andhigher levels of insulin, we
(04:06):
start to see the complicationsthat come from the elevated
amounts of insulin.
So our goal is alwaysdecreasing the amount of insulin
that we're taking, in,decreasing the amount of
medications that force ourbodies to make insulin.
Those are the secretagogues.
And then how do we, in the bodyitself, handle the amount of
(04:27):
insulin that it is making sothat it becomes more sensitive?
And so one of the things thatwe're gonna be talking about
tonight is that exact process.
The body is a very smart system, and your body's job, its
function, is to keep you alive,and so the body will do
everything that it can to keepyou alive and in that space.
(04:48):
So, as we talk about stress, wetalked last week about habits,
emotions, access and taste theemotion component most of those
are stress.
So what's going on in stress?
What happens in stress is thatyour body goes through hormonal
and the physiologic changes.
That gets it ready to handlethe stress.
(05:12):
Let me back up and let me tellyou a story.
So I went on a whitewaterrafting trip.
My son is a big basketball fan,so we went to see the Charlotte
Hornets play the Denver Nuggets, and so we were over there.
We've got this bucket list thatwe're working on, and so,
anyway.
So we went out, and so, whilewe were there, somebody in my
(05:34):
house convinced me that weshould go whitewater rafting as
part of this trip.
So I went whitewater raftingand we sat and we watched the
little video that they showed,the one where they say if you
anything happens, we're notresponsible.
So you watch the video, yousign the piece of paper and you
(05:55):
went and you put on all the lifejackets, life vests, you got
the helmet and all the stuff,and so now we're in the raft,
y'all, and I'm watching thevideo.
I saw the video and I put onthe stuff and I'm sitting in the
raft and I'm thinking to myselfwhat are the chances that I'm
gonna be the one that falls outof the raft?
(06:16):
Oh yeah, never say that toyourself, because, guess what,
you're going to be the one thatfalls out.
So we're there, and so the theraft master, he's back there,
and so we've got I think it wasfour people on one side, four
people on the other side and sowe're going over these rapids
and, as he's calling, you'resupposed to dig in with your oar
(06:39):
.
And so we're going and we'regoing and we get to this one
spot and we go over the rocksand we come down and there's a
little kind of whirlpool rightafter you get over the rocks and
we kind of got stuck.
He's like pull, pull, and sowe're pulling, the rapids are
going, and so we're in thiswhirlpool between a bunch of
(06:59):
rocks.
By the way, the goal is to kindof pull until you get over the
rocks and then, once you getover those, this next set of
rocks, then you get into kind ofa more calm area of this river
that we were on and we tried toget up and we made it a halfway
up and we came back down, and sonow he's okay, guys, we're
going to have to dig in.
(07:19):
And we went and we startedrowing.
The guy on the front where I was, he actually lost his row and
he started to fall out.
And as he started to fall out,our raft kind of tilted to the
side that we're on.
I'm the last one on that sideand as the raft went up, he fell
(07:41):
out and everybody's trying tohelp him and I'm in the back and
the raft is almost on its side,and so I fall out.
Not an issue yet, right?
But then what happened?
They said to grab on to theperimeter rope.
So I grab onto the perimeterrope, except that, remember,
we're still in this area whereit's swirling.
And so I ended up under theraft.
(08:02):
Do you know what's under a raft?
That's in water, no air.
And so in that entire processyou can imagine my heart is
beating and my blood pressureprobably went up and my blood
sugars we're probably going up.
In that instance it made sensefor my blood sugar to go up, it
made sense for my blood pressureto go up.
(08:23):
It made sense for my eyes toconstrict, it made sense for my
body to pump a lot of sugar intome because I needed it, and
that is called the stressresponse.
But when that response isprolonged then it starts to
cause issues for the body.
There are three phases or threestages of stress alarm, then
(08:45):
there's the resistance stage andthen the exhaustion stage.
Now, prior to the resistanceexhaustion, let's talk about the
alarm.
So the alarm phase the nervoussystem is awakened.
So you fall out of the raft.
You are in a car accident,someone, you're walking down the
street and you see someone thatlooks shady up in front of you.
(09:08):
You're at home and you hear anoise.
Automatically the body goesinto alert.
So there's a part of the braincalled the amygdala and the
amygdala says and is that partthat is responsible for our
interpretation, right?
So fear.
And the amygdala says, hey, Isee something, or I hear
(09:32):
something, or I smell something,I smell fire, right.
So the amygdala says, hey,there's something going on.
And it sends a signal to therest of the body.
And it actually sends twosignals it sends a nervous
system signal and it also sendsa hormonal signal, right.
So, nervous system and hormonalsystem, the amygdala.
(09:54):
And in the process of sendingthose signals, then the body
begins looking for and preparingfor that particular issue that
you're seeing.
Right?
So, you'll see, there, as partof the brain, right, that
amygdala and that's there in theback, sends a signal to a part
(10:15):
of the brain called thehypothalamus, and the
hypothalamus is.
Everybody talks about thepituitary as the regulator of
hormones, but the hypothalamusreally is the big boss.
And so hypothalamus says, hey,pituitary, I need you to send a
signal to the adrenal.
And because we need somecortisol those are the stress
hormones cortisol, epinephrine.
And, if you guys remember, oneof my favorite, one of my
(10:39):
favorite shows and one of myfavorite superheroes was the
Incredible Hulk, david Banner.
So he was irradiated and now,whenever he got upset, he turned
into this big, green, powerful,strong quote unquote monster,
as people call them.
What happened to David Bannerwas that his adrenals that part
(11:01):
of the body that produced stresshormones.
Whenever his adrenals beganreleasing hormones, he released
an abnormal amount and abnormalfunctioning hormone and so he
became this great big green guy.
But that's what stress hormonesdo.
Stress hormones are thehormones that come out.
(11:22):
You know, someone gets into acar accident and they've broken
a leg, y'all in the accident, orthey've broken an arm, or
they've been injured in theaccident, and they get out of
the car and they go over andthey help somebody else who was
in the accident as well.
And it's not until they calmdown that they realize oh my God
, my arm hurts.
(11:43):
You know why they were able todo that?
Because of adrenaline, becauseof stress hormones, because
stress hormones have the abilityto give energy to handle
whatever it is.
It is why.
It is why the lion chases thezebra and the lion hungry, but
the zebra gets away.
(12:03):
Why?
Because the zebra's adrenalinehits into or shoots into high
gear and the zebra's adrenalineproduces a bunch of hormones and
the zebra's muscles are nowawake, awakened and the zebra
takes off and the zebra is gone.
So the lion's now hungry.
(12:23):
It's why you hear those storiesof of apparently superhuman
ability.
You know, mom is sitting on astoop in the city and she's
watching as her kid is playing,playing on the sidewalk or on
the street, and somethinghappens and a truck or a car
runs the red light and hops thesidewalk and is heading towards
(12:44):
her child.
And mom has this superhumanstrength and speed and she
dashes over, grabs the kid awayand saves the child from getting
hit by the car.
How was she able to do that?
Because of stress hormone.
They give us that ability tofunction.
So the body senses stress, theamygdala sends a signal to the
(13:05):
hypothalamus.
Hypothalamus says hey, body, Ineed you now to start working,
so I'm going to get you ready.
I'm sending a signal to theadrenal so I need some cortisol,
I need some stress hormones.
And I'm sending a signal to therest of the body.
These are nervous systemresponses and we'll talk about
both those here in a minute.
So that's how the stressresponse works.
(13:25):
And then the body is able toget you through whatever the
stress is, get you away from thedanger, and then what's
supposed to happen is that thedanger, once it's gone, your
body begins to now calm downagain.
That's a normal stress response, y'all.
Okay, that's how it's supposedto work.
(13:46):
And the parts of the body thatdo that, as I've been mentioning
the pituitary, the adrenals youdon't need to know all of that
right now, but we'll come backand talk a little bit more about
those.
So how is the stress responseactivated?
As I said, you have aperception of fear.
You see a lion, you hear anoise in the night, or you see
(14:11):
someone who's dangerous, oryou're at the edge of a cliff
and you look over and you'relike, oh, my goodness right.
So there's the perception thatgets sent to the brain.
The brain sends a response tothe hypothalamus and the
hypothalamus says, hey, I needcortisol, I need stress hormones
.
And hey, sympathetic system.
Hey, I need you to do somethings.
Now let's talk through those.
(14:32):
Well, what happens in thesympathetic system?
Well, your heart rate goes up.
Why does your heart rate go up?
Why does your heart rate go up?
Because your heart rate hasyour body has to now send more
energy throughout the system.
So the heart has to move fasterso that the energy that now is
being produced in the body canflow around to all the muscles,
(14:54):
to your eyes, to your heart, toyour lungs.
So the heart rate has to go up.
Your blood pressure has to goup.
Why does the blood pressurehave to go up?
Because now we've got to forcethe blood to go where it needs
to go Right we're we'reheightening.
The blood pressure has to go up.
Your eyes, right, willconstrict.
Why do eyes constrict?
Because you've got to seefarther now Than where you are,
(15:17):
because I need to get over there, not stay right here.
So all these physiologic thingsare going on in the body to
begin moving us in the direction, and then cortisol goes out.
And cortisol is the thing thatsays, hey, I need to get some
energy right.
And the energy part is whatwe're gonna.
We're gonna spend some timeactually talking through as we
(15:38):
go through, go through thisdiscussion.
All right, all right, thatmakes sense.
So that is the activation ofthe stress response.
So, and then there you knowhere, these physiologic changes.
So release, release adrenaline.
We release cortisol.
Those are the two hormones.
We mobilize glucose yeah,that's the one right there, guys
(15:59):
.
And then we suppressnon-essential functions.
Let's, let's go backwards.
We're gonna start withsuppressing non-essential
function.
Well, what are non-essentialfunctions?
Well, if I'm running from alion, I don't need to digest
food, so the body turns offdigestion.
If I'm running from a lion, Idon't need to Bear children, I
(16:22):
don't need to reproduce, so thebody shuts down the reproductive
system.
The body shuts down spermproduction.
It shuts down Ovulation.
If I'm running from a lion,right, I don't need to remember
that my wife and my kid is athome Waiting for me to come home
for dinner Right, I need to getaway from the line.
I don't need to be thinkingabout them right now.
(16:43):
So the body, the cortisol thatcomes out, decreases memory.
I don't need that.
For my hair to grow on my arms,I don't need for my skin To
grow, I don't need for my nailsto grow, so all of those things
that are not essential, the bodyshuts down.
Now.
That's gonna be important forus here in a minute when we come
back to talk about chronicstress.
(17:04):
Now we're talking about justthe initial.
You know, you see somethingwrong.
You're in the stress responseand the body's dealing with it
and that is great in the shortterm when it becomes a problem
Is in the long term, right, whenit becomes chronic.
Okay, so we shut down all thethings that we don't need right
now.
That's why, when people arestressed, they get ulcers
(17:28):
because the body shuts down ordiverts blood from the GI track,
from the Digestion, becauseright now I don't need to digest
food.
So all the blood that'snormally going into my GI tract
gets shunted to my heart, to mylungs, to my muscles.
And if that's the case, whathappens to the lining of the
stomach if it doesn't haveenough Energy, if it doesn't
(17:52):
have enough Blood?
Well, it breaks down and peopledevelop ulcers.
If I'm stressed, I don't needhair.
So during stress, people losetheir hair, their nails become
brittle, their skin becomes dry,women lose menstrual cycles,
men become a, their sperm countgoes down.
(18:14):
Notice, all of those are notessential during a stressful
time.
In the initial, acute setting,that's great, because I can
utilize that energy forsomething else.
But long term, I want to beable to have hair, I want my
skin to be nice and soft, I Wantto have nice nails, I want to
(18:39):
have children.
But if we're in a stressfulsituation, that doesn't happen.
So so you start to see theconnection and then the question
, and so, once again, these arejust other things that you will
see that go on with blood sugars.
Right, these are other itemsthat you will see.
Well, not blood sugars, butwe're in the stress, in the
stress response, right.
(19:00):
So, on the we talked about theeyes, right, constricting the
pupils of sorry, dilating pupilsdilate because you got to see
far.
Your heart rate goes up, right,your adrenals are producing
hormones.
Your stomach slows because youdon't need to digest anything,
so.
So all of those issues that yousee that a lot of times people
(19:25):
will have when they're in, whenthey're, when they're stressed,
are a natural consequence, andit is the body trying to protect
itself and conserve the energythat it needs.
So what are some metabolicchanges that are caused by
stress, and this is where we'regonna spend some time.
So, number one when cortisolcomes out, cortisol's job is to
(19:49):
find energy in the body.
That's, that's the job, that'sthe function of cortisol.
It says it goes into the bodyand it says, hey, I need to get
more energy.
And so it starts to break downthe glycogen that's in your
liver so it can use it for sugar.
So blood sugar goes up.
(20:09):
So why does blood sugarinitially go up?
Because your body needs moreenergy.
You're getting ready to run,you saw something, you heard
something, something that'sscary.
And the body saying, hey, youknow, to deal with this I've got
to get energy.
So it goes into, finds energyand it raises your blood sugar.
Cortisol, when it comes out,suppresses insulin.
(20:30):
Because what's insulin's job?
Insulin's job is to decreaseblood sugar.
Well, if I am running, I don'twant my blood sugar to go down.
I want to keep my blood sugaras high as possible so I can
access all of the sugar that'savailable to me.
So not only does the body thecortisol, the stress response
(20:52):
say hey, let me find some sugar,raise the blood sugar.
Now Let me suppress the insulinso my blood sugar doesn't go
down, right?
So two birds right there.
And then I think I'm gonna needmore energy.
So now let me go find someadditional energy.
So it starts breaking down thefat cells.
(21:12):
Now everybody thinks thatthat's a good thing.
But no, it's not a good thing,right?
Not in the long term.
So it takes the fat cells.
It breaks them down into whatare called glycerol and Free
fatty acids, the glycerol.
Glycerol gets converted tosugar.
(21:33):
So once again, that's the thirdplace where sugar goes up.
So first we break down glycogen,then we suppress the insulin.
Now we're breaking down fat andwe're making sugar from the fat
.
And if I'm I got these twocomponents right, I got the free
fatty acids and I've got theglycerol.
Where do you think the freefatty acids go?
(21:54):
So now we've got fatty acidsfloating around the blood Right
now they can cause damage.
And then the body says, maybe Ineed more energy.
So now it starts to break downproteins and those proteins and
those proteins become aminoacids.
Those amino acids cause us toproduce more sugar.
So I want you to watch thatprogression.
(22:17):
We found sugar Right, breakingdown the glycogen.
Then we suppressed the insulinso that the sugar doesn't go
down.
Then we broke down fat andcreated Some glucose.
And then we broke down proteinand created some glucose.
So at every stage, right there,the body's job is to find energy
(22:39):
to keep you going.
Now that's wonderful, andwhat's supposed to happen is
when the, when the acute issuegoes away, when you get away
from the lion, when you are outof the car accident, when the
intruder is no longer there,your body is supposed to now
(23:01):
calm down the stress.
Hormones go down, your heartrate goes down Right, your eyes
constrict again, your lungs are,you're not breathing as fast
when the cortisol goes down.
The cortisol stops breakingdown protein.
The blood sugar goes down.
(23:21):
It stops breaking down fat.
Blood sugar goes down.
It makes the insulin that yourbody produces more sensitive, so
the blood sugar goes down.
And it stops breaking downglycogen, so the blood sugar
goes down.
Now here's the kicker.
Y'all you want to hear it?
You ready for it?
The kicker is this that thebody responds to a real threat
(23:49):
in the same way as it respondsto a perceived.
Let me say that again, the bodyresponds to a real threat if
there's actually a lion sittingstanding running in front of you
.
If you're in a car accident andyou break an arm, break a leg,
you have an injury.
If an intruder comes into yourhouse, an actual person there
(24:14):
with you, your body will gothrough the response, the stress
response.
But it responds the same way.
If you convince yourself thatthe fact that you didn't study
for that exam means the end ofthe world, the body responds the
(24:34):
same way.
You have an argument with yourhusband, your wife, your brother
, your sister, right, aco-worker.
You go into work every morningand you dread going in.
The body responds the same wayas if it's so a lion.
The same exact physiologicprocesses go on.
The same neurologic processesgo on.
(24:57):
That's why people say man, Iwas so nervous that my stomach
started churning.
I had a lady who, um, she hadone of these monitors that I
have.
Well, actually she didn't havea monitor first, but her blood
sugars were high and we put amonitor on her and every morning
we'd see a big spike.
(25:17):
I forgot what time it was, butit wasn't the dawn phenomenon
spike, it was like later in themorning.
And so she comes in and we sawthe spike, saw the spike.
And one day I said to her Isaid what happens at 10 o'clock,
and I'm just using 10 o'clock,it wasn't 10 o'clock, I can't
remember the exact time.
I said what happens at 10o'clock and she says, oh, joe
(25:40):
comes in and I'm just using Joe,it's not the real person, right
?
So her and Joe were so, um, shedidn't like working with Joe
Whenever Joe came in.
It was stressful for her.
And just right before thiscoworker of hers came in, where
she had to spend the entire daywith them, we saw the blood
(26:02):
sugars rise and they stayedthere until she left work.
The power of stress.
So the body responds in exactlythe same way, whether it's a,
whether it's a perceived stress,perceived danger, or whether
it's a real danger.
And the issue is that we spendso much of our time in perceived
(26:24):
stress We've convincedourselves that this particular
thing is a danger, is astressful event, and because we
always have this tonic level ofstress, then the blood sugars
are a little higher.
And if the blood sugars arehigher, y'all guess what has to
happen.
So we talked about the acutephase.
(26:46):
Right, the acute phase is yousee, you see some stressor, your
body responds, produces sugar.
You, you know, run away fromthe line.
You get away from the line andgood, and everything kind of
comes back down.
Well, what happens if you'realways there and now adapts to
that, and so the blood sugarsare a little higher than they
should be, your insulin doesn'twork as well as it should.
(27:10):
You're breaking down these fatcells and you're creating sugar
and free fatty acids.
And now your cholesterol goesup.
And what do you think happensto the free fatty acids?
They go into the liver, theybecome non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease.
And if you're stressed, theblood sugars get the high rise
(27:31):
higher and higher and theinsulin is less able to manage
it.
So you develop diabetes becausethere's this constant tonic
stress.
Oh, and man, wait a minute, Ididn't talk about one of the
things after you recover fromstress, right?
So you saw a lion, you ran fromthe lion, you got away from the
(27:51):
lion, right?
A cute event In that process.
Right after you got away fromthe lion, what does your body do
?
The body says, hey, I just usedup a lot of energy, so I have
to now go replenish the energy.
And how does it replenish theenergy?
It makes you eat.
That's why, a lot of times,people go through a stressful
(28:14):
event, stressful time, and theyeat because the body is trying
to replenish the energy that itthinks they burned during the
event.
Well, if you're always there,you're always in the stressful
event, always producing cortisol, always producing epinephrine,
(28:39):
then you are always hungry.
You guys see that progression.
So our goal, then, our goal isto manage stress.
Notice, I say not eliminate,because we can't always
eliminate stress.
Now, if you have a job that youdon't like, you can leave the
(29:01):
job, great, but not everybodycan do that.
We cannot change the event, wecannot change the stressful
situation, but we could changeour response to it.
And notice, I said, the bodyresponds to real threats and
perceived threats in the sameway.
(29:21):
And when I come back, we'regoing to talk about how we
manage that here in just aminute.
Let's see who we got out there.
So Key says wow, that is deep.
Yeah, key, this is.
This stuff.
Right here is we don't talkmuch about this response as it
(29:46):
comes to diabetes.
You kind of do a cursory pay,you know, manage your stress,
get some sleep and so forth.
But to really understand whatit is we do to ourselves in the
stressful event, in thestressful times, that's a whole
nother conversation.
(30:07):
Teresa says that explainseverything.
Doctor, oh, my goodness, oh,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, teresa,
isn't it amazing?
Yeah, I, I Now, so let's, letme, let me jump in here and let
me add right, let me make aconnection.
You guys remember we talkedabout the H E a T, right, h E a
(30:31):
T that we did last week, andthat is our acronym for the true
, the categories of triggersthat push us to eat beyond
hunger.
Right, remember, we eat becauseof habits, we eat because of
emotions, we eat because ofaccess and we eat because of
(30:52):
taste.
Yeah, so in that E the emotions, there are so many things that
that we're going to have to comeback and do like shows about
some of that stuff, right so so.
Emotions, right so so.
Any so, not just your.
Oh, I'm feeling sad.
(31:13):
I mean sad, happy, glad, sad,happy, glad, mad, anxious,
disappointed, tired, and we cango on and on, and on, and on,
and on and on and on, and everylittle bit adds up.
So our goal is how do we dealwith as many of these as
(31:37):
possible, because if we can dothat, that's one less place
where our blood sugars rise andwe're going to come back and
we're going to talk about whatthat means.
Okay, all right.
And Tatiana, hey, tatiana,welcome, I'm glad that you are
here hanging out with us.
I saw you were on a showrecently.
(32:00):
I haven't watched it yet, but,yay, Okay, I'm going to get out
there and watch it.
Guys, if you've not watchedTatiana, she is amazing.
She was on our show a littleover a year ago and thank you
for coming through and hangingout with us.
And so, talking about shows,there is one that I do want to,
(32:22):
I do want to plug.
This past weekend, or this pastFriday, I was on a, um, I was
on a show that I want to say toyou.
If you've not seen, if you'venot watched, I do want you to go
over and support them.
And it is uh, let's see how doI do that.
(32:45):
Okay, here it is.
It is a show, it is round tableand it is with uh three amazing
uh pastors who are actuallypastoring, um and and uh, I was
on there with Dr ColumbusBatiste, who is a cardiologist,
(33:06):
and we were talking about, uh,this is black history month, of
course, and so we were talkingabout the effect of um, the
heritage of African Americans,uh, the effect of that on their
health.
Right, if you?
If you know, uh, the history ofAfrican Americans during the
(33:28):
time of slavery, the foods thatthey were given, the foods that
were eaten, the recipes thatwere created, the ways of uh
preparing food and eating, werea direct results, or direct
result of the things that uhthey were given and the
conditions that they foundthemselves in.
And so today, as we eat, it isa um, it is a history that has
(33:54):
been passed down in terms offlavors and the types of foods
and, as we've been talking about, food has such an amazing
ability to heal, but it also hasan amazing and detrimental
ability to cause disease.
And so Dr Columbus Batiste andI were guests on the show with
these amazing uh gentlemen, aswe talked about, um, the, the
(34:19):
effect of food, um, the effectof slave food on the culture and
on the um, on the way we eatand on diseases.
So, please go over there, uh,support them.
Um, like the show, share itwith your family, with your
friends.
Um, it was an amazingconversation.
Uh, we were hoping to get backwith them and do some additional
(34:41):
things, but right now, I wantyou, as our, as our viewers, as
our community, uh to support, uh, support what they're doing.
Uh, and then, of course, I wason the show and when you, if you
go over there, when you go overthere I'm not going to say, if
I want you to put hashtag DwainWoode MD, so they know that you
are one of our um, one of ourcommunity members, um, that
(35:03):
you've coming up, you're comingover and that you are supporting
them.
Okay, and so that was Friday,uh, the black history, and um,
uh, so black history, uh, monthis, uh, the series that they're
doing and uh, like I said, itwas an amazing conversation that
we had over there.
Thank you, all right, um, allright, so let's talk a little
(35:25):
bit.
Uh, let's hop back over.
I remember, guys, if you havequestions, I can touch you and
this is a whole of my pleasure.
Uh, if you do have questions,go ahead and pop those in the
chat.
Uh, let us know, uh, thatyou're there.
Put a Q in front of thequestion and we will uh be sure
to get to those.
If you're watching this on thereplay right now, put hashtag
replay and, of course, I wantyou to make sure that you are
(35:49):
sharing with your family andfriends what we're doing on the
channel.
All right, so so let's, let's,let's bring it home, let's bring
it home.
Let me back up, let me recap.
Our goal is to reverse diabetes.
We're talking specificallyadults with type two diabetes,
adults with type two diabetes.
(36:09):
We want to reverse it.
We want to decrease the amountof medication that you're taking
.
We want to help to make youhealthier.
If you are here and you'rewatching and you say, wait a
minute, I'm not diabetic, sothis doesn't apply to me, I hold
it, don't, don't, don't go awayyet, because the things that we
talk about for our diabeticswe're talking about decreasing
(36:30):
insulin, the issues that we havewith high blood pressure, with
weight issues, polycysticovarian syndrome, metabolic
syndrome, high blood pressure,high cholesterol, non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease, people whoare at risk for coronary artery
disease, people who are at riskfor strokes.
(36:51):
All of that ties into insulin.
That's why I keep saying thenumbers 462 million people
around the world with diabetes.
That's just y'all the peoplewith diabetes.
We're not talking about thepeople with pre-diabetes or the
people who are obese or thepeople who have polycystic
(37:14):
ovarian syndrome.
If we can decrease our insulin,then all of those diseases get
better.
So while we're talking to thediabetic, specifically because
we're reversing, don't negatewhat we're discussing, because
it has direct application to youas well.
Okay, all right, so what do wedo?
(37:36):
What do we do?
What do we do y'all?
What do we do?
You can't change the situationthat you're in.
Sometimes, like if you got ajob and it is the place where
you make your living and you'resupporting your family, you
can't walk in tomorrow.
I mean, I suppose you could,but very few of us will be able
(37:59):
to walk in tomorrow and say youknow what?
You guys are stressing me out,so I'm gone.
If you're in a relationshipthat's causing stress, sometimes
it's difficult to leave therelationship.
You have a child.
You have a mom or a dad who isill or not doing the things that
you think they should be doing.
(38:19):
That causes stress.
You can't just all of a suddenjust disappear from the child.
I suppose you could.
You shouldn't.
But how do we respond to thosethings?
I'm sure you know someone whoseems like man.
Nothing ever bothers them Like.
(38:41):
They seem to have it alltogether.
The question is how can we havetwo people that find themselves
in the same situation and oneresponds with significant stress
and the other one does not?
(39:01):
And the reason that can happenis it because it's all in our
personalities and in how we havebeen raised and taught and how
we experience the world?
I want to say that again.
There are some of us who have anatural personality that is
(39:27):
more anxious than others.
It is a given fact, right?
You tend to be a little bitmore anxious than someone else.
That's not a problem.
It is just your bent.
That is how you are.
So don't let anybody convinceyou that because you are a
little bit more anxious thanother people, that there's
something wrong with you.
That's just how you are Now.
(39:48):
What you do with that is adifferent story, right.
So that's one.
And then a lot of us werebrought up in situations where
we were never taught to managestress and handle stress.
We were never taught copingmechanisms.
We were never taught ways toevaluate and to make decisions.
We were never taught how toevaluate problems and come up
(40:12):
with solutions.
So when we find ourselves in astressful situation, it's like
we're shooting in the air.
Right, everything is a guessgame and guessing causes people
to be anxious.
Right, it's kind of like inmarketing and in sales.
They say a confused mind doesnot purchase.
Think about it.
(40:33):
You go into the store, right,and you know you want a
particular thing.
And you get in there and theyhave like three different ones
that you don't know how toevaluate them.
What do you do?
A lot of times, most of uswouldn't buy anything.
We say, okay, I'll decide thatlater, and they leave.
Same thing.
When we find ourselves instressful situations, if we
don't have a mechanism for howwe manage stress, how we solve
(40:58):
issues, how we solve problems,we don't have a way to evaluate,
then we are confused and itbecomes stressful.
So a lot of us were nevertaught, we never learned the
mechanisms that we needed tobegin coping, and then a lot of
us don't have a place notnecessarily to evaluate and
(41:22):
learn to cope, but we don't havea place to release the stress.
We're always going, we'realways on the grind, we're
always running, and if you findyourself always doing that, then
that itself causes stress.
So let's back up and let's gothrough those again.
(41:43):
So, number one if you findyourself in a situation where
you are stressed and you say,okay, this is just how I am, I'm
just a naturally anxious person, then the question that you've
got to ask is what do you haveto put in place?
(42:05):
What do you have to put inplace to begin releasing some of
that stress?
It is how you are, it is yourbent, it is your personality.
But is there a way to mitigate?
Is there a way to allowyourself to process things in a
way that it does not addadditional stress?
(42:29):
Because once again, once youhad the stress, guess what
happens?
Cortisol comes out andcortisol's job is to raise those
blood sugars.
And if we raise the blood sugar, the body has to produce
insulin to bring that bloodsugar down, right?
So how do I mitigate?
What do I need to do so I don'tadd additional stress?
(42:51):
If you find yourself alwaysstressed whenever some issue
comes up, a interpersonalrelationship issue, something on
the job you've got to make adecision about a house that
you're buying, or a shirt thatyou want to buy, or a book that
you want to read, or a classthat you're in, hey, it sounds
like you don't have a structure,a form, a way to make decisions
(43:12):
and evaluate where you are andcome up with solutions.
So now, this is okay.
Where do I go to learn how tomanage, how to organize, how to
problem solve?
Notice the distinction betweenthose two.
One, hey, what do I need to doso I don't add additional stress
(43:35):
?
What do I need to do to becomemore organized, so I have a
structure in how to manage anddeal with and come up with
solutions?
And then if you find yourself,hey, I'm not an anxious person
and I do have a way of coming upwith solutions.
I'm very methodical, I have theability to look and come up
(43:56):
with a solution, but I stillfind myself stressed.
What do you have in place torelease the stress?
Do you meditate, do you journal, do you exercise, do you do
yoga?
What are you doing to mitigate,to release?
Because if you don't release.
Well, guess what?
It's all building up and it'sall growing.
And because we're in that tonicblood sugar's, a higher blood
(44:19):
sugar's, a higher insulin ishigher insulin comes out and
insulin causes all the issuesthat we just discussed.
This is Dr Dwain Woode, that'sWood Within E the E stands for
endocrinology.
Here on the channel, I educate,I empower and I encourage you
to take charge of your health,take charge of your life, avoid
complications and go to the nextlevel, creating the life you
(44:39):
always wanted.
And for this year, y'all, newyear, new year
If you have been paying attention and seeing
what's going on around thecountry and around the world in
terms of health, then you knowthat diabetes is one of those
diseases that continues toplague us Over 460 million
people around the world 37million in the United States
alone that suffer from diabetes.
(00:21):
And here in this space, thequest for this year is how do we
put diabetes and remission, howdo we get off of the medication
?
And in this episode, we'regonna talk about stress and its
effect on blood sugars.
That's right, stress has aneffect on blood sugars.
And here in this space, becausewe want to put your diabetes
and remission, because we wantto reverse diabetes, we're gonna
(00:44):
spend some time tonight talkingabout how stress and the
hormones in our body affects ourblood sugar.
If you're new to me, I'm DrDwain Woode, that's Wood with an
E the E stands forendocrinology.
Here on the channel, I educate,I empower and I encourage you
to take charge of your health,your life, avoid complications
and go to the next level.
We're creating the life we'vealways wanted and in this year
(01:07):
2024, our new theme is New Year,new you MUSIC.
(01:33):
So what's been our path so far?
Over the course of the lastmonth we've done several shows
and on our channel you'll seethose shows there, starting with
the very first show that we did.
What are the first steps toreally take charge of your
health?
How do we get ourselves ready?
We introduce fasting as one ofthose key components that we're
(01:54):
gonna be using throughout thisyear.
Y'all we talked about whichdiabetes medications you should
initially talk to your doctor.
By getting off, we talked aboutsome medications that you may
want to discuss.
By getting on, we talked aboutsome of those medications that
suppress the appetite.
Then we had a discussion abouthow do we go about adjusting
those medications, bringing themdown and then, last week, how
(02:17):
to navigate our triggers as wemove into.
What are we gonna do?
How do we get this moving?
How do we get this going?
The key thought that we havehad is that diabetes is really
not a sugar problem.
The blood sugars that we haveare consequences of whatever the
underlying problem is with ourdiabetes.
(02:39):
The underlying problem, as youguys remember, is insulin.
We're talking specifically toadults with type 2 diabetes.
Insulin, because of the natureof what it does, it has an
effect on so many other parts ofthe body.
So, while insulin is a potentlowerer of blood sugar.
(03:00):
It also has the ability to makeyou hungry.
It has the ability to make youput on weight, retain weight.
It has problems or implicationsin fatty liver disease, a
metabolic syndrome, obesity, ahigh blood pressure, and on and
on and on.
And so our goal in all that wedo is first of all, to suppress
(03:21):
the insulin or decrease theamount of insulin that we're
taking in, which was why wetalked about those medications
that were secretagogues thatforced the body, or makes the
body, make insulin.
We also talked about decreasingthe amount of total insulin
that we're taking.
Insulin in the body is a normalhormone.
It does what it's supposed todo at the levels that the body
(03:43):
normally makes.
It is when that insulin levelbegins to rise that then not
only does it now help to manageblood sugar, but it starts to
have significant implications inthe other things that it's
doing.
You know, we always think thatif a little bit of something is
good, then more of it is better,not necessarily with insulin.
As we start to get higher andhigher levels of insulin, we
(04:06):
start to see the complicationsthat come from the elevated
amounts of insulin.
So our goal is alwaysdecreasing the amount of insulin
that we're taking, in,decreasing the amount of
medications that force ourbodies to make insulin.
Those are the secretagogues.
And then how do we, in the bodyitself, handle the amount of
(04:27):
insulin that it is making sothat it becomes more sensitive?
And so one of the things thatwe're gonna be talking about
tonight is that exact process.
The body is a very smart system, and your body's job, its
function, is to keep you alive,and so the body will do
everything that it can to keepyou alive and in that space.
(04:48):
So, as we talk about stress, wetalked last week about habits,
emotions, access and taste theemotion component most of those
are stress.
So what's going on in stress?
What happens in stress is thatyour body goes through hormonal
and the physiologic changes.
That gets it ready to handlethe stress.
(05:12):
Let me back up and let me tellyou a story.
So I went on a whitewaterrafting trip.
My son is a big basketball fan,so we went to see the Charlotte
Hornets play the Denver Nuggets, and so we were over there.
We've got this bucket list thatwe're working on, and so,
anyway.
So we went out, and so, whilewe were there, somebody in my
(05:34):
house convinced me that weshould go whitewater rafting as
part of this trip.
So I went whitewater raftingand we sat and we watched the
little video that they showed,the one where they say if you
anything happens, we're notresponsible.
So you watch the video, yousign the piece of paper and you
(05:55):
went and you put on all the lifejackets, life vests, you got
the helmet and all the stuff,and so now we're in the raft,
y'all, and I'm watching thevideo.
I saw the video and I put onthe stuff and I'm sitting in the
raft and I'm thinking to myselfwhat are the chances that I'm
gonna be the one that falls outof the raft?
(06:16):
Oh yeah, never say that toyourself, because, guess what,
you're going to be the one thatfalls out.
So we're there, and so the theraft master, he's back there,
and so we've got I think it wasfour people on one side, four
people on the other side and sowe're going over these rapids
and, as he's calling, you'resupposed to dig in with your oar
(06:39):
.
And so we're going and we'regoing and we get to this one
spot and we go over the rocksand we come down and there's a
little kind of whirlpool rightafter you get over the rocks and
we kind of got stuck.
He's like pull, pull, and sowe're pulling, the rapids are
going, and so we're in thiswhirlpool between a bunch of
(06:59):
rocks.
By the way, the goal is to kindof pull until you get over the
rocks and then, once you getover those, this next set of
rocks, then you get into kind ofa more calm area of this river
that we were on and we tried toget up and we made it a halfway
up and we came back down, and sonow he's okay, guys, we're
going to have to dig in.
(07:19):
And we went and we startedrowing.
The guy on the front where I was, he actually lost his row and
he started to fall out.
And as he started to fall out,our raft kind of tilted to the
side that we're on.
I'm the last one on that sideand as the raft went up, he fell
(07:41):
out and everybody's trying tohelp him and I'm in the back and
the raft is almost on its side,and so I fall out.
Not an issue yet, right?
But then what happened?
They said to grab on to theperimeter rope.
So I grab onto the perimeterrope, except that, remember,
we're still in this area whereit's swirling.
And so I ended up under theraft.
(08:02):
Do you know what's under a raft?
That's in water, no air.
And so in that entire processyou can imagine my heart is
beating and my blood pressureprobably went up and my blood
sugars we're probably going up.
In that instance it made sensefor my blood sugar to go up, it
made sense for my blood pressureto go up.
(08:23):
It made sense for my eyes toconstrict, it made sense for my
body to pump a lot of sugar intome because I needed it, and
that is called the stressresponse.
But when that response isprolonged then it starts to
cause issues for the body.
There are three phases or threestages of stress alarm, then
(08:45):
there's the resistance stage andthen the exhaustion stage.
Now, prior to the resistanceexhaustion, let's talk about the
alarm.
So the alarm phase the nervoussystem is awakened.
So you fall out of the raft.
You are in a car accident,someone, you're walking down the
street and you see someone thatlooks shady up in front of you.
(09:08):
You're at home and you hear anoise.
Automatically the body goesinto alert.
So there's a part of the braincalled the amygdala and the
amygdala says and is that partthat is responsible for our
interpretation, right?
So fear.
And the amygdala says, hey, Isee something, or I hear
(09:32):
something, or I smell something,I smell fire, right.
So the amygdala says, hey,there's something going on.
And it sends a signal to therest of the body.
And it actually sends twosignals it sends a nervous
system signal and it also sendsa hormonal signal, right.
So, nervous system and hormonalsystem, the amygdala.
(09:54):
And in the process of sendingthose signals, then the body
begins looking for and preparingfor that particular issue that
you're seeing.
Right?
So, you'll see, there, as partof the brain, right, that
amygdala and that's there in theback, sends a signal to a part
(10:15):
of the brain called thehypothalamus, and the
hypothalamus is.
Everybody talks about thepituitary as the regulator of
hormones, but the hypothalamusreally is the big boss.
And so hypothalamus says, hey,pituitary, I need you to send a
signal to the adrenal.
And because we need somecortisol those are the stress
hormones cortisol, epinephrine.
And, if you guys remember, oneof my favorite, one of my
(10:39):
favorite shows and one of myfavorite superheroes was the
Incredible Hulk, david Banner.
So he was irradiated and now,whenever he got upset, he turned
into this big, green, powerful,strong quote unquote monster,
as people call them.
What happened to David Bannerwas that his adrenals that part
(11:01):
of the body that produced stresshormones.
Whenever his adrenals beganreleasing hormones, he released
an abnormal amount and abnormalfunctioning hormone and so he
became this great big green guy.
But that's what stress hormonesdo.
Stress hormones are thehormones that come out.
(11:22):
You know, someone gets into acar accident and they've broken
a leg, y'all in the accident, orthey've broken an arm, or
they've been injured in theaccident, and they get out of
the car and they go over andthey help somebody else who was
in the accident as well.
And it's not until they calmdown that they realize oh my God
, my arm hurts.
(11:43):
You know why they were able todo that?
Because of adrenaline, becauseof stress hormones, because
stress hormones have the abilityto give energy to handle
whatever it is.
It is why.
It is why the lion chases thezebra and the lion hungry, but
the zebra gets away.
(12:03):
Why?
Because the zebra's adrenalinehits into or shoots into high
gear and the zebra's adrenalineproduces a bunch of hormones and
the zebra's muscles are nowawake, awakened and the zebra
takes off and the zebra is gone.
So the lion's now hungry.
(12:23):
It's why you hear those storiesof of apparently superhuman
ability.
You know, mom is sitting on astoop in the city and she's
watching as her kid is playing,playing on the sidewalk or on
the street, and somethinghappens and a truck or a car
runs the red light and hops thesidewalk and is heading towards
(12:44):
her child.
And mom has this superhumanstrength and speed and she
dashes over, grabs the kid awayand saves the child from getting
hit by the car.
How was she able to do that?
Because of stress hormone.
They give us that ability tofunction.
So the body senses stress, theamygdala sends a signal to the
(13:05):
hypothalamus.
Hypothalamus says hey, body, Ineed you now to start working,
so I'm going to get you ready.
I'm sending a signal to theadrenal so I need some cortisol,
I need some stress hormones.
And I'm sending a signal to therest of the body.
These are nervous systemresponses and we'll talk about
both those here in a minute.
So that's how the stressresponse works.
(13:25):
And then the body is able toget you through whatever the
stress is, get you away from thedanger, and then what's
supposed to happen is that thedanger, once it's gone, your
body begins to now calm downagain.
That's a normal stress response, y'all.
Okay, that's how it's supposedto work.
(13:46):
And the parts of the body thatdo that, as I've been mentioning
the pituitary, the adrenals youdon't need to know all of that
right now, but we'll come backand talk a little bit more about
those.
So how is the stress responseactivated?
As I said, you have aperception of fear.
You see a lion, you hear anoise in the night, or you see
(14:11):
someone who's dangerous, oryou're at the edge of a cliff
and you look over and you'relike, oh, my goodness right.
So there's the perception thatgets sent to the brain.
The brain sends a response tothe hypothalamus and the
hypothalamus says, hey, I needcortisol, I need stress hormones
.
And hey, sympathetic system.
Hey, I need you to do somethings.
Now let's talk through those.
(14:32):
Well, what happens in thesympathetic system?
Well, your heart rate goes up.
Why does your heart rate go up?
Why does your heart rate go up?
Because your heart rate hasyour body has to now send more
energy throughout the system.
So the heart has to move fasterso that the energy that now is
being produced in the body canflow around to all the muscles,
(14:54):
to your eyes, to your heart, toyour lungs.
So the heart rate has to go up.
Your blood pressure has to goup.
Why does the blood pressurehave to go up?
Because now we've got to forcethe blood to go where it needs
to go Right we're we'reheightening.
The blood pressure has to go up.
Your eyes, right, willconstrict.
Why do eyes constrict?
Because you've got to seefarther now Than where you are,
(15:17):
because I need to get over there, not stay right here.
So all these physiologic thingsare going on in the body to
begin moving us in the direction, and then cortisol goes out.
And cortisol is the thing thatsays, hey, I need to get some
energy right.
And the energy part is whatwe're gonna.
We're gonna spend some timeactually talking through as we
(15:38):
go through, go through thisdiscussion.
All right, all right, thatmakes sense.
So that is the activation ofthe stress response.
So, and then there you knowhere, these physiologic changes.
So release, release adrenaline.
We release cortisol.
Those are the two hormones.
We mobilize glucose yeah,that's the one right there, guys
(15:59):
.
And then we suppressnon-essential functions.
Let's, let's go backwards.
We're gonna start withsuppressing non-essential
function.
Well, what are non-essentialfunctions?
Well, if I'm running from alion, I don't need to digest
food, so the body turns offdigestion.
If I'm running from a lion, Idon't need to Bear children, I
(16:22):
don't need to reproduce, so thebody shuts down the reproductive
system.
The body shuts down spermproduction.
It shuts down Ovulation.
If I'm running from a lion,right, I don't need to remember
that my wife and my kid is athome Waiting for me to come home
for dinner Right, I need to getaway from the line.
I don't need to be thinkingabout them right now.
(16:43):
So the body, the cortisol thatcomes out, decreases memory.
I don't need that.
For my hair to grow on my arms,I don't need for my skin To
grow, I don't need for my nailsto grow, so all of those things
that are not essential, the bodyshuts down.
Now.
That's gonna be important forus here in a minute when we come
back to talk about chronicstress.
(17:04):
Now we're talking about justthe initial.
You know, you see somethingwrong.
You're in the stress responseand the body's dealing with it
and that is great in the shortterm when it becomes a problem
Is in the long term, right, whenit becomes chronic.
Okay, so we shut down all thethings that we don't need right
now.
That's why, when people arestressed, they get ulcers
(17:28):
because the body shuts down ordiverts blood from the GI track,
from the Digestion, becauseright now I don't need to digest
food.
So all the blood that'snormally going into my GI tract
gets shunted to my heart, to mylungs, to my muscles.
And if that's the case, whathappens to the lining of the
stomach if it doesn't haveenough Energy, if it doesn't
(17:52):
have enough Blood?
Well, it breaks down and peopledevelop ulcers.
If I'm stressed, I don't needhair.
So during stress, people losetheir hair, their nails become
brittle, their skin becomes dry,women lose menstrual cycles,
men become a, their sperm countgoes down.
(18:14):
Notice, all of those are notessential during a stressful
time.
In the initial, acute setting,that's great, because I can
utilize that energy forsomething else.
But long term, I want to beable to have hair, I want my
skin to be nice and soft, I Wantto have nice nails, I want to
(18:39):
have children.
But if we're in a stressfulsituation, that doesn't happen.
So so you start to see theconnection and then the question
, and so, once again, these arejust other things that you will
see that go on with blood sugars.
Right, these are other itemsthat you will see.
Well, not blood sugars, butwe're in the stress, in the
stress response, right.
(19:00):
So, on the we talked about theeyes, right, constricting the
pupils of sorry, dilating pupilsdilate because you got to see
far.
Your heart rate goes up, right,your adrenals are producing
hormones.
Your stomach slows because youdon't need to digest anything,
so.
So all of those issues that yousee that a lot of times people
(19:25):
will have when they're in, whenthey're, when they're stressed,
are a natural consequence, andit is the body trying to protect
itself and conserve the energythat it needs.
So what are some metabolicchanges that are caused by
stress, and this is where we'regonna spend some time.
So, number one when cortisolcomes out, cortisol's job is to
(19:49):
find energy in the body.
That's, that's the job, that'sthe function of cortisol.
It says it goes into the bodyand it says, hey, I need to get
more energy.
And so it starts to break downthe glycogen that's in your
liver so it can use it for sugar.
So blood sugar goes up.
(20:09):
So why does blood sugarinitially go up?
Because your body needs moreenergy.
You're getting ready to run,you saw something, you heard
something, something that'sscary.
And the body saying, hey, youknow, to deal with this I've got
to get energy.
So it goes into, finds energyand it raises your blood sugar.
Cortisol, when it comes out,suppresses insulin.
(20:30):
Because what's insulin's job?
Insulin's job is to decreaseblood sugar.
Well, if I am running, I don'twant my blood sugar to go down.
I want to keep my blood sugaras high as possible so I can
access all of the sugar that'savailable to me.
So not only does the body thecortisol, the stress response
(20:52):
say hey, let me find some sugar,raise the blood sugar.
Now Let me suppress the insulinso my blood sugar doesn't go
down, right?
So two birds right there.
And then I think I'm gonna needmore energy.
So now let me go find someadditional energy.
So it starts breaking down thefat cells.
(21:12):
Now everybody thinks thatthat's a good thing.
But no, it's not a good thing,right?
Not in the long term.
So it takes the fat cells.
It breaks them down into whatare called glycerol and Free
fatty acids, the glycerol.
Glycerol gets converted tosugar.
(21:33):
So once again, that's the thirdplace where sugar goes up.
So first we break down glycogen,then we suppress the insulin.
Now we're breaking down fat andwe're making sugar from the fat
.
And if I'm I got these twocomponents right, I got the free
fatty acids and I've got theglycerol.
Where do you think the freefatty acids go?
(21:54):
So now we've got fatty acidsfloating around the blood Right
now they can cause damage.
And then the body says, maybe Ineed more energy.
So now it starts to break downproteins and those proteins and
those proteins become aminoacids.
Those amino acids cause us toproduce more sugar.
So I want you to watch thatprogression.
(22:17):
We found sugar Right, breakingdown the glycogen.
Then we suppressed the insulinso that the sugar doesn't go
down.
Then we broke down fat andcreated Some glucose.
And then we broke down proteinand created some glucose.
So at every stage, right there,the body's job is to find energy
(22:39):
to keep you going.
Now that's wonderful, andwhat's supposed to happen is
when the, when the acute issuegoes away, when you get away
from the lion, when you are outof the car accident, when the
intruder is no longer there,your body is supposed to now
(23:01):
calm down the stress.
Hormones go down, your heartrate goes down Right, your eyes
constrict again, your lungs are,you're not breathing as fast
when the cortisol goes down.
The cortisol stops breakingdown protein.
The blood sugar goes down.
(23:21):
It stops breaking down fat.
Blood sugar goes down.
It makes the insulin that yourbody produces more sensitive, so
the blood sugar goes down.
And it stops breaking downglycogen, so the blood sugar
goes down.
Now here's the kicker.
Y'all you want to hear it?
You ready for it?
The kicker is this that thebody responds to a real threat
(23:49):
in the same way as it respondsto a perceived.
Let me say that again, the bodyresponds to a real threat if
there's actually a lion sittingstanding running in front of you
.
If you're in a car accident andyou break an arm, break a leg,
you have an injury.
If an intruder comes into yourhouse, an actual person there
(24:14):
with you, your body will gothrough the response, the stress
response.
But it responds the same way.
If you convince yourself thatthe fact that you didn't study
for that exam means the end ofthe world, the body responds the
(24:34):
same way.
You have an argument with yourhusband, your wife, your brother
, your sister, right, aco-worker.
You go into work every morningand you dread going in.
The body responds the same wayas if it's so a lion.
The same exact physiologicprocesses go on.
The same neurologic processesgo on.
(24:57):
That's why people say man, Iwas so nervous that my stomach
started churning.
I had a lady who, um, she hadone of these monitors that I
have.
Well, actually she didn't havea monitor first, but her blood
sugars were high and we put amonitor on her and every morning
we'd see a big spike.
(25:17):
I forgot what time it was, butit wasn't the dawn phenomenon
spike, it was like later in themorning.
And so she comes in and we sawthe spike, saw the spike.
And one day I said to her Isaid what happens at 10 o'clock,
and I'm just using 10 o'clock,it wasn't 10 o'clock, I can't
remember the exact time.
I said what happens at 10o'clock and she says, oh, joe
(25:40):
comes in and I'm just using Joe,it's not the real person, right
?
So her and Joe were so, um, shedidn't like working with Joe
Whenever Joe came in.
It was stressful for her.
And just right before thiscoworker of hers came in, where
she had to spend the entire daywith them, we saw the blood
(26:02):
sugars rise and they stayedthere until she left work.
The power of stress.
So the body responds in exactlythe same way, whether it's a,
whether it's a perceived stress,perceived danger, or whether
it's a real danger.
And the issue is that we spendso much of our time in perceived
(26:24):
stress We've convincedourselves that this particular
thing is a danger, is astressful event, and because we
always have this tonic level ofstress, then the blood sugars
are a little higher.
And if the blood sugars arehigher, y'all guess what has to
happen.
So we talked about the acutephase.
(26:46):
Right, the acute phase is yousee, you see some stressor, your
body responds, produces sugar.
You, you know, run away fromthe line.
You get away from the line andgood, and everything kind of
comes back down.
Well, what happens if you'realways there and now adapts to
that, and so the blood sugarsare a little higher than they
should be, your insulin doesn'twork as well as it should.
(27:10):
You're breaking down these fatcells and you're creating sugar
and free fatty acids.
And now your cholesterol goesup.
And what do you think happensto the free fatty acids?
They go into the liver, theybecome non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease.
And if you're stressed, theblood sugars get the high rise
(27:31):
higher and higher and theinsulin is less able to manage
it.
So you develop diabetes becausethere's this constant tonic
stress.
Oh, and man, wait a minute, Ididn't talk about one of the
things after you recover fromstress, right?
So you saw a lion, you ran fromthe lion, you got away from the
(27:51):
lion, right?
A cute event In that process.
Right after you got away fromthe lion, what does your body do
?
The body says, hey, I just usedup a lot of energy, so I have
to now go replenish the energy.
And how does it replenish theenergy?
It makes you eat.
That's why, a lot of times,people go through a stressful
(28:14):
event, stressful time, and theyeat because the body is trying
to replenish the energy that itthinks they burned during the
event.
Well, if you're always there,you're always in the stressful
event, always producing cortisol, always producing epinephrine,
(28:39):
then you are always hungry.
You guys see that progression.
So our goal, then, our goal isto manage stress.
Notice, I say not eliminate,because we can't always
eliminate stress.
Now, if you have a job that youdon't like, you can leave the
(29:01):
job, great, but not everybodycan do that.
We cannot change the event, wecannot change the stressful
situation, but we could changeour response to it.
And notice, I said, the bodyresponds to real threats and
perceived threats in the sameway.
(29:21):
And when I come back, we'regoing to talk about how we
manage that here in just aminute.
Let's see who we got out there.
So Key says wow, that is deep.
Yeah, key, this is.
This stuff.
Right here is we don't talkmuch about this response as it
(29:46):
comes to diabetes.
You kind of do a cursory pay,you know, manage your stress,
get some sleep and so forth.
But to really understand whatit is we do to ourselves in the
stressful event, in thestressful times, that's a whole
nother conversation.
(30:07):
Teresa says that explainseverything.
Doctor, oh, my goodness, oh,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, teresa,
isn't it amazing?
Yeah, I, I Now, so let's, letme, let me jump in here and let
me add right, let me make aconnection.
You guys remember we talkedabout the H E a T, right, h E a
(30:31):
T that we did last week, andthat is our acronym for the true
, the categories of triggersthat push us to eat beyond
hunger.
Right, remember, we eat becauseof habits, we eat because of
emotions, we eat because ofaccess and we eat because of
(30:52):
taste.
Yeah, so in that E the emotions, there are so many things that
that we're going to have to comeback and do like shows about
some of that stuff, right so so.
Emotions, right so so.
Any so, not just your.
Oh, I'm feeling sad.
(31:13):
I mean sad, happy, glad, sad,happy, glad, mad, anxious,
disappointed, tired, and we cango on and on, and on, and on,
and on and on and on, and everylittle bit adds up.
So our goal is how do we dealwith as many of these as
(31:37):
possible, because if we can dothat, that's one less place
where our blood sugars rise andwe're going to come back and
we're going to talk about whatthat means.
Okay, all right.
And Tatiana, hey, tatiana,welcome, I'm glad that you are
here hanging out with us.
I saw you were on a showrecently.
(32:00):
I haven't watched it yet, but,yay, Okay, I'm going to get out
there and watch it.
Guys, if you've not watchedTatiana, she is amazing.
She was on our show a littleover a year ago and thank you
for coming through and hangingout with us.
And so, talking about shows,there is one that I do want to,
(32:22):
I do want to plug.
This past weekend, or this pastFriday, I was on a, um, I was
on a show that I want to say toyou.
If you've not seen, if you'venot watched, I do want you to go
over and support them.
And it is uh, let's see how doI do that.
(32:45):
Okay, here it is.
It is a show, it is round tableand it is with uh three amazing
uh pastors who are actuallypastoring, um and and uh, I was
on there with Dr ColumbusBatiste, who is a cardiologist,
(33:06):
and we were talking about, uh,this is black history month, of
course, and so we were talkingabout the effect of um, the
heritage of African Americans,uh, the effect of that on their
health.
Right, if you?
If you know, uh, the history ofAfrican Americans during the
(33:28):
time of slavery, the foods thatthey were given, the foods that
were eaten, the recipes thatwere created, the ways of uh
preparing food and eating, werea direct results, or direct
result of the things that uhthey were given and the
conditions that they foundthemselves in.
And so today, as we eat, it isa um, it is a history that has
(33:54):
been passed down in terms offlavors and the types of foods
and, as we've been talking about, food has such an amazing
ability to heal, but it also hasan amazing and detrimental
ability to cause disease.
And so Dr Columbus Batiste andI were guests on the show with
these amazing uh gentlemen, aswe talked about, um, the, the
(34:19):
effect of food, um, the effectof slave food on the culture and
on the um, on the way we eatand on diseases.
So, please go over there, uh,support them.
Um, like the show, share itwith your family, with your
friends.
Um, it was an amazingconversation.
Uh, we were hoping to get backwith them and do some additional
(34:41):
things, but right now, I wantyou, as our, as our viewers, as
our community, uh to support, uh, support what they're doing.
Uh, and then, of course, I wason the show and when you, if you
go over there, when you go overthere I'm not going to say, if
I want you to put hashtag DwainWoode MD, so they know that you
are one of our um, one of ourcommunity members, um, that
(35:03):
you've coming up, you're comingover and that you are supporting
them.
Okay, and so that was Friday,uh, the black history, and um,
uh, so black history, uh, monthis, uh, the series that they're
doing and uh, like I said, itwas an amazing conversation that
we had over there.
Thank you, all right, um, allright, so let's talk a little
(35:25):
bit.
Uh, let's hop back over.
I remember, guys, if you havequestions, I can touch you and
this is a whole of my pleasure.
Uh, if you do have questions,go ahead and pop those in the
chat.
Uh, let us know, uh, thatyou're there.
Put a Q in front of thequestion and we will uh be sure
to get to those.
If you're watching this on thereplay right now, put hashtag
replay and, of course, I wantyou to make sure that you are
(35:49):
sharing with your family andfriends what we're doing on the
channel.
All right, so so let's, let's,let's bring it home, let's bring
it home.
Let me back up, let me recap.
Our goal is to reverse diabetes.
We're talking specificallyadults with type two diabetes,
adults with type two diabetes.
(36:09):
We want to reverse it.
We want to decrease the amountof medication that you're taking
.
We want to help to make youhealthier.
If you are here and you'rewatching and you say, wait a
minute, I'm not diabetic, sothis doesn't apply to me, I hold
it, don't, don't, don't go awayyet, because the things that we
talk about for our diabeticswe're talking about decreasing
(36:30):
insulin, the issues that we havewith high blood pressure, with
weight issues, polycysticovarian syndrome, metabolic
syndrome, high blood pressure,high cholesterol, non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease, people whoare at risk for coronary artery
disease, people who are at riskfor strokes.
(36:51):
All of that ties into insulin.
That's why I keep saying thenumbers 462 million people
around the world with diabetes.
That's just y'all the peoplewith diabetes.
We're not talking about thepeople with pre-diabetes or the
people who are obese or thepeople who have polycystic
(37:14):
ovarian syndrome.
If we can decrease our insulin,then all of those diseases get
better.
So while we're talking to thediabetic, specifically because
we're reversing, don't negatewhat we're discussing, because
it has direct application to youas well.
Okay, all right, so what do wedo?
(37:36):
What do we do?
What do we do y'all?
What do we do?
You can't change the situationthat you're in.
Sometimes, like if you got ajob and it is the place where
you make your living and you'resupporting your family, you
can't walk in tomorrow.
I mean, I suppose you could,but very few of us will be able
(37:59):
to walk in tomorrow and say youknow what?
You guys are stressing me out,so I'm gone.
If you're in a relationshipthat's causing stress, sometimes
it's difficult to leave therelationship.
You have a child.
You have a mom or a dad who isill or not doing the things that
you think they should be doing.
(38:19):
That causes stress.
You can't just all of a suddenjust disappear from the child.
I suppose you could.
You shouldn't.
But how do we respond to thosethings?
I'm sure you know someone whoseems like man.
Nothing ever bothers them Like.
(38:41):
They seem to have it alltogether.
The question is how can we havetwo people that find themselves
in the same situation and oneresponds with significant stress
and the other one does not?
(39:01):
And the reason that can happenis it because it's all in our
personalities and in how we havebeen raised and taught and how
we experience the world?
I want to say that again.
There are some of us who have anatural personality that is
(39:27):
more anxious than others.
It is a given fact, right?
You tend to be a little bitmore anxious than someone else.
That's not a problem.
It is just your bent.
That is how you are.
So don't let anybody convinceyou that because you are a
little bit more anxious thanother people, that there's
something wrong with you.
That's just how you are Now.
(39:48):
What you do with that is adifferent story, right.
So that's one.
And then a lot of us werebrought up in situations where
we were never taught to managestress and handle stress.
We were never taught copingmechanisms.
We were never taught ways toevaluate and to make decisions.
We were never taught how toevaluate problems and come up
(40:12):
with solutions.
So when we find ourselves in astressful situation, it's like
we're shooting in the air.
Right, everything is a guessgame and guessing causes people
to be anxious.
Right, it's kind of like inmarketing and in sales.
They say a confused mind doesnot purchase.
Think about it.
(40:33):
You go into the store, right,and you know you want a
particular thing.
And you get in there and theyhave like three different ones
that you don't know how toevaluate them.
What do you do?
A lot of times, most of uswouldn't buy anything.
We say, okay, I'll decide thatlater, and they leave.
Same thing.
When we find ourselves instressful situations, if we
don't have a mechanism for howwe manage stress, how we solve
(40:58):
issues, how we solve problems,we don't have a way to evaluate,
then we are confused and itbecomes stressful.
So a lot of us were nevertaught, we never learned the
mechanisms that we needed tobegin coping, and then a lot of
us don't have a place notnecessarily to evaluate and
(41:22):
learn to cope, but we don't havea place to release the stress.
We're always going, we'realways on the grind, we're
always running, and if you findyourself always doing that, then
that itself causes stress.
So let's back up and let's gothrough those again.
(41:43):
So, number one if you findyourself in a situation where
you are stressed and you say,okay, this is just how I am, I'm
just a naturally anxious person, then the question that you've
got to ask is what do you haveto put in place?
(42:05):
What do you have to put inplace to begin releasing some of
that stress?
It is how you are, it is yourbent, it is your personality.
But is there a way to mitigate?
Is there a way to allowyourself to process things in a
way that it does not addadditional stress?
(42:29):
Because once again, once youhad the stress, guess what
happens?
Cortisol comes out andcortisol's job is to raise those
blood sugars.
And if we raise the blood sugar, the body has to produce
insulin to bring that bloodsugar down, right?
So how do I mitigate?
What do I need to do so I don'tadd additional stress?
(42:51):
If you find yourself alwaysstressed whenever some issue
comes up, a interpersonalrelationship issue, something on
the job you've got to make adecision about a house that
you're buying, or a shirt thatyou want to buy, or a book that
you want to read, or a classthat you're in, hey, it sounds
like you don't have a structure,a form, a way to make decisions
(43:12):
and evaluate where you are andcome up with solutions.
So now, this is okay.
Where do I go to learn how tomanage, how to organize, how to
problem solve?
Notice the distinction betweenthose two.
One, hey, what do I need to doso I don't add additional stress
(43:35):
?
What do I need to do to becomemore organized, so I have a
structure in how to manage anddeal with and come up with
solutions?
And then if you find yourself,hey, I'm not an anxious person
and I do have a way of coming upwith solutions.
I'm very methodical, I have theability to look and come up
(43:56):
with a solution, but I stillfind myself stressed.
What do you have in place torelease the stress?
Do you meditate, do you journal, do you exercise, do you do
yoga?
What are you doing to mitigate,to release?
Because if you don't release.
Well, guess what?
It's all building up and it'sall growing.
And because we're in that tonicblood sugar's, a higher blood
(44:19):
sugar's, a higher insulin ishigher insulin comes out and
insulin causes all the issuesthat we just discussed.
This is Dr Dwain Woode, that'sWood Within E the E stands for
endocrinology.
Here on the channel, I educate,I empower and I encourage you
to take charge of your health,take charge of your life, avoid
complications and go to the nextlevel, creating the life you
(44:39):
always wanted.
And for this year, y'all, newyear, new year
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