The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to new approaches in the prevention and treatment of diabetes, targeting the wide number of biological changes that take place as a result of the disease, Medical Xpress reports. 
 

For the study, scientists at University College London and the University of Zurich compared hundreds of adults with Type 2 diabetes with a similar number of health individuals and found that those with the metabolic disorder were less able to bring their blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol levels back to normal after a stressful test.
 

The participants with Type 2 diabetes also had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood, alongside higher levels of a protein involved in the immune response.
 

That combination of factors could lead to increased strain on the body as it tries to maintain a stable internal environment, the researchers said.
 

"Our study is the first to link psychological stress with the underlying biology, and show that there is a difference in the biological response to stress of people who have diabetes and those who don't," said lead researcher Andrew Steptoe, director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care at UCL. "Exploring exactly how stress affects the body at this level is a step towards identifying better ways of managing people's risk of diabetes."