June 20, 2025

Can Pain Raise Blood Sugar: What You Can Do About It

Managing high sugar levels is painful as it is, but unexplained spikes are more frustrating. If you’re eating well and taking medications, it might be pain. Many CGM users wonder, “Can Pain Raise Blood Sugar?” and the answer is very simple with yes. This can occur through stress-induced hormonal shifts, even without food intake. But typical doses of over-the-counter painkillers can help, and they are unlikely to impact glucose directly; the pain itself absolutely can.
In this article, we’ll explain exactly how the body responds to pain, how acute and chronic pain affect your numbers, why symptoms like a sunburn or injury matter, and how to better stabilise your glucose, including options like EZ DME’s diabetic supplies to help you stay on track.

Why Does Pain Increase Blood Sugar?

Pain initiates a systemic stress response that disrupts glucose balance in the human body. These include cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and inflammatory cytokines like IL-6 and TNF-α. This “response” is adaptive in emergencies, but for people with diabetes or prediabetes, it creates metabolic imbalances. So, does your sugar go up when you’re in pain? Yes, according to clinical evidence. These same pathways can be triggered by localised injuries like sunburns.

How Stress Hormones Link Pain to Blood Sugar Spikes

Acute and chronic pain increase cortisol levels
The cortisol hormone increases gluconeogenesis and decreases insulin sensitivity.
Sudden pain triggers the release of epinephrine, which rapidly stimulates glycogen breakdown.
Norepinephrine, also released during pain, reduces glucose tolerance and constricts blood vessels.
Inflammatory pain raises IL-6 and TNF-α levels. Both of these suppress insulin production and place additional stress on pancreatic β-cells.

Can Acute Pain Raise Your Blood Glucose Levels?

Yes, acute pain does raise blood sugar, and the effect is both immediate and clinically proven. After an injury, surgery, or internal inflammation, the body feels and responds by releasing stress hormones. Therefore, people with diabetes get higher blood sugar on an empty stomach due to pain.

Pain from an injury affects blood sugar because the body shifts into a survival mode. The blood sugar rises to supply energy to vital organs, which is concerning for people with diabetes, who already have impaired insulin response.

Common Acute Pain Sites in People With Diabetes

Body Area	Reported in Diabetic Patients
Lower limb pain	11.1%
Back pain	8.9%
Abdominal pain	6.7%
Neck pain	4.4%

Experts Tip!

To counter this, doctors recommend managing pain early with appropriate support can reduce glucose spikes. For surgical recovery or orthopaedic pain, EZDME Solutions offers products like FreeStyle Libre 2 Plus. For back pain, you can buy a Lumbar-Sacral Orthosis Back Brace. Go to the EZDME Solutions for exploring Post-Surgical Compression Garments to relieve pain.

Can Chronic Pain Raise Blood Sugar?

Yes, chronic pain can raise blood sugar, and it’s more dangerous for people with diabetes than acute one. It happens the same way as acute, but it further reduces how well insulin works. It’s common in chronic conditions like arthritis and neuropathy, where inflammation blocks insulin function. This explains why many people notice their glucose is high in the morning. This common issue is called the “dawn phenomenon,” and it gets worse with pain.

Common Pain Conditions That Affect Glucose

Condition	Effect on Blood Sugar
Diabetic neuropathy	Nerve pain increases stress and inflammation.
Sciatica	Nerve compression worsens spikes
Osteoarthritis	Inflammatory pain worsens insulin resistance
Post-surgical pain	Recovery stress increases glucose
Rheumatoid arthritis	Long-term inflammation raises fasting and daily levels

These conditions can cause frequent first-meal spikes in type 1 diabetes, even without major diet changes.

Note!

Chronic pain can lead to diabetes! Research shows that people with chronic pain have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If their lifestyle includes pain and poor sleep, it can happen early. What you can do is track patterns with a CGM and act early. Visit EZDME Solutions to see CGM options and find out if your insurance covers them.

Do Pain Medicines Cause Elevated Blood Sugar?

Yes! Pain and blood sugar influence each other in complex ways. High sugar levels alone cause headaches and nerve pain, and topping that off with chronic or acute pain can activate stress hormones and worsen the condition, like diabetic swelling feet. Now the question is whether taking painkillers will help or not. Let’s find out in the next:

NSAIDs: Do Anti-Inflammatories Affect Blood Sugar?

NSAIDs stand for Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and the most commonly used types are Ibuprofen and naproxen. So, does ibuprofen raise blood sugar? With standard doses, no. Using ibuprofen as a painkiller is considered glucose-neutral. Sometimes, it slightly lowers blood sugar, but high doses still carry risks, like hypoglycemia, kidney strain, and higher blood pressure.

Tylenol and CGM Interference

Does Tylenol raise blood sugar? Not physiologically, but your CGM device might say otherwise. That’s because Tylenol’s active ingredient, acetaminophen, interferes with older continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). These devices falsely report elevated glucose when it’s not the case. Always use newer CGMs, like Dexcom G7 or FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus, to avoid this error.

Prescription Pain Medications and Glucose Impact

Some prescription drugs used for chronic or neuropathic pain can significantly influence glucose:

Salsalate: A prescription anti-inflammatory lowers blood glucose, but it’s not yet FDA-approved for diabetes.
Duloxetine: It is commonly prescribed for diabetic nerve pain and has been shown to raise blood sugar levels with ongoing use.
Pregabalin: Avoid this as it can cause fluid retention and hypertension.
Tramadol: It’s a form of an opioid that is linked to hypoglycemia. Do not use it in combination with other glucose-lowering therapies.

Monitoring Matters More Than Ever!

To answer whether pain medicines cause elevated blood sugar, we would say some do, others don’t. But they do affect readings! Never rely on outdated monitors, as they cause errors in dosing and signs. If you’re using pain relievers regularly, particularly ibuprofen or Tylenol, always track blood sugar with a CGM that won’t be distorted by these substances. New CGMs like Libre 3 Plus or Dexcom G7 from EZDME Solutions filter out drug errors and detect pain-related glucose shifts better than older models.

Comparing Blood Sugar Patterns in Acute and Chronic Pain Conditions

Research shows that acute pain raises blood sugar for a few hours, whereas chronic pain causes sustained metabolic disruption. Here’s a breakdown of estimated blood glucose increases by pain type:

Pain Type	Timeline	CGM Blood Sugar Pattern	Average Glucose Increase
Acute Pain	Minutes to Hours	High blood sugar that resolves once the pain episode is done	30-50 mg/dL
Chronic Pain	Weeks to Years	High elevation, with dawn effect	A1c elevated by 0.5%-1.0%
Severe Pain	Ongoing and intense	Persistent elevation, frequently 20-40 mg/dL above baseline	20 to 40 mg/dL

Different Effects of Pain in Men and Women

Pain and stress affect blood sugar, but not equally across sexes. Hormones and body composition differ between men and women. So, when asking, can pain and stress raise blood sugar? The answer depends partly on gender. Here’s a table for quick gender differences and bodily responses towards stress:

Factor	Men	Women
Muscle Mass	Higher improves glucose clearance	Lower; contributes to post-meal spikes
Glucose Impairment Type	Fasting glucose (IFG) is more common	More prone to glucose intolerance (IGT)
Stress Hormone Response	Short-term spikes (fight-or-flight)	Stronger, longer cortisol elevations
Pain Sensitivity	Less sensitive to chronic pain	Higher pain sensitivity and emotional reactivity
Cardiovascular Risk with Diabetes	High	Higher stroke and heart disease risk

Quick Comparison: Pain, Stress, and Glucose Patterns

Trigger	Effect on Blood Sugar	Stronger In
Chronic stress or emotional pain	Sustained rise in fasting glucose	Women
Acute injury or physical pain	Temporary spike (30–50 mg/dL) for 1–2 hours	Men
Sleep loss	Increased insulin resistance	Women

Steps to Take When Pain Causes Your Blood Sugar to Rise

Managing pain-induced blood sugar surges requires a targeted, multidisciplinary approach. Luckily, in 2025, it’s easy as you get the latest CGMs and prescription medications:

Step	What to Do
Use a CGM	Monitor patterns in real time and link spikes to pain episodes. (Access CGM Monitors and DME)
Track pain scores	Log daily pain alongside glucose data to identify cause-and-effect patterns.
Check medications	Ask your doctor if any pain relievers are altering glucose levels.
Hydrate regularly	Dehydration can heighten blood sugar and worsen pain perception.
Improve sleep hygiene	Disrupted sleep intensifies pain and contributes to insulin resistance.
Exercise gently	Physician-approved physical activity clears glucose from circulation.
Eat anti-inflammatory foods	Omega-3s, leafy greens, and turmeric
Adjust insulin (if applicable)	For insulin users, pre-bolusing before pain-inducing activities helps.
Try mind–body strategies	Psychological techniques like CBT reduce stress

Ask about coverage!

Many CGM monitors and supportive devices like braces (knee, hip, waist) qualify as durable medical equipment (DME) under insurance. EZDME Solutions can help.

Conclusion: Managing Pain to Control Blood Sugar

Although Pain increases sugar, and sugar gives pain, you can control both with monitoring tools and orthopedic braces. Individuals with diabetes deal with inflammation, disrupted sleep, and altered medication responses; therefore right tools and medication are needed. Now that you know the answer to “can pain raise blood sugar?”, always monitor your sugar throughout the day (and night) with CGM monitors. You don’t have to leave your house, just order CGM monitors online at EZDME Solutions and they’ll be delivered to your door! Don’t guess, track, verify, and treat with confidence. Your health deserves more than assumptions.

References

Tags:

Can Pain Raise Blood Sugar: What You Can Do About It

Why Does Pain Increase Blood Sugar?

How Stress Hormones Link Pain to Blood Sugar Spikes

Can Acute Pain Raise Your Blood Glucose Levels?