New diabetes cases linked to COVID-19 - Seattle Times

[mzmolly]

Although COVID-19 often attacks the lungs, it is increasingly associated with a range of problems including blood clots, neurological disorders, and kidney and heart damage. Researchers say new-onset diabetes may soon be added to those complications — both Type 1, in which people cannot make the insulin needed to regulate their blood sugar, and Type 2, in which they make too little insulin or become resistant to their insulin, causing their blood sugar levels to rise. But scientists do not know whether COVID-19 might hasten already developing problems or actually cause them — or both.

More at - SEATTLE TIMES

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. Fuck already got diabeties

And covid could make it worse..ugh.

I hope as many people as possible get spared covid diabeties.

Diabeties suuuucccks.

[mzmolly]

4. Yes it does.

I don't have it personally, but a loved one is T1 and gets high sugars when sick generally. High blood sugar also lowers immune response, so it's a double whammy, as you said.

[abqtommy]

2. I've already seen a thread concerning this today. One reply was that the steroids given

to covid patients to battle lung problems causes blood sugar levels to spike.

see https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215038573

[mzmolly]

3. Thanks!

I'm sorry I missed the original.

It appears as though sugars returned to normal for some, and others developed 'full blown' diabetes.

[Ms. Toad]

6. That is true with all steroid-induced diabetes. n/t

[mzmolly]

8. I may also be an immune

response to the virus, from what I gather.

[Ms. Toad]

9. I haven't seen anything refined enough to suggest that.

They discuss steroids used to treat the lungs, and that is a very common cause of temporary or permanent diabetes. What I haven't seen is any express mention of people with COVID alone (without being treated with steroids) acquiring diabetes. Not saying it isn't there - but the articles I've seen are too sloppy to tell.

[mzmolly]

11. I've understood viral infections to be commonly associated with childhood onset.

My family member was told that a measles infection was the likely precursor to his T1 diagnosis as a young teen. (He was fully vaccinated but it did not prevent his case, sadly.)

As you said, there is ongoing debate about the underlying mechanisms:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2570378/#:~:text=The%20prime%20viral%20candidates%20for,type%201%20diabetes%20(12).

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200903/can-covid-19-cause-diabetes#1

Regardless, it's worth consideration that steroids might also contribute.

Thanks for sharing.

[Ms. Toad]

5. My guess is that this is related to the use of steroids to treat COVID 19.

The article references this, then adds the non-sequitur, "But cases also have occurred in patients with no known risk factors or prior health concerns. "

Steroid induced diabetes is not tied to "known risk factors or prior health concerns). So it is not inconsistent for people without known risk factors to take dexamethasone and develop diabetes, even without COVID.

Steroid-induced diabetes mellitus is defined as an abnormal increase in blood glucose associated with the use of glucocorticoids in a patient with or without a prior history of diabetes mellitus. The criteria for diagnosing diabetes by the American Diabetes Association [2] is an 8 h fasting blood glucose ? 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dL), 2 h post 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) ? 11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL), HbA1c ? 6.5% or in patients with symptoms of hyperglycemic, a random plasma glucose of ? 11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4112077/

I do have diabetes - BUT - my blood glucouse doubles when I have any form of steroids (Medrol-pac, locak injection, etc.) The impact is simlar for many people without diabetes. Sometimes they return to normal afterwards, sometimes not. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/steroid-induced-diabetes.html#:~:text=Is%20steroid%20induced%20diabetes%20permanent,to%20be%20managed%20for%20life.

What the article doesn't do is to sort out whether the people who developed diabetes all took steroids (or some other treatment) - which would suggest it is the treatment, or whether the occurrence cold nto be tied to anything in particular.

[moonscape]

10. But the article mentioned inducing T1 which of course

is autoimmune and different from T2, so there's something else going on here I think.

[mzmolly]

12. I tend to

agree.

[Demsrule86]

7. My sister's best friend in her early 60's...older than us had kidney failure went on dialysis.

She can't walk now and just went back from the rehab center to the hospital where she lost half her bladder because of a blood clot. Covid is a terrible disease.