{"id":53291,"date":"2021-03-04T06:28:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T11:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=53291"},"modified":"2021-03-03T08:29:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T13:29:36","slug":"how-covid-19-may-cause-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=53291","title":{"rendered":"How COVID-19 May Cause Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For months now, we\u2019ve been reporting on one of the weirdest emerging stories of the coronavirus era: the increasingly apparent fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/yes-covid-19-causes-diabetes\/\"><em>COVID-19 causes diabetes<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>How and why does it happen? It\u2019s still something of a mystery, but experts have a few different potential explanations that they are studying and debating. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/unraveling-the-complex-link-between-covid-and-diabetes\/\">new article<\/a> in <em>Scientific American<\/em> is the best summary we\u2019ve seen of the topic.<\/p>\n<p>ASweetLife may well have been the first media source anywhere to break the story that COVID-19 actually causes diabetes. Way back in May of 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/is-covid-19-causing-diabetes\/\">we noticed<\/a> that a \u201cset of practical recommendations\u201d published by the British medical journal <em>The Lancet<\/em> included a warning that doctors should be on the lookout for \u201cnew onset diabetes.\u201d We found other scattered reports suggesting that the virus could cause persistent and apparently chronic hyperglycemia. We also learned that the SARS pandemic of 2003, also caused by a coronavirus, had a similar effect on some patients.<\/p>\n<p>One of the others of the original <em>Lancet<\/em> guidance was Dr. Francesco Rubino of King\u2019s College, London. Dr. Rubino went on to spearhead the study of this worrying phenomenon by founding the international <a href=\"http:\/\/covidiab.e-dendrite.com\/\">CoviDiab Registry<\/a>, a way for doctors across the globe to quickly pool data on patients that have appeared to develop diabetes as a consequence of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p><em>Scientific<\/em> <em>American<\/em>\u2019s article is titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/unraveling-the-complex-link-between-covid-and-diabetes\/\">Unraveling the Complex Link Between COVID and Diabetes<\/a>.\u201d The piece includes quotes from Dr. Rubino, and other experts, and covers the possible reasons that COVID-19 might cause (or appear to cause) diabetes. Here\u2019s a quick rundown:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The coronavirus may attack the beta cells directly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This has been the primary explanation from the beginning. The coronavirus is known to attack the body by \u201chijacking\u201d ACE2, a receptor that is thought to be found in large numbers in the pancreas and on the beta cells themselves. If this results in direct harm to beta cells, the obvious result is a decreased ability to produce insulin, a defining characteristic of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n<p>The only problem? Recent studies have indicated that ACE2 may not actually be much present on beta cells. Oops.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The coronavirus may attack the beta cells\u2019 support system, or other organs important in blood sugar regulation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While the coronavirus may not be able to find purchase on the beta cells themselves, there is better evidence that it can attack other parts of the pancreas. Perhaps, by attacking the cells that nourish the beta cells, the virus greatly inhibits insulin production.<\/p>\n<p>Other organs, such as the intestine and liver, also play big roles in regulating blood sugar levels, and do host large numbers of ACE2 receptors. Maybe the coronavirus can trigger diabetes by attacking these other parts of the body.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Extreme stress and inflammation may cause blood sugar levels to skyrocket.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Severe illness has long been known to cause hyperglycemia in patients without a history of diabetes, a complex result of inflammation and many other stresses endured while the body is under siege. The effect can even be permanent. It is possible that COVID-19 happens to have this same effect, but to a more severe degree than has ever previously been observed.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>COVID-19 treatments may cause blood sugar levels to skyrocket.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anti-inflammatory steroids, commonly prescribed to COVID-19 patients, can increase insulin resistance.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maybe most \u201cnew\u201d cases of diabetes aren\u2019t new at all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are millions of patients with undiagnosed diabetes\u2014how many of them have been discovered while at the hospital with COVID-19?<\/p>\n<p>As you can tell, it\u2019s still something of a mystery. It could be that all five of these things are happening, to greater or lesser degrees, at the same time. Meanwhile, some patients have developed the characteristics reminiscent of Type 1 diabetes, others of Type 2, and others of atypical or uncategorizable diabetes. And nobody can yet know how long-lasting the effects will be.<\/p>\n<p>The race to understand what\u2019s happening here is an important one. New onset diabetes at first may have seemed like a rare and esoteric complication, but it looks more and more like it\u2019s happening at a jaw-droppingly large scale. \u00a0A November\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/dom.14269\">study<\/a>\u00a0published in the journal\u00a0<em>Diabetes, Obesity &amp; Metabolism<\/em>\u00a0showed that\u00a0<strong>14.4%<\/strong>\u00a0of hospitalized COVID-19 patients were newly diagnosed with diabetes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":53304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1542],"tags":[10062],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How COVID-19 May Cause Diabetes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For months now, we\u2019ve been reporting on one of the weirdest emerging stories of the coronavirus era: the increasingly apparent fact that COVID-19 causes diabetes. 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Before moving East, Ross was a veteran of the Bay Area restaurant and artisanal food scenes; he has also worked as a food safety consultant. As executive chef of Belcampo Meat Co., Ross helped launch the bone broth craze. Since his diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2017, he has focused on exploring the potential of naturally low-carb cooking. Follow Ross on Twitter: @RossWollen\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/RossWollen\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=437\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How COVID-19 May Cause Diabetes","description":"For months now, we\u2019ve been reporting on one of the weirdest emerging stories of the coronavirus era: the increasingly apparent fact that COVID-19 causes diabetes. 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