COVID Blasts Diabetics

[+ Lucky]

The NY Times reports that 30% of COVID deaths have been diabetics:

After older people and nursing home residents, perhaps no group has been harder hit by the pandemic than people with diabetes. Recent studies suggest that 30 to 40 percent of all coronavirus deaths in the United States have occurred among people with diabetes, a sobering figure that has been subsumed by other grim data from a public health disaster that is on track to claim a million American lives sometime this month.

People with diabetes are especially vulnerable to severe illness from Covid, partly because diabetes impairs the immune system but also because those with the disease often struggle with high blood pressure, obesity and other underlying medical conditions that can seriously worsen a coronavirus infection.

“It’s hard to overstate just how devastating the pandemic has been for Americans with diabetes,” said Dr. Giuseppina Imperatore, who oversees diabetes prevention and treatment at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Diabetes patients hospitalized with Covid spend more time in the I.C.U., are more likely to be intubated and are less likely to survive, according to several studies, one of which found that 20 percent of hospitalized coronavirus patients with diabetes died within a month of admission. Though researchers are still trying to understand the dynamics between the two diseases, most agree on one thing: Uncontrolled diabetes impairs the immune system and decreases a patient’s ability to withstand a coronavirus infection.

Diabetes is a pernicious disease that is at once ubiquitous and invisible, partly because most people with the condition do not appear outwardly ill. It affects 34 million Americans, or 13 percent of all adults, but draws less funding and public attention than other major killers like cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.

Even as the pandemic’s hold on political leaders and the public begins to fade, researchers, clinicians and other experts in the field are hoping the disproportionate suffering and death among people with diabetes will bring renewed attention to the disease, which annually claims 100,000 lives and soaks up one in four health care dollars spent.

The article goes on to say that a COVID infection increases the chances of a person developing Type 2 diabetes!

"One study published last month found that patients who recovered from Covid were 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within 12 months compared with the uninfected, though researchers have yet to determine a connection between the two conditions."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/health/diabetes-covid-deaths.html

 

[+ Charlie]

Those last two paragraphs are rather shocking. Many people take a long time to develop diabetes, but COVID has only been around for two years. A finding that people who didn't have diabetes before getting infected got it afterwards is disturbing, if true. A logical cause-effect connection doesn't come to my mind, so I wonder if this is simply the old "after this, therefore because of this" fallacy. One would need a lot more evidence to prove a cause-effect connection.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Charlie

[+ Lucky]

Diabetes seems to be on the rise even discounting COVID. The Washington Post reports a dramatic rise in pre-diabetes in children:

U.S. residents on the cusp of developing Type 2 diabetes include about 28 percent of youths ages 12 to 19, according to research published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/04/05/prediabetes-youth/

[pubic_assistance]

13 hours ago, Charlie said:

A finding that people who didn't have diabetes before getting infected got it afterwards is disturbing, if true.

Considering we were told to stay home for months and gyms were closed for a year it's a good guess that lack of excerise contributed to an increase of cases

[Rudynate]

15 hours ago, Charlie said:

Those last two paragraphs are rather shocking. Many people take a long time to develop diabetes, but COVID has only been around for two years. A finding that people who didn't have diabetes before getting infected got it afterwards is disturbing, if true. A logical cause-effect connection doesn't come to my mind, so I wonder if this is simply the old "after this, therefore because of this" fallacy. One would need a lot more evidence to prove a cause-effect connection.

True it doesn't establish a cause-and-effect relationship, but the magnitude of the correlation suggests it, such that it is a question worthy of study.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Rudynate
typo

[+ Bryan Dube]

For those of us who have type 2 diabetes run in the family, are perfectly healthy, exercise and maintain a good diet (despite all of that) and still have elevated A1C and glucose, it is quite alarming. 😱

[Rudynate]

12 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

Considering we were told to stay home for months and gyms were closed for a year it's a good guess that lack of excerise contributed to an increase of cases

It wasn't THAT hard to stay in shape.  I started following a smoking hot PT on IG who posted a new home workout everyday.  My coach fell victim to the pandemic 15 and wanted to know what my secret was. 

[pubic_assistance]

1 hour ago, Rudynate said:

It wasn't THAT hard to stay in shape.  I started following a smoking hot PT on IG who posted a new home workout everyday.  My coach fell victim to the pandemic 15 and wanted to know what my secret was. 

Good for you.

Not everyone seems to have been so inspired while stuck at home.

[Rudynate]

Truthfully, now that I think about it - my life didn't change that much - I have mostly worked from home for over 20 years.  I went out cycling a lot, did my at home workouts, we took mid-week getaways when we knew the hotels in Sonoma and Napa would be empty.   

[+ Pensant]

On 4/6/2022 at 11:29 PM, Rudynate said:

Truthfully, now that I think about it - my life didn't change that much - I have mostly worked from home for over 20 years.  I went out cycling a lot, did my at home workouts, we took mid-week getaways when we knew the hotels in Sonoma and Napa would be empty.   

Neither did mine, but I know how it curtailed many people’s normal workout and exercise routines. The diabetes numbers are awful.  The American diet doesn’t help. Makes me wonder if the insulin companies covertly fund the bagel shops.

[Rudynate]

I guess I'm lucky.  I am crazy about toasted sourdough bread dripping with butter.  I have 2 or 3 slices every day and my A1C is usually less than 5.