COVID-19 Increases Diabetes Risk by 40 Percent a Year Later

The long-term implications of COVID-19 increasing diabetes risk are profound, write Venkat Narayan, MD, and Lisa R Staimez, PhD, both of the Rollins School of Public Health and the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, in an accompanying editorial. new study.

“Any increase in the incidence of diabetes related to COVID-19 could lead to unprecedented cases of diabetes worldwide. This is wreaking havoc on an already over- and under-resourced clinical and public health system globally, with a devastating toll in terms of death and suffering,” they wrote.

According to Ziyad, this translates into millions more Americans with [kasus] new diabetes.

Ziyad said that the reason for the link between COVID-19 and diabetes is unknown and likely differs from person to person.

Among people who already have risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes, such as obesity or metabolic syndrome, having COVID-19 may speed up that process, so that their blood sugar levels could overshoot, he said.

For people without diabetes risk factors, having COVID-19 and all the inflammation it causes in the body can lead to developing the disease, Ziyad explained.

COVID-19 increases the risk of diabetes by 59% even for people who are not overweight, and by 38% among those with the lowest diabetes risk.

The risk of developing diabetes is higher in people with more severe cases of COVID-19 who have been hospitalized or in the ICU, but even people with mild cases have a higher risk of diabetes than people who do not have COVID-19.

Ziyad also said that his group was further analyzing data from veterans regarding other health problems including heart disease and kidney disease, as well as the now well-documented symptoms of Long COVID including fatigue, pain and neurocognitive dysfunction.

They are also investigating the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine to see if the risk is reduced in cases of breakthrough infection.

–