Al Ittihad (Mustafa Aufa)
A recent study indicated that the emerging corona virus can cause high blood sugar levels in people without diabetes and can lead to more complications for those who suffer from diabetes.
High blood sugar, a primary feature of diabetes, is associated with inflammation and a weakened immunity to infection. Early in the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, doctors diagnosed diabetes as a significant risk factor for people who develop Covid-19 disease, caused by infection with the virus.
However, what is new is that doctors later found evidence that Covid-19 disease is linked to high blood sugar in patients who do not have a history of diabetes, according to a study published in the “Journal Cell Metabolism”.
In the study, researchers found that infection with the coronavirus induces hyperglycemia by disrupting fat cells’ production of adiponectin, a hormone produced by fat cells, which usually has a protective effect against diabetes by enhancing insulin sensitivity.
“We don’t usually think fat cells are very active, but they actually make many of the protective proteins for your body,” said James Lu, an assistant professor of medicine and a cardiologist in New York. “It appears that the novel coronavirus may disrupt this protection in many patients.”
During the study, the team analyzed the records of 3,854 patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the first few months of the pandemic in the United States.
They found that a high percentage (49.7 percent) of these patients had or developed hyperglycemia during their hospital stay.
Compared with patients with normal blood sugar levels, patients with hyperglycemia were nine times more likely to develop severe lung dysfunction (acute respiratory distress syndrome) and 15 times more likely to have mechanical ventilation (use of a mechanical device to assist breathing). ), and three times more likely to die.
Other tests also revealed that patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome COVID-19 had severely low blood levels of adiponectin.
Hyperglycemia also occurs in patients with severe influenza or bacterial pneumonia, mainly due to the death or malfunction of the “beta” cells that produce insulin, the main hormone that regulates blood sugar levels.
“In contrast, hyperglycemia in Covid-19 patients is primarily caused by insulin resistance, in which insulin is present but the tissues on which it normally functions are no longer sensitive,” said Moritz Ritterer, a postdoctoral fellow at New York Medical Center. for him”.
“Patients who are obese, for example, may be more likely to develop Covid disease because they may already have some degree of insulin resistance and a defect in fat cells, and their fat cells may be more susceptible to infection,” Lu added.
To date, there have been no reports of the effect of the anti-Corona vaccines on blood sugar levels.
Many diabetics across the world have already received an anti-Corona vaccine and have not reported any special side effects.
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