“Diabetes impairs some parts of your immune response. You have fewer white blood cells and T cells to fight off invading bacteria, viruses, and fungi.”
why does diabetes impair parts of your immune response?
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Says who??
Sounds like an alternative fact to me.
High blood sugar can make it harder for your immune system to fight off infections (as well as provide an ideal environment for bacteria and the like). Aside from that, I don’t think diabetes impairs your immune system. For me, at last, I actually get sick far less often than many others—I haven’t had more than a cold for at least a decade or more. The downside of this is that even though I don’t get sick-sick, my immune system is off-kilter and I’m prone to (and have several) allergic and autoimmune conditions.
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There is a high number of scientific papers indicating different forms of impairments of the immune response due to untreated diabetes. For example:
The harmful molecules – dicarbonyls – are breakdown products of glucose that interfere with infection-controlling antimicrobial peptides known as beta-defensins.
Wound healing is a dynamic and complicated process in which inflammation, re-epithelialization and angiogenesis play important roles. Intriguingly, all three processes have been found to be defective during diabetic wound healing conditions. The current study was launched to explore the effects of a high-glucose environment on cultured human keratinocytes (skin cells). We showed that high-glucose cultivated keratinocytes expressed reduced levels of hBD2 and phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription (pSTAT)-1 constitutively. The absolute levels of hBD2 were significantly lower in the high-glucose-treated group. As hBD2 plays multifaceted roles during the wound healing process, the inadequate expression of hBD2 during diabetic conditions contributes to impaired wound healing.
Similar findings have been found for the damage and healing of blood vessels (eyes, kidneys).
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@Holger I stand corrected (although to be fair, when I made the “alternative facts” statement, I was looking at the question as asking if the mechanisms that CAUSE diabetes also affect the immune system, and not as to whether elevated tissue glucose levels might harm the immune system)
Thank you, Holger!
marty1492
a mechanism for increased coronary events with A1c at 6.0 and up?
There’s an increased risk of coronary events even with an A1c in the fives.
I’ve heard that the risk goes up starting at 5.0, but the risk really jumps starting at 6.0. I have a 5.3 to 5.5 A1c which i have to eat pretty strictly low carb to get, and I have had chest pain and what might have been a mini stroke. after a carotid doppler, my doctor said my carotid arteries had more plaque than he was used to seeing in a woman my age (52), but i was still in the lab reference range. he suggested i take a baby aspirin a day (no stains since my LDL/HDL, and triglycerides were all excellent) which i won’t do since i bruise easily and don’t want to risk any internal bleeding. i have an appointment with a highly rated Penn neurologist in September, so I’ll see what she says.
The risk for macro-vascular events is elevated starting with average glucose concentrations of 100 mg/dl. The risk for micro-vascular events like changes in the retina is elevated starting with average glucose concentrations of 126 mg/dl.
If healthy people would reach an age of 200 years then all of them would show signs of diabetic complications. So the use of glucose as fuel is dangerous - even at “healthy” levels. The glucose fuel is still less risky than using only fat for energy deposit and release.
It makes no sense to worry too much about this. As shown even healthy people have to cope with these side effects. In general diabetes is a marathon and not a sprint. Try to adopt a lifestyle you can keep up with long term. People living 75 years or longer with diabetes have shown that proactivity is an important factor. Realistic goals like an A1c of 6% to 6.3%, less hypos and more physical activity for example.
i don’t inject insulin nor take any drugs to lower blood sugar. therefore i have no risk of hypos. “It makes no sense to worry to much about this.” i know you are being nice, but what you need to realize is that you can’t assume someone is unduly worried about a health issue. maybe thinking about the topic i posted and the tight A1c goals would worry you or most people, but it doesn’t worry me. i have a different relative worry scale than most people because my baseline personality is already a worrier. and so it is my norm. (please imagine an emoticon which is expressing a mixture of just joking around and seriousness at the same time).
This is correct but IIRC the data for this come from UKPDS which is a large ;prospective study carried out on T2s . Type 2 diabetes is often associated with metabolic disturbances affection lipids (e.g. cholesterol and tryglycerides). For T2s it is therefore difficult to differentiate between the increased risk attributable to elevated blood glucose levels and to disturbances in lipid metabolism as the latter are themselves risk factors for CHD.
T1D is not associated directly with disturbances in lipid metabolism and macrovascular events (CHD or strokes) and may be less of a risk factor where glucose levels are only mildly elevated compared to non-diabetic controls.