Why is there an association between Covid-19 infection and new onset diabetes? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

People who’ve had Covid-19 have a 40% higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes in the year after their infection, a new study finds. Johns Hopkins diabetes expert Rita Kalyani says there may be a couple of reasons for this.

Kalyani: This had been reported. There’s been different mechanisms suggested for how Covid-19 can increase the risk for diabetes. Not only by increasing inflammation in the body but perhaps some direct effects on the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, and impacting insulin production. But this study was particularly interesting because we have the extended follow up now almost a year after the Covid-19 infection and also they found that people used medications for diabetes more often as well if they had Covid-19 versus not.  :31

Kalyani says the medication use indicates that medication was needed to control the condition, rather than diet and exercise strategies alone. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.