New Study Links COVID-19 to Higher Risk of Diabetes

Needless to say, the coronavirus pandemic has crippled the world in various ways. Not only in terms of the virus disrupting the economy and social life but also making our bodies more prone to contracting lifestyle diseases. Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, health experts were spreading awareness among the people about the risks of developing the lifestyle disease.

And now a recent study has shown that COVID-19 is associated with a 40 percent higher risk of new-onset diabetes in the year following infection.

The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology under the title Risks and burdens of incident diabetes in long COVID: a cohort study, involved more than 180,000 coronavirus infected participants. The study was led by Ziyad Al-Aly, who was the first in alerting about the possible link between the coronavirus and diabetes. The outcome of the study translates to over one additional new case of diabetes per 100 infections of COVID-19.

Earlier, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealed that children under the age of 18, who are recovering from coronavirus, are more prone to Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The research, led by Dr. Asmita Mahajan and Dr. Gurudutt Bhat, also informed that since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of diabetes cases between the age group of 13 and 15 has reported an upward trend.

The most common symptoms of diabetes among children include excessive thirst, bedwetting, and sudden weight loss. There are several ways that can be incorporated to keep diabetes at bay among children, like focusing on a balanced diet, increasing physical activity, reducing sugar intake, limiting screen time, and reducing weight.

For those who don’t know, before coronavirus, diabetes was the ninth leading cause of fatality across the globe, and in 2017, a little over 6 percent of the global population had type 2 diabetes, which is a disorder in which the body becomes less responsive to insulin.

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