[itissteve]

A research study in the journal Cell Metabolism examined the pancreases of people who had died of COVID-19. They discovered that beta cells with the COVID-19 antigen "showed a lower expression of insulin and a higher expression of alpha and acinar cell markers, including glucagon and trypsin1, respectively, suggesting cellular transdifferentiation."
In other words, the virus may be altering the functions of these cells, causing the metabolic issues that present as diabetes.

It was thought earlier on that the coronavirus was able to replicate faster in a glucose-rich environment, which would be found in the blood of people who were diabetic. This study describes another pathway for the coronavirus to affect even people who were not diagnosed diabetic at the time of infection. The drawback I see to this study is that they were examining the cells of people who had died of the coronavirus and who may have some other biological connection to explain their odd blood glucose metabolism.

 

[mbuster]

Early on in 2020 they were saying that diabetics were more susceptible to covid, this may explain why. Interesting but still leaves a lot of questions in my mind.

I have heard of cases where spike protein has been found in all organs of the vaccinated upon autopsies, not in regards to those performed in this study. No mention of "vaccinated" or 'non-vaccinated" in the study. Could some of these findings be a result of the shot directly or indirectly? Did they autopsy cells of vaccinated and non-vaccinated who didn't die of covid, but some other cause, for comparison?

Did they test those who died of covid for diabetes upon diagnosis while they were still alive? Did they test those diagnosed with covid and survived for diabetes upon diagnosis? If so did they also pull up past medical history? I think there is more speculation than proof of becoming diabetic from covid. Many of us were "suddenly" diabetic after an annual check up.

 

[itissteve]

Many of us were "suddenly" diabetic after an annual check up.

I think the conclusions of this study stand though it has the huge flaw I noted in the first post. Science is a process, not an on-off switch, so sometimes we have to note a finding and the assumptions made and do better to eliminate the mistakes in the next study.

Given the number of people diagnosed with T2 every year, though, I suspect many of them are living their lives with diabetes that is just undiagnosed. No doctor's visits, no annual checkups, no wellness clinics. So when something finally hauls them into a medical clinic, even routine blood work will show high BG that, with a follow-on A1c, gets diagnosed as T2. We can also talk about terminology ("You have prediabetes.") and moving goalposts (like the ones that keep getting moved back for cholesterol and hypertension). I think they play a part, too. And I believe the same happens or other conditions that we don't discuss here, like high blood pressure, vitamin deficiencies, etc. COVID is not causal; the instance of diagnosing/treating it becomes the opportunity to identify other illnesses.

 

[Nemo]

I got covid last August and was sick for 15 days and lost 13 pounds. I was wearing a mask wherever I went and I still got it. So I don't believe masks work. Anyway it makes a difference when people die, did they die of covid or with covid?

 

[itissteve]

I was wearing a mask wherever I went and I still got it. So I don't believe masks work. Anyway it makes a difference when people die, did they die of covid or with covid?

I view masks the same way I view seat belts in cars and safety harnesses on mountain climbers. Some people still die in car crashes even though they're wearing a seat belt. If we still believe in numbers, though, seat belts have a long history of lessening or preventing injuries in most crashes. Seat belts and climbing harnesses may not work as well as we'd like them to, but I don't think it's fair to say they don't work at all.

Without getting too far off-topic into the political weeds, and reflecting the old saying that you can find statistics to prove anything, I believe some people find an advantage in defining deaths by COVID-19 and deaths with COVID-19. If an elderly person, with all of the compromises of age, catches COVID-19 and dies before recovering from it, was it the coronavirus that killed them or their already weaker state? We're not going to debate that here (against forum rules); I'm just trying to illustrate how it can serve agendas to define the cause of death one way or the other.

 

[mbuster]

The CDC's all cause total death numbers for 2020 are an interesting read, not a significant increase over past years, at least not as of September.

 

[Dcad]

I will add a side note, not necessarily related to the original post. Any infection, or stress to the body will tend to increase insulin needs. So, if a person already has Type I diabetes in the process of developing, with their beta cells already in decline, any infection may push them over the edge to where they would be diagnosed as having diabetes. Though, the researchers in the original post is indicating a specific reduction of insulin productioon in the Beta cells.

 

[itissteve]

Very true, Dcad. Good to see you back, and thanks for making a very valid point.