WEBVTT - Having Had a Covid Infection Could Make You More Likely to Develop Type 2 Diabetes

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<v Speaker 1>It's Thursday, March. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive

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<v Speaker 1>podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. According

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<v Speaker 1>to a review of patient data, people who had COVID

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen were at a greater risk of developing type two

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<v Speaker 1>diabetes than those who avoided getting sick. Looking at the

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<v Speaker 1>records of over one eighty thousand v A patients, researchers

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<v Speaker 1>calculated that those that got COVID were more likely to

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<v Speaker 1>be diagnosed with diabetes for the first time or prescribed

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<v Speaker 1>medication and control blood sugar. Lenny Bernstein Health and Medicine

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<v Speaker 1>Report at the Washington Post joins us for more. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>for joining us, Lenny, Oh, thanks for having me. Well. Uh,

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<v Speaker 1>an interesting thing, uh, with regards to COVID and diabetes.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, for a long time when COVID was happening,

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<v Speaker 1>everybody was obviously concerned very much with the current illness,

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<v Speaker 1>but there was also a lot of being made about

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<v Speaker 1>what kind of future ailments could be caused as a

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<v Speaker 1>result of it. Or you know a lot of people

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<v Speaker 1>that had long COVID just suffering continual symptoms. And this

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<v Speaker 1>new study that came out shows that people that had

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<v Speaker 1>a COVID infection. It was associated with the greater likelihood

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<v Speaker 1>of developing type two diabetes. This is true for people

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<v Speaker 1>who had severe illness or mild or asymptomatic cases. So

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<v Speaker 1>let me tell us a little bit about this. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I think you put your finger right on it at

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<v Speaker 1>the very beginning. You know, we hopefully are putting COVID

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<v Speaker 1>a little bit in our rear view mirror. We're going

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<v Speaker 1>to have some more surges, but a little bit behind us,

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<v Speaker 1>and attention is turning towards long COVID. That's people who

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<v Speaker 1>have suffered it beyond the thirty days or three months,

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<v Speaker 1>depending on who you ask, and then some of the

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<v Speaker 1>fallout from having had the virus. In this case, they

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<v Speaker 1>did us look at very large numbers of v A

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<v Speaker 1>patients and they found that anybody who was infected had

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<v Speaker 1>a about a forty six percent chance greater chance of

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<v Speaker 1>developing type two diabetes or having to go on blood

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<v Speaker 1>sugar control medication than people who did not get infected.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, that's worrisome. That's worrisome for your long COVID patients.

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<v Speaker 1>That's worrisome for the average person who just might have

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<v Speaker 1>had a mild case. Eighty million Americans have had COVID,

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<v Speaker 1>and four hundred and seventy million people around the world

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<v Speaker 1>have had COVID, So even a small percentage that I

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<v Speaker 1>was developing Type two diabetes is going to be a

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<v Speaker 1>very large surge of that disease. Tell me a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit more about the study, because there was a large

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<v Speaker 1>number of v A patients that they looked at, how

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<v Speaker 1>they cross reference it with people that didn't get COVID,

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<v Speaker 1>Just so people can kind of understand the process, right,

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<v Speaker 1>This isn't a randomized controlled study where you, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>set out to study, you set up one group as

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<v Speaker 1>a control on another group as the group that you're

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<v Speaker 1>going to study. This was a retrospective. So they looked

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<v Speaker 1>at a hundred and eighty thousand people who got COVID

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<v Speaker 1>that was from March to September one, and then they

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<v Speaker 1>looked at for over four million who didn't get COVID

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<v Speaker 1>during the same period and they compared them and then

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<v Speaker 1>just to make sure that there their numbers were good,

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<v Speaker 1>they also looked at a little over four million people

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<v Speaker 1>from before the pandemic who got v A care who

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<v Speaker 1>were similar demographically, but they didn't get COVID. Obviously, it

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<v Speaker 1>was before the pandemic, and you know, there was a

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<v Speaker 1>very clear association among the people who got COVID and

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<v Speaker 1>type two diabetes. Now, you can never claim in this

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<v Speaker 1>kind of study cause and effect, but the numbers were

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<v Speaker 1>so large that the researcher is very confident in the association.

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<v Speaker 1>So the advice to people that have gotten COVID is

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<v Speaker 1>you should start paying attention to your blood sugar now.

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<v Speaker 1>And you know, we're talking about this kind of after

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<v Speaker 1>effects of what happens after getting ill with this. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>now it could be a concern for some There was also,

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<v Speaker 1>I guess a little bit in some of this research

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<v Speaker 1>said that it could be triggering a new type of

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<v Speaker 1>diabetes where certain cells start to raise blood sugar rather

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<v Speaker 1>than lower it. You know, I don't know how much

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<v Speaker 1>they know about that specifically, but more stuff that they

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<v Speaker 1>have to look into. With all of this, and throughout

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<v Speaker 1>all of this, you know, the people start thinking, well,

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<v Speaker 1>what's causing it? Exactly? It's another key culprit in a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of COVID stuff, inflammation they suspect exactly, right, inflammation.

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<v Speaker 1>It doesn't appear in this case that the COVID virus

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<v Speaker 1>is actually destroying the insulin producing beta cells that are

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<v Speaker 1>in the pancreas, because if that happened, you'd be getting

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<v Speaker 1>a lot more type one diabetes, and in this case

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<v Speaker 1>they found it was over type two. So these cells

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<v Speaker 1>are not working as well as they can, they're not

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<v Speaker 1>producing the hormone insulin as efficiently as they should, so

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<v Speaker 1>they're guessing they don't know that the culprit is inflammation

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<v Speaker 1>either caused by the virus or, as we've seen so

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<v Speaker 1>many times before, in this pandemic, caused by the body's

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<v Speaker 1>own reaction to the virus. The immune system and the

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<v Speaker 1>cells that we produced to go after the virus, they

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<v Speaker 1>also have an unintended consequence of harming the insulin producing

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<v Speaker 1>cells in the pancreas and therefore creating two diabetes. Do

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<v Speaker 1>we know, if any, what kind of strain of covid

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<v Speaker 1>this might have been, because obviously right now O macron

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<v Speaker 1>has been circulating so much more, and we hear anecdotally

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<v Speaker 1>right that it is a lot more of a milder

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<v Speaker 1>case that a lot of people experience. You've mentioned this

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<v Speaker 1>was done kind of so that was in and the

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<v Speaker 1>height of it, probably not a lot of people were

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<v Speaker 1>vaccinated everything, so they were getting the full force of COVID.

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<v Speaker 1>But do we know strains by any chance with this,

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<v Speaker 1>So it couldn't be a Macron because they went from

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<v Speaker 1>March September, so that would take us basically through every

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<v Speaker 1>strain up to and including Delta. Those were the ones

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<v Speaker 1>that were part of this study. O Macron, if you recall,

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<v Speaker 1>didn't come out until roughly around Thanksgiving of last year.

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<v Speaker 1>And yes, it was more mild, although it was so

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<v Speaker 1>contagious that it put it infected way more people than

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<v Speaker 1>any previous trade. So this study, by including all the

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<v Speaker 1>other strains is pretty comprehensive. It shows you that pretty

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<v Speaker 1>much any strain of the coronavirus can have this effect,

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<v Speaker 1>excluding O Macron. Well, just another thing to keep in mind,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, if you have had COVID, obviously you gotta

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<v Speaker 1>have to continually monitor your health. But just another correlation

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<v Speaker 1>that researchers are starting to connect the dots with. But

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<v Speaker 1>we'll keep an eye out of this, right right if

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<v Speaker 1>your doctor, if you go for your physical and your

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<v Speaker 1>doctor doesn't check your blood sugar, which he or she

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<v Speaker 1>should be doing anyway, and you've had COVID, you want

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<v Speaker 1>to ask for that. You want to say, what's my

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<v Speaker 1>blood sugar, what's my humor bloom in a one C

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<v Speaker 1>look like? Because I did have COVID and they've connected

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<v Speaker 1>it to type two diabetes. Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine

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<v Speaker 1>reporter at the Washington Post, thank you very much for

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<v Speaker 1>joining us anytime. I'm Oscar Emiraz, and this has been

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<v Speaker 1>reopening America. Don't forget effort today's big news stories. You

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<v Speaker 1>can check me out in the Daily podcast every Monday

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<v Speaker 1>to Friday, So follow us on I Heart Radio or

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