Anyone who falls ill with Covid also runs the risk of developing diabetes – especially if there are risk factors. How do you recognize diabetes?
A growing number of studies show that Covid-19 Diabetes-Risk may increase for months following infection. The Diabetes Society (ÖDG) recommends that everyone should know and observe the symptoms of diabetes and have their personal risk of diabetes clarified by a doctor. It is important to understand what this increased relative risk means and what everyone can do to be on the safe side.
“Statements like ‘the risk of diabetes increases by 40 percent due to Corona’ are scary if you have just received a positive test result,” says ÖDG President Martin Clodi. In absolute numbers, however, it sounds different: if there are 32 cases of diabetes in 1,000 people without Covid within a year, there will be 45 cases in 1,000 people with a Covid-19 infection. So that’s 13 additional new diagnoses that represent that 40 percent increase.
The risk of diabetes in the year following Covid infection to develop increases with the severity of the Covid infection. However, more diabetes diagnoses were also observed in mild forms. What is particularly striking is that people who already have other diabetes risk factors, such as being overweight, increase their personal risk as a result of the Infection doubled.
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Recognize in time
The first symptoms of chronic hyperglycaemia can easily be overlooked. The main risk factors include: overweightphysical inactivity, first-degree relatives with diabetes, high blood pressure or increased blood fat levels (triglycerides). Anyone who has risk factors should therefore pay attention to the following symptoms: constant thirst, frequent urge to urinate (even at night), loss of appetite or cravings, weight loss or weight gain, tiredness, exhaustion, mental problems, decreasing eyesightitching, erectile dysfunction in men, sexual listlessness, muscle cramps, poorly healing wounds, frequent infections and sensory disturbances (e.g. of pressure or temperature).
“Personal diabetes risk results from a whole range of factors that are as much related to heredity as to lifestyle,” emphasized Clodi. The clearest statement regarding an individual risk is offered by the preventive medical check-up. Here, if individual risk factors are present, the long-term sugar value (HbA1c) can also be determined free of charge, thereby making pre-diabetes (a preliminary stage of diabetes) visible.
Avoid late effects
Especially at the beginning of the disease, those affected often have no symptoms or they are easily overlooked. Raised blood sugar levels are often noticed accidentally during routine blood tests. Early detection should enable an increased risk of diabetes or the preliminary stages of the disease to be identified in good time. This is the only way to avoid damage to health and secondary diseases.
Because high blood sugar does not cause pain, the dangers and consequences are often underestimated. However, diabetes is a progressive disease, the long-term effects of which can affect almost every part of the body. Even slightly elevated blood sugar levels can lead to dangerous changes in the body’s small and large blood vessels and to nerve damage. For this reason, two-thirds of all diabetics die prematurely from one Heart attack or and stroke. The risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke is two to three times higher for patients with diabetes than for non-diabetics. Amputations, visual disturbances, kidney damage and sexual disorders are also frequent late effects of diabetes. It is therefore all the more important to detect diabetes as early as possible and to take appropriate measures.