Newly diagnosed diabetes in many COVID-19 patients may be a temporary type triggered by COVID, according to a new study.
Blood sugar levels returned to normal in about half of the newly diagnosed diabetes patients after they left the hospital, and only 8% required insulin after one year, according to the report published online recently in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications.
What's causing this newly diagnosed diabetes?
"We believe that the inflammatory stress caused by COVID-19 may be a leading contributor to 'new-onset' or newly diagnosed diabetes," lead author Dr. Sara Cromer, an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston says.
"Instead of directly causing diabetes, COVID-19 may push patients with pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes to see a physician for the first time, where their blood sugar disorder can be clinically diagnosed," she added in a hospital news release. "Our study showed these individuals had higher inflammatory markers and more frequently required admission to hospital ICUs than COVID-19 patients with pre-existing diabetes."
For the study, Cromer's team looked at 594 COVID-19 patients who had signs of diabetes when they were admitted to MGH at the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.
Of those, 78 had no previous diabetes diagnosis. Many had less severe blood sugar levels but more severe COVID-19 than those with a previous diabetes diagnosis, the study found.
However, blood sugar did revert to normal in about half of these COVID-linked cases.
"This suggests to us that newly diagnosed diabetes may be a transitory condition related to the acute stress of COVID-19 infection," Cromer shares.
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Is this diabetes permanent?
Acute insulin resistance appears to be the key mechanism underlying newly diagnosed diabetes in most COVID-19 patients, and if it occurs, it is generally not permanent, she explains.
"These patients may only need insulin or other medications for a short time, and it's therefore critical that physicians closely follow them to see if and when their conditions improve," Cromer adds.
COVID-19 patients who were newly diagnosed with diabetes were more likely to be younger, non-white, and uninsured or on Medicaid than those with previously diagnosed diabetes, the study found.
The researchers said that the finding suggests that many of the new cases were pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes in people with limited access to health care services.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published similar findings.
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Tips for planning ahead
If you are living with diabetes, it's extremely important to make a plan for if you get sick. The American Diabetes Association offers the following tips:
- Collect phone numbers of your doctors and health care team, your pharmacy and your insurance provider.
- Compile a list of medications and doses (including vitamins and supplements).
- Gather simple carbs like regular soda, honey, jam, Jell-O, hard candies or popsicles to help keep your blood sugar up if you are at risk for hypoglycemia and too ill to eat.
- Get extra refills on your prescriptions so you do not have to leave the house as often.
- If you can’t get to the pharmacy, find out about having your medications delivered.
- Always have enough insulin, in case you get sick or cannot refill.
- If you are struggling to pay for insulin or know someone who is, the American Diabetes Association® (ADA) has resources to help—visit InsulinHelp.org
- Gather extra supplies like rubbing alcohol and soap to wash your hands.
- Make sure you have glucagon and ketone strips, in case of lows and highs.
- Have enough household items and groceries on hand so that you will be prepared to stay at home, in case you need to quarantine.
