This is a two part video which explains in graphic animation style in the first part What is Type 2 Diabetes. The second part goes on to explain what are Insulin Receptors And How They Link Type 2 Diabetes.
Both videos are a must watch and will help people to understand what is Diabetes and why Diabetes matters to our body.
The Importance of Watching Your Blood Sugar During Viral Outbreaks
Most diabetics are already aware of how important it is for them to keep track of their blood sugar. Making a few wrong moves can have some serious implications, and it can leave you feeling weak, exhausted, and can lead to some pretty serious medical problems.
However, keeping track of your blood sugar during a viral outbreak adds a whole new layer of importance, because that is the last time that you’d want to have an incident. One reason it’s so important to keep track of your blood sugar is that if your blood sugar gets way too high, you might have to go to the hospital or the doctor’s office.
During a viral outbreak, this is the last place that you want to go, especially with an underlying condition like diabetes. Chances are that location has been processing tons of patients with the virus, and you run a much higher risk of infection.
Typically, those with conditions like diabetes get hit harder by viruses anyway, but when you’re going there with high blood sugar already, it can be even worse, since your body is already dealing with its own problems.
You need to exercise extreme caution when going to the hospital if your blood sugar gets too high. Another complication that can stem from having too high or too low blood sugar is that you may end up having symptoms that go in line with the virus that’s spreading around.
You might start to feel sick and dizzy, or have splitting headaches and accidentally assume that you caught the virus. Letting your blood sugar get out of control can actually damage your immune system and make it work less efficiently than it was previously.
Your immune system relies on your body getting just the right amounts of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals so that it can work properly. All of those nutrients are used in different ways by different immune cells, so if you’re eating improperly and letting your blood sugar get out of control, you also may not be getting the nutrients that you need in the first place, leading to a weaker immune system that’s more susceptible to the virus.
During virus outbreaks, it’s crucial that you eat healthily to maintain your immune system and also keep consistent track of your blood sugar so that you don’t end up having to go to the hospital and expose yourself.
How Hyperglycemia Impairs a Diabetic’s Immune System
Hyperglycemia, also known as high blood sugar, is a condition often found in diabetics that can have a number of adverse effects. Diabetes impairs your body’s ability to naturally produce enough insulin, which is what handles sugar in your blood and breaks it down as needed.
However, if you have low insulin, your body won’t be able to process it and you’ll have excessive blood sugar, leading to hyperglycemia. You may have heard before that diabetics are at a much higher risk of infections, because their immune systems are compromised.
However, very few people know why exactly your body is more prone to disease as a diabetic. To understand why, you must first have a clear understanding of the way your immune system works.
While your immune system is very complex and widespread, you could say there are two main components of your body that keep you safe from infections: the cells that signal that there’s a disease, and the cells that remove the disease.
When a disease enters your body, it releases a signal in the bloodstream that signals that it needs help. When an immune cell comes by and picks up that signal, it then moves to the site of the infection and consumes it, breaking the disease down and disposing of it elsewhere to be filtered out of your body.
However, this process is very delicate. The chemical signals need to reach the cells, and the cells must be able to move to the site of the infection, and then they must be able to reach the actual disease cells.
All of these can be impaired by high blood sugar. First, the excess sugar may block the signals from reaching the immune cell in the first place, causing it to pass by without thinking that anything is wrong.
If it does pick up the signal, it needs to be able to move to the infected area without being blocked. Again, the excessive sugar can impede it from moving to the right spot. And finally, even if it does make it to the infected area, it may be blocked there by sugar anyway, leaving it unable to deal with the infection.
By keeping your blood sugar in check, you’re able to prevent the obstruction of your immune system, allowing it to easily sort out the virus in your body. With high blood sugar, any diseases that may not have taken hold before will have a much better chance at causing damage.