Diabetes- Inflammation

The risks of diabetes are well known.  Individuals run the risk of kidney failure, blindness, poor wound healing, loss of limbs & nerve damage.  As blood sugar is chronically elevated, a number of other physiological events occurs simultaneously. We'll start this series off discussing chronic inflammation.

A rise in blood sugar alone can be problematic enough by itself.  But it appears that with hyperglycemia, diabetics also experience inflammation.  This inflammation also promotes damage to the eyes, kidneys and nerves.

"In general, hyperglycemia is the main initiator of diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy, and it participates in the development of diabetic cardiovascular diseases. Although the precise role of inflammation in the development of diabetic microvascular diseases is still unclear, it is likely that inflammation induced by diabetes and insulin resistance can accelerate atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes."  J Periodontol 2008 Aug;79(8 Suppl):1527-34.

Inflammation itself has been implicated in many, if not most, chronic diseases.  Take a look at this article that discusses how peripheral inflammation (away from the brain), can actually damage brain cells!

"As a consequence of excessive inflammatory response triggered by pro-inflammatory cytokines in the periphery, free radicals, oxidants and glucocorticoids are over-produced, which can affect glial cell functions and damage neurons in the brain. Indeed, decreased neurogenesis and the dysfunction of neurotrophic system (up- or down-regulations of neurotrophins and their receptors) have been recently found."  Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2010 Jul 2. [Epub ahead of print]

There's no doubt that with hyperglycemia, we set off on a downward spiral of multiple physiological systems.  While convenient, it is overly simplified to understand the risks of diabetes as being secondary only to high blood sugar.  High blood sugar assaults your body directly, but then promotes inflammation that will also assault your body.  This is a proverbial "double whammy."

Before continuing on with the next posts, let's consider this.  Do you believe that the pathophysiology of diabetes provides a "double whammy?"  Or is it a "triple whammy?"  "Quadruple whammy?"  

Lots of things go wrong.  This is the tip of the iceberg.