Inflammation is a healthy response to infection or injury. It’s the way in which that our immune system prompts to reply to injury, or to internal offenses like viruses, bacteria, or toxic chemicals. This response known as acute inflammation and it starts the healing process.
But sometimes the body sends out inflammatory cells once we’re not sick or injured. Those self same inflammatory cells can activate our bodies, attacking healthy tissue. This kind of aberrant immune response is involved within the disease technique of several conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, and, yes, diabetes.
If you might have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, you might be likely coping with some level of chronic inflammation that would possibly result in health complications beyond diabetes itself. This text will help provide an understanding of how inflammation is connected to diabetes and the way it is likely to be treated.
Type 1 Diabetes and Inflammation
Type 1 diabetes is brought on by an autoimmune attack on the pancreas, destroying its ability to secrete insulin. Immune system cells cause beta cell death in quite a lot of ways, including by frightening inflammation. Some researchers have called type 1 diabetes “a chronic anti-self-inflammatory response,” and there may be a theory that inflammation within the pancreas may help cause type 1 diabetes in the primary place.
Once type 1 diabetes has developed, it also causes inflammation elsewhere within the body, perhaps a results of the way in which the immune system reacts to excessive glucose levels. In keeping with researchers on the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, the immune system reacts by sending out inflammatory cells, which over time can contribute to the destruction of organs, nerves, and blood vessels.
A 2017 study by Italian researchers, for instance, suggested that individuals with type 1 diabetes experience inflammation within the digestive tract:
“Our findings indicate the individuals with type 1 diabetes have an inflammatory signature and microbiome that differ from what we see in individuals who don’t have diabetes and even in those with other autoimmune conditions reminiscent of celiac disease,” said the study’s senior writer, Lorenzo Piemonti, MD, of the Diabetes Research Institute at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy.
Learn how to Treat Inflammation in Type 1 Diabetes
Researchers are hard at work on experimental type 1 diabetes therapies that specifically goal inflammation. For a similar reason, anti-inflammatory drugs may eventually play a vital role in the event of a cure for the condition. But for the time being, though there are a number of drug treatments available for chronic inflammation, these medications aren’t commonly prescribed for type 1 diabetes. Some, reminiscent of the steroids used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, could also be inappropriate for diabetes resulting from a profound glucose-elevating effect.
For now, it seems that the very best solution to address inflammation is thru prudent diabetes management. Insulin has a robust anti-inflammatory effect in type 1 diabetes. A 2013 study on the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences found that while even small amounts of glucose end in profound inflammation, insulin suppresses the pro-inflammatory protein HMGB1. Insulin doesn’t fix the issue — insulin’s anti-inflammatory effect takes 3 times as long in individuals with type 1 diabetes — however the study helps reinforce the importance of taking the correct amount of insulin with meals. Keeping your blood sugars in range also needs to help limit chronic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation will also be improved through higher lifestyle decisions — including healthy food regimen and exercise — based on Harvard Medical School.
Type 2 Diabetes and Inflammation
Type 2 diabetes also has a posh two-way relationship with inflammation. Type 2 diabetes, which is defined by insulin resistance, can result in chronic inflammation, which in turn causes more insulin resistance. It’s a vicious cycle.
Chronic and systemic inflammation are distinguished features of type 2 diabetes. The condition creates an excess of cytokines, signaling proteins that help control inflammation, which might result in excess inflammation. Obesity also provokes inflammation, stimulating the discharge of inflammatory mediators, including interleukin-6, a cytokine, and reduced production of adiponectin, a hormone that helps address insulin sensitization and anti inflammatory effects. Reduced levels of adiponectin can result in type 2 diabetes development.
Chronic inflammation contributes to diabetes complications, including diabetic peripheral neuropathy, nerve damage that tends to start within the feet or hands. Other potential issues include heart failure, diabetic retinopathy, and musculoskeletal problems like muscle and joint pain or stiffness.
Learn how to Treat Inflammation in Type 2 Diabetes
Several diabetes medications have anti-inflammatory properties, including statins, anti-diabetic agents like insulin, and metformin — drugs you might already be taking. GLP1 receptor agonists (including Ozempic) and SGLT2 inhibitors — probably the 2 most significant newer classes of type 2 diabetes medication — have intrinsic anti-inflammatory properties, based on a 2019 Greek study, though it’s unclear how much they contribute to actual inflammation reduction.
Responsibly using diabetes drugs, as prescribed by your doctor to assist achieve good glucose control, is probably going among the finest ways of stopping chronic inflammation from getting out of hand.
In the long run, there could also be more targeted treatments available. Some researchers subscribe to the “inflammation theory” of type 2 diabetes and consider that attacking inflammation directly will result in improved glucose control. Nevertheless, way more experimentation must be done before any such therapies can be found.
One other ideal solution to address chronic inflammation is thru healthy lifestyle decisions. Exercise has a strong anti-inflammatory effect. A healthful diabetes food regimen, one emphasizing whole foods and avoiding processed sugars and starches, also can improve inflammation. Some experts have even designed special anti-inflammatory diets that include foods with antioxidants like fatty fish, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices.
Managing type 2 diabetes well — with good food regimen and exercise habits, and the prudent use of medicines — is probably going one of the best ways we have now to fight against chronic inflammation’s negative health effects.