"Having diabetes can increase your chances of getting sick and can slow down your recovery. Find out how you can boost your immune system and stay healthy with diabetes.
Diabetes can make it harder for you to fight off infectious diseases, which are illnesses caused by germs. If you have diabetes, you might have a higher risk of getting sick and becoming more severely ill if you do get sick. Being sick can also make it harder to manage your blood sugar levels.
How Your Immune System Works
Your immune system recognizes and fights off germs that can make you sick. Many people think of the immune system as protection inside the body. But your first line of defense is your skin, which keeps unwanted germs out. The second layer of your immune system is a type of white blood cells circulating throughout your body known as lymphocytes. These white blood cells are on the lookout for threats that could make you sick, like bacteria, viruses, toxins, or fungi. Once your immune system recognizes these germs, it fights them off, often without you even noticing.
Your immune system also helps you build up immunity, or protection, against some viruses. Once your immune system has learned to fight off a certain virus, it often remembers how to do it again, if needed. This means if you’re exposed to a virus more than once, your immune system can usually fight it off faster, and with fewer or no symptoms at all. When you get a vaccine, it gives your immune system instructions on how to fight off a virus, protecting you from getting severely ill.
How Diabetes Affects Your Immune System
High blood sugar adds stress to your body and makes nearly every system work harder, including the white blood cells of your immune system. This means that if you have diabetes, your immune system might be weakened and less effective. High blood sugar can also trigger a protective immune response called inflammation, which can damage your internal organs over time.
If you have inflammation, your immune system is working harder. When this happens while your immune system may already be weakened, it can be more difficult to fight off infections. Research shows that people with diabetes can have more frequent illnesses like respiratory tract infections, flu, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and skin infections. It may take longer to heal or recover from illnesses, cuts, and wounds.
If you do get sick, you may notice that your blood sugar levels become higher than usual. To fight off illness, your immune system releases hormones that can increase your blood sugar temporarily. Some cold and flu medicines can also raise your blood sugar. On the other hand, fever, sweating, and poor appetite can cause low blood sugar. Be sure to monitor your blood sugar closely and take steps if it gets too high or too low..."
Diabetes and Immunity
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