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Diabetes and the Immune System

eddie1968

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,661
Location
Dumbarton, Scotland
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Pasta, sorry to me it's vile, yeuch lol (and full of nasty carbs)
Hi. I always seem to catch infections now, from minor stuff to life threatening sepsis. The last 6 years have seen me on lots of courses of antibiotics and hospital admissions. Colds, cellulitis, abscesses, pneumonia are just some of the mixed bag of things I've had lately.

My HbA1c is now nearly normal and my insulin is controlling my diabetes fairly well. Is my immune system compromised ? Is there anything that can be done ? I live on my own and hate getting a fever and this causes me to worry.

Or is it I'm just unlucky and it's one of the diabetes side effects I will just have to live with.

Edward.
 
I would go to my doctor and ask for an investigation into this. I have a similar pattern but it is not diabetes related. My issues are caused by immune suppressant drugs.
 
Have you had your spleen removed @eddie1968? I ask because that will have an effect on your immune system as the white blood cells within the spleen are a defence against infections.
If your doctor thinks you might have an immunodeficiency disorder, they will want to do the following:

  • ask you about your medical history
  • perform a physical exam
  • determine your T cell count
  • determine your white blood cell count
http://www.healthline.com/health/immunodeficiency-disorders#Overview1
 
I'm like you @eddie1968 - I seem to get a lot of infections and even the rare strain of candida when I get that... apparently my doc said that proves I'm immune-compromised. My doc tells me that diabetes does make you immune-compromised. I'm not exactly sure about the scientific reason why but I've noticed I've been more sick since having diabetes than I was prior to diabetes.... whether my sugar is controlled or not too. I also find it harder controlling diabetes when sick. I've had a lot of other chronic illness diagnoses added to the mix and they tell me they're not related to my diabetes at all but sometimes I do wonder.
 
Thanks CC. My spleen is intact. My immune system seems to go into overdrive and a lot of my routine blood tests show marked elevations of WBCs, so common I get retested days after the original test. To be under 13,000 WBC's is pretty rare for me. I know this from test result copies and from hospital staff and my GP. I'm baffled. Maybe I'm just attracted to pathogens lol.
 
Thanks Mep, I even get fungal infections like thrush pretty routinely too especially after antibiotics. I wouldn't say I'm depressed but I feel run down physically and mentally and very frustrated. I've lost count on how many courses of antibiotics I have been on this year alone..maybe 5 or 6 at last count then all the antifungals after those. I'm usually a cheery and optimistic person but I can only take so much. You'd think my GP would look into this without me asking, you only get 10 minutes in consultation and with what I usually have to present there's no time left for subtleties.
 
This article for health care practitioners summarizes most of what is known about your topic. http://www.uptodate.com/contents/susceptibility-to-infections-in-persons-with-diabetes-mellitus

In previous years, navigation within this site seemed to have restrictions for nonsubscribers, but lately I haven't met with any.

A related article at the same Website (here) includes diabetes mellitus among "disease processes that lead to chronic imbalances in hormones, nutrients, and toxic metabolic waste products in body fluids". It adds, "Neutrophil dysfunction underlies much of the predisposition to fungal infections found in patients with diabetes [1]. In addition, poor peripheral circulation leads to skin ulceration and diminished delivery of neutrophils to sites of microbial entry." The neutrophil is one of the types of white blood cell. White blood cells are infection fighters.
 
@eddie1968 Talking with your doctor is a good idea.

If your goal is to restore your health, a good place to start is to eat a low carb, whole foods, nutritionally dense diet if you aren't already, and to begin learning everything you can about improving your ability to digest and absorb the nutritious foods you're eating, something I'm trying to figure out how to do.

Next book on my reading pile is Eat Dirt: Why Leaky Gut May Be the Root Cause of Your Health Problems and 5 Surprising Steps to Cure It (2016) by Josh Axe.

From the contents page...

Part One - Why We're Suffering
The Hidden Epidemic
Ground Zero for Leaky Gut
The Immunity Connection
Eat Dirt

Part Two - The Five Factors of Gut Health
You Are What You Eat
A Sanitized Society
The Price of Convenience
Our Stressful Lives
Medication Nation
The Eat Diet Program

Part Three - Heal For Your Gut Type
Healing the Whole Body
Healing Candida Gut
Healing Stressed Gut
Healing Immune Gut
Healing Gastric Gut
Healing Toxic Gut

Part Four - Recipes
Recipes for the Home and Body
 

I always have elevated c-reactive protein (CRP) levels. My wbc is fine.... but on saying that I always have high wbc in urine samples and have never had a pathogen free test result for over 3 years now. I do have a bladder condition though so that explains that one. But as for the CRP, the ER always looks at that and tell me I have a problem. I just tell them no I always have that so what are you trying to tell me? It's just an inflammation marker they use. I have inflammation right throughout my body too. On second thoughts I wonder if that contributes to why I get more infections? I don't know the answer. There have been some years where I have had 20 weeks worth of antibiotics. This year hasn't been too bad.... probably about 6 weeks worth so far I think.
 
Galja said:
Maybe the site like you. I can only read the equivalent of a topic index and a precis along with some bibliography
Click to expand...

It's one of those sites where you have to pay a subscription to read it.
 
Thanks.
 

I also noticed this happened to me quite a lot too before.
I was hospitalized for 3 weeks because of kidney infection, which was pretty bad - almost life threatening.

But that was before I knew I have Diabetes.

Now as I am more aware, I try to help my body building it's immune system by doing exercise, having better sleep quality, eat healthy low carb food to control my BG, drinking more JAMU ( Indonesian famous traditional healthy drinks made from turmeric, ginger, garlic and other spices with medicinal values, esp the one that can help fight infection), drinking more water (up to 3L a day), doing more fun stuff; taking beautiful photographs, watching more good feeling movies, dancing to beautiful musics, hugging and kissing more, and more and more.

I can happily say that the last three weeks, I hardly ever had headaches; fever, my sleeping is better, and many more.

Still have to work my way out through several things such as FBG though.
I also still have my next A1C test coming in 7 weeks.
So yeah, looking to improve my last result.

Good luck to you.
Get well soon.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Given the recent research that suggests that some forms of T2 may be auto-immune, it's not unreasonable to suggest that the same auto immune issues may affect the bodies ability to fight off disease. Not that there's any evidence for this of course.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I think this is a big issue amongst all diabetics which does not seem in my opinion to have prominence amongst diabetes info and research. I'm sure sepsis takes away many diabetics quality of life, amputations and even death. Maybe I'm wrong in assuming this but the majority stuff I read on the forums now is not related to this phenomenon. I'm feeling better today.
 
@eddie1968 my husband is taking a second round of antibiotics for cellulitis. Very painful.

In all the reading I've done since last year - (I have five different health issues; some are autoimmune) - health begins with the gut.

While on antibiotics and afterward, are you doing anything to rebuild your gut health? By that I mean are you eating yogurt with live bacteria, taking a probiotic, etc. I ask, because it's possible you don't feel well because the repeated use of antibiotics, while necessary, may have killed off a lot of your good bacteria which has created an imbalance in your gut.

As I said in my earlier post, I'm just beginning to learn about this so have more questions than answers.
 
I've had leg cellulitis twice and yes it's super painful. It looked so bad and my leg was a purple/blackish colour and I thought it might get sawed off lol...panicking !
 
I drink Yakult but I don't know if this is the right stuff. I need to look up probiotics.
 
I just looked up Yakult. It sounds like it too would be helpful. The other issue is to eat "prebiotics" that feed the good bacteria that you're reintroducing to the gut (so they don't die off). I'm thinking fiber from low carb vegetables perhaps, but I don't know because I haven't read the Eat Dirt book yet. You might be able to research it online... Not sure what you'd use for a search though. I usually try various search strategies until I find one that provides useful information.
 
I am one of the fortunate ones who seems to have (touch wood) a still functioning immune system.

That is, although I have suffered all my life from some things, mainly infected insect bites, which require antibiotics I haven't seen any change since diagnosis.

I still heal well if I cut myself, and I don't seem to catch any more diseases (although being retired and an empty (usually) nester I am less exposed to random germs).

This prompted me to wonder if there are loads of people out there who are not diabetic but who suffer from similar immune system problems. This would suggest that the problems are not necessarily directly related to diabetes but we only see these here when fellow diabetics are suffering from them. Sort of correlation and causation again.

I think there may be a couple of things; if blood glucose control is poor then there is a higher chance of fungal infections such as Thrush because the fungus feeds on the elevated sugars (and also other BG related problems), however if BG control is good then the rate of infection may be in line with that of the rest of the population of similar age and lifestyle.

It is a difficult one. We are told that poor BG control can lead to all sorts of unpleasant side effects but if there are problems when BG control is good there seems no way of knowing if there is a diabetes component or if some other factor is involved.
 

I take a probiotic daily (currently taking Swiss Inner Balance Probiotic 35 Billion) and still I manage to get infections. I know they say that it may be your gut but I think I prove that wrong myself. But then I have other issues that puts me at higher risk of certain type of infections too. But yes, taking probiotics is a good idea.
 
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