Educating Patients on Illness Prevention

Another lesson we have learned from the Covid 19 Pandemic is the efficacy and importance of educating patients on proper infection prevention.

Taking care to educate patients with diabetes that, while they are not immunosuppressed, that they should be mindful that illness will impact their diabetes, and diabetes could complicate illness.

So they should be mindful of preventing infection with:

-Proper and frequent hand washing

-Avoiding areas where sick people congregate

-Taking care of themselves when they are ill (don’t “blow it off”)

-Get good sleep: sleep is the restorative time for our bodies and is important for our immune system, too little or poor quality sleep greatly suppresses our immune system.

-Eat healthy: getting good sources of natural vitamins and minerals helps keep our immune system well supported particularly “eating the rainbow” to ensure that you are getting good sources of vitamin C, B, D and zinc which are nutrients particularly important to immune function. Supplementing can be overrated for immune support because these very high doses of water soluble vitamins are not retained by the body. No amount of vitamins will overcome a poor diet, poor sleep etc.

 

-Stay active. Physical activity keeps our blood pumping, keeps our respiratory system strong and active circulating immune cells more effectively and rapidly through the body and reduces stress hormones that inhibit immune function. Physical activity also increases insulin sensitivity. When we are more insulin sensitive this can reduce inflammation in our bodies which inhibits proper immune function

 

-Get some sun! UV kills a lot of bacteria and viruses. SO spending more time outdoors can be healthier! Germs don’t spread as easily in outdoor areas because they are diffused over a lot of space and air and commonly touched surfaces are more diffuse and again sun and air movement help kill many pathogens. Sunlight also activates Vitamin D which boosts immune response.

 

-Stress management: reducing stress is key to reducing illness. Anyone who’s been through a prolonged stress can attest that They inevitably would get knocked down by illness at the worst time! Stress hormones suppress our immune function.

 

-Hydrate: when we are under hydrated our mucus membranes get dry and sticky, this makes pathogens stick and then they can make us sick, but healthy hydration keeps mucus membranes wet and they wash away pathogens before they can get into our systems and cause illness.

 

The Diabetes Piece

Elevated BG     Reduced immune response     Longer, more severe illnesses     Elevated blood glucose

Maintain good blood sugar management: Hyperglycemia inhibits an appropriate immune response. So, while people with diabetes are not innately immunosuppressed due to their diabetes, poor control can reduce their body’s ability to properly react to and eliminate pathogens.

Elevated blood sugars can also directly supply “food” to pathogens, yeast infections, UTIs, dental infections, and even upper respiratory infections are more common when blood sugars are elevated (because we are creating environments in our bodies that are like all-you-can eat buffets for bacteria and fungi).

Chronic poor management also increases our risk for micro- and macrovascular disease which reduces blood flow and circulation. This means that antibodies can’t get where they need to in order to fight infections, and our tissues do not get the oxygenation and nutrient supply needed to defend against pathogens and fight infections.

This all means that people with diabetes are at risk of getting sicker and staying sick longer. This, in turn, reduces our ability to manage blood sugars effectively--and a nasty cycle builds. Maintaining good blood sugars means that when we get sick we have a safety margin. We have room for our blood sugars to be suboptimal before they become a part of the problem. And good blood sugar management includes having a sick-day management plan!