Helicobacter pylori Infection Increases the Risk of Diabetes by 270%
What is the connection between the presence of Helicobacter pylori, which causes problems in the digestive system, and the development of diabetes? The findings of a new study published recently shed light on the issue and point to a direct connection between bacterial infection following the presence of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.
Chronic infections have been found to affect the development of cytokinetic inflammation and heart disease. In this study, the researchers sought to examine how infections affect the development of diabetes as well. The study, whose findings were published in the journal Diabetes Care, examined the association between the presence of a bacterial infection and the incidence of developing diabetes in 782 subjects over 60 years of age who were not diabetic at the beginning of the study. The study began between the years 1998 and 1999 and ended in 2008.
From the findings, the researchers showed that morbidity in viruses such as herpes type 1, varicella virus, cytomegalovirus, and T. gondii virus was not found to be associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes. At the same time, the researchers found that infections of the Helicobacter pylori bacterium led to a higher rate of diabetes morbidity. One possible explanation for this is the effect of infectiousness and bacterial activity on intestinal and digestive activities, which in turn affect sugar levels, as well as the proper functioning of several bodily systems, including the immune and endocrine systems.
After weighting data and neutralizing factors such as age, cardiovascular disease, smoking, and blood cholesterol levels, and after offsetting data on insulin resistance, C-protein, and interleukin-6 reactivity, the researchers found that the risk of developing diabetes among people who had a bacterial infection of Helicobacter pylori at the beginning of the study was 2.7 times higher than the risk of people without this bacterial infection.
While the study was used to show a correlation between H. pylori and an increased risk for diabetes, the literature available shows that the risk is generally more pronounced for Type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes than for Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes.
