Hepatitis C Can Also Make You Vulnerable To Diabetes
Those contracting Hepatitis C could also be more vulnerable than others to type 2 diabetes, by as much as three to four times, Australian study reveals. Thus far Hepatitis C had been linked only to liver cirrhosis and cancer.
In studying the insulin resistance of 29 people with Hepatitis C, researchers have confirmed that they have high insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, whereas almost all insulin resistance occurs in muscle, with little or none in the liver.
Dr Kerry Lee Milner and Professor Don Chisholm from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, in collaboration with Professor Jacob George from the Storr Liver Unit, University of Sydney at Westmead Hospital, have published their study in the prestigious international journal, Gastroenterology, now online.
Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps the body use glucose for energy. The two most important organs that respond to insulin are the liver and muscle. A healthy liver responds to insulin by not producing glucose, while healthy muscle responds by using glucose. An insulin resistant liver produces unwanted glucose, while insulin resistant muscle cannot absorb it from the bloodstream, leading to high levels of sugar in the blood.
“Contrary to all expectations, not only did we find no significant insulin resistance in the liver of the patients in the study, half of them suffered from a strain of Hepatitis C that causes about three times the normal level of fat to accumulate in the liver,” said Professor Chisholm. > Read The Rest at the UNCENSORED page
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