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INFECTION MAY CAUSE DIABETES
The same markers that are used to show infection may cause heart attacks are also abnormal in diabetes that starts later in life. When a germ gets into your body, your immunity sets off a large number of chemical reactions aimed at killing that germ. They cause a reaction called inflammation in which the area infected is swollen, red, hot and painful.
Almost everyone agrees that diseases of inflammation are often started by infection, but as the disease progresses, doctors often cannot find an infectious agent. For example, extensive evidence shows that infections start rheumatoid arthritis, heart attacks, late-onset asthma, and Crohn's disease, but doctors often can't find a germ after the disease becomes established. Now we find that diabetes that starts in later life has an overactive immune system just like rheumatoid arthritis, late-onset asthma, Crohn's disease and heart attacks.
Markers that show infection:
Elevated WBC
low serum albumen
elevated fibrinogen
elevated orosomucoid
elevated sialic acid
elevated tumor necrosis factor
elevated interleukin-6
Lancet, May 15,1999
Checked 8/9/05