Diabetes Information

does asthma cause diabetes

Asthma and Type 1 Diabetes

Asthma, Diabetes Related?
Children with type 1 diabetes are less likely to get asthma, eczema, or hayfever. And the reverse is true, that those with asthma, eczema, or hayfever are less likely to get type 1 diabetes. However, countries where diabetes is common also tend to be the countries where asthma is common, according to a report in the February 24, 2001 issue of The Lancet. One possible explanation for this is the imbalance between two types of immune cells, T-helper 1 cells and T-helper 2 cells. In children with diabetes, the balance tends to favor T-helper 1 cells; in those with asthma, T-helper 2 cells. It’s difficult for one child to have both. But some countries have conditions that may increase imbalance or inflammation in general. According to the Lancet report, the more affluent the country, the more common the imbalance.
Alan Greene MD FAAP
March 01, 2001

Asthma and Type 1 Diabetes

Reported May 6, 2002
Diabetes and Asthma
A new study shows people with asthma or other allergies may be genetically protected from type 1 diabetes.

Researchers in Finland found the risk of diabetes was inversely associated with asthma and allergies to animal dust and pollen. The immune response that leads to type 1 diabetes, which involves the destruction of insulin-producing cells, is thought to be of the Th1 type. The immune response to asthma and allergies is thought to be of the Th2 type. The reciprocal effect of these two immune responses might be the factor that protects people with asthma from developing type 1 diabetes.

More than 800 children with type 1 diabetes, as well as their siblings and a control group, were surveyed to determine if they had asthma, allergies to animal dust or pollen, or if they had an adenoidectomy performed before age 4. Children who receive early adenoidectomies have been shown to have a higher incidence of asthma later in life. Researchers of the study conclude: “The frequency of asthma and atopic symptoms to some inhaled antigens is decreased in individuals with childhood type 1 diabetes. Factors predisposing to atopic symptoms to inhaled antigens may protect form childhood type 1 diabetes.”

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, 2002;25:865-868

Asthma and Type 2 Diabetes

Asthma More Common in Diabetic People
Medically Reviewed On: November 14, 2006

HealthCentersOnline - Patients with type 2 diabetes are about 50 percent more likely than nondiabetics to have asthma, an analysis suggests.

Type 2 diabetes, by far the most common form of diabetes, impairs the body’s ability to use glucose for energy. Asthma is a chronic inflammation of the airway, or bronchial, tissues.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center reviewed medical records from veterans hospitals. They compared 293,124 patients with type 2 diabetes to a control group of 552,623 nondiabetics with high blood pressure. They adjusted for other factors such as smoking and heart disease.

The researchers found that 4.5 percent of the diabetic group and 2.9 percent of the control group had asthma. They suggested that physicians screen for asthma in diabetes patients with respiratory symptoms.

The study was presented last month at a conference of the American College of Chest Physicians and published online in the journal Chest.

Tiny worms may hold key for diabetes, asthma and hay fever treatment
Main Category: Allergy
Article Date: 10 Nov 2005 - 2:00 PST

Tiny worms that can trick the body’s natural defences could hold the key to new treatments for a range of conditions, including diabetes, asthma and hay fever. University of Edinburgh scientists, who have discovered that helminth parasites can exploit an ‘Achilles heel’ in our immune system, now hope to mimic the worms’ survival tactics in a bid to beat infection.

To find out how helminths fool the body’s defences, the team are focusing on the role played by so-called ‘regulatory cells’, which fulfil a policing role that protects our bodies. These cells decide when to stop the immune system from attacking the body’s own proteins (a process called autoimmunity) and also prevent it from attacking harmless environmental molecules.

It is thought that helminths produce molecules that trigger a response in regulatory cells (similar to the one that prevents autoimmunity), which tricks the body into switching off the response that would otherwise kill the parasites. If that is the case, then infections could be cured, not by vaccination or drug treatment, but by reactivating the immune system. It is the first time such a concept has been explored to curb the tropical diseases caused by helminths - such as filariasis and schistosomiasis - which affect one in four of the global population.

The study - the first findings of which are reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine - could also help growing numbers of people in the developed world who have autoimmune conditions such as diabetes, asthma and hay fever. Again, the key is identifying the molecules that helminths produce in order to influence regulatory cell activity. If scientists can understand how these molecules trigger suppression of the immune system, they might also employ the molecules to stop the immune system from attacking the body’s own cells - which is what happens in diseases caused by over-active immune responses.

Professor Rick Maizels, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences, has been awarded 1.3 million pounds by the Wellcome Trust to conduct the research. He said: “Perhaps we can borrow a trick from parasites, and employ the molecules which suppress the immune system to treat these auto-immune disorders. The project therefore offers potential for new treatments of diseases in both the developed world and the disadvantaged countries of the tropics.”

Ronald Kerr
Ronald.Kerr@ed.ac.uk
University of Edinburgh
www.ed.ac.uk

does asthma cause diabetes