Sugar Shack

More than a decade ago my PCP informed me that I was pre-diabetic. Being, for almost all my full-grown life, possessing a BMI around 20.5, which is near dead center of the CDC 'Healthy' designation, I was not happy. But, truth be told, the incident reminded me of two other, somewhat odd events. The first was my PCP back when I was in my mid-20s advised me to cut back on the orange juice. I don't recall whether she mentioned the 'D' word, or just waistline management. The second was, many years later, when my Pappy (a few inches taller, but same build) mentioned in passing (at about the age I am now) that he had 'a touch of the sugar diabetes'. That last bit of redundancy was common parlance to his generation.

A few years later, my doctor decided that the condition was no longer 'pre-', and put me on some medicine. What was somewhat ironic was that Dr. Jones was short and round, a la Danny DeVito at least, while I was back to being StrawMan. Being informed, along with 99.44% of the population, that sugar diabetes is the punishment for overindulgence and obesity, I complained to Dr. Jones, in effect: he is the prototypical diabetic while I was the in-control, exercising, healthy Mr. GoodBody. Not fair!! What the hell happened?

I recall reading up to that time, every now again, that diabetes can be caused by viruses. At the time, none had been implicated. But the notion certainly made sense, given my BMI. Dr. Jones agreed that a viral insult seemed the most likely explanation. That my Pappy and I had attracted D-2, argued for a common environmental attack.

Which brings us to news I just heard on FakeNews: CDC has documented kids infected with Covid-19 have a higher probability of D-2 and D-1!! The latter is a nucular Boy Howdy.

Earlier (in a relative sense) studies have suggested such. One recent report.

Previous studies have linked viruses to diabetes, and recent studies have suggested that enteroviruses could potentially trigger diabetes, although its direct effect in vivo as well as its mechanism of action at the molecular level were unknown. A recent mouse study by researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) reveals how the enterovirus coxsackievirus type B4 (CVB4) could induce diabetes.

One might wonder whether all those Red Neck Phat Boys would refuse an anti-diabetes vaccine? Still be able to have an RC and a Moon Pie breakfast each and every day, and only have to pay the price of blowing up like the Stay Puft Man.