so today I want to talk about why diabetes makes you more susceptible to
getting viruses and more specifically I'm talking about COVID-19 being a
diabetic triples the mortality rate from this virus but the question is why well
here's why the virus enters the cell through your own body's receptor and the
type of receptor is this right here ace 2 receptor so it goes in there and it
starts to replicate so here's the thing the more ace 2 receptors you have on
your cells the higher the susceptibility to this virus you're going to be and
diabetics have a lot more ace 2 receptor proteins on their cells people with high
blood glucose have more ace 2 receptors people that have higher amounts of
insulin also have higher amounts of these receptors and this is why they're
more susceptible to viruses however there's a couple additional reasons that
you need to know about number one the condition insulin resistance and by the
way about 75 percent of the population has instant resistance so it's very very
very very common insulin resistance can impair your immune response to a
virus okay but that's not all people with hyperglycemia high sugar which is a
lot of people and I'm talking also about people that are pre-diabetic have a
decrease in neutrophils now let me explain what a neutrophil is when you
have an infection about 70 percent of your white blood cells are neutrophils
so they're very very common they are basically a phagocyte they're a cell
that eats viruses and bacteria but primarily they're involved in a lot of
viral infections so when you're diabetic your neutrophils go down now there are
three things that neutrophils do number one they eat viruses for lunch
okay number two they release anti microbial chemicals that kill pathogens
like hydrogen peroxide okay and chloride bleach they actually release bleach and
they end up killing the microbes number three they have another strategy using
what's called an NETS nets where they literally put a net over the microbe and
dissolve that microbe with the chemicals one of the problems with neutrophils is
they do create a lot of collateral damage because they have these poisons
and sometimes they can affect your immune system but the point is that if
you don't have enough neutrophils your immune system is going to be compromised
where your body just doesn't have the weapons to fight so you can imagine this
if you want to send out your troops to battle without any weapons what's gonna
happen this is what happens when your blood sugar is high and this is why a
diabetic has a higher mortality rate with this virus and other viruses as
well now if you're a diabetic and you're concerned about COVID-19 the coronavirus
and you continue to eat foods that are high in carbohydrates then we know you
are missing a real key piece to this entire puzzle because with some slight
modifications of your diet by cutting out those carbs and decreasing the
frequency of your meals you can greatly improve diabetes and you can actually
improve your immune system as well so if you're a diabetic you need to know what
to eat to minimize the risk factors so I put that video right here and check it
out