Prediabetes and Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy

Prediabetes is a condition where an individual has abnormally high blood glucose, while not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Prediabetes can cause heart and kidney problems. Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) may be defined as “the impairment of autonomic control of the cardiovascular system.” While the condition is frequently not given much focus, CAN is frequently associated with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. CAN may also be associated with heart problems and mortality. Further, at least one recent study has concluded that CAN is also associated with prediabetes.

The investigators involved in the study did a search, electronically, to find individuals, in other studies, with prediabetes, normal glucose and type 2 diabetes. The researchers searched the following databases: Medline, MBASE, Pubmed, Web of science, Scopus and Cochrane.

As a result of the database search, the researchers found 4431 participants who satisfied the analysis’ inclusion criteria. The participants included 1730 individuals with prediabetes. There were 1999 individuals who had normal glucose. And there were 702 individuals with type 2 diabetes. And there was a higher than normal number of individuals experiencing CAN.

Further, the researcher concluded that “There [was] a higher than expected prevalence of CAN in prediabetes. Early detection of CAN in prediabetes through population screening needs careful consideration in view of the excess morbidity and mortality risk associated with this condition.”

The above study underlines the importance of diagnosing prediabetes. And once prediabetes is diagnosed, screening for other known prediabetes comorbidities should then occur -- including screening for CAN. Providers should make it a point to screen for prediabetes. The providers should counsel patients who do have predicates on how to lower the chances of getting type 2 diabetes. The providers should then advise the patients on other prediabetes-associated conditions. This can benefit a patient by potentially improving the patient’s health.

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Obesity Plays a Role in COVID-19

Obesity is a disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The disease is known to be associated with certain types of cancer, including breast and colon cancer. And the disease is known to be associated with diabetes and heart disease. With respect to COVID-19, researchers have concluded that obesity plays a role in the virus. Obesity can be associated with mortality in those with COVID-19. Further, overweight/obesity can be a factor in COVID-19 related pneumonia.

One study, in the form of a meta-analysis, indicated that those suffering from COVID-19 have poor outcomes when they are obese. The researchers did a scientific literature search for COVID-19 related studies. Included in the database search were the following databases: Pubmed, EMBASE, Google, Google scholar, Springer, Elsevier, the Lancet, and Oxford journals. The researchers used keywords and phrases such as COVID-19 and "obesity mortality during COVID-19." After excluding studies that didn’t satisfy their inclusion criteria, the researchers chose 14 studies for the analysis. “The primary objective of [the] study was to find out the effect of overweight or obesity on patients suffering from COVID-19.”

The researchers concluded that “patients with obesity are at high risk of mortality from COVID-19 infection.” Further, the results of the study indicated that age and gender are “significantly associated with COVID-19 mortality.”

Another study, performed in Germany, looked at the Association between COVID-19 and pneumonia and overweight/obese subjects. The researcher used survey results for the analysis. The researchers focused on people with a history of COVID-19 who were 18 years or older. All participants in the study had to be diagnosed using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or a retrospective antibody test. There were 220 participants in the survey, and 204 of the participants had experienced COVID-19.

And the researchers concluded that there is “an association of overweight/obesity with signs of pneumonia in COVID-19.” The researchers went on to say that the possible association between overweight/obesity, COVID-19 and pneumonia “should be investigated further to possibly reduce the proportion of severe cases of COVID-19.”

The above studies show that obesity is negatively associated with COVID-19, just as obesity is negatively associated with cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions. Treating obesity and overweight should be a part of a patient's overall treatment protocol.

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Tags: environmental scanning, balanced scorecard, business planning, strategic management, bariatric medicine, obesity medicine, medical practice start up, bariatric industry analysis, weight loss industry analysis, weight management industry analysis