Is there an increased risk of infection with diabetes?


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Diabetes does increase your risk of infection and diabetics tend to have more serious infections than people without diabetes. This is due to the fact that, if you have diabetes type I, your immune system is slightly depressed because diabetes type I is an autoimmune disease where the cells of your immune system attack the cells in your pancreas. This means that your immune system is less able to cope with additional infections. In addition, the high concentration of sugar in the cells of your body and your blood stream increases the growth rate of bacteria in your body (as the bacteria will have more access to sugar that they use to grow). Urinary tract infections (UTIs) and infections in the feet are particularly common in diabetics.

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