Diabetes is a chronic (life-long) autoimmune disease that significantly impacts your life. Having this chronic disease means you must work to control your blood glucose (sugar) levels to ensure that they don’t get too high or too low.
The amount and balance of glucose in your blood are important. Your body needs glucose for energy, but too much of it can destroy body tissues, and too little can starve your body of nutrients.
People who have diabetes are also at risk of developing wounds and sores that don’t heal well. While the wounds are present, they are at high risk of developing an infection. When an infection overwhelms the body, it can cause sepsis and septic shock.
Sepsis, which was often called blood poisoning, is the body’s life-threatening response to infection. Like strokes or heart attacks, sepsis is a medical emergency that requires rapid diagnosis and treatment.
Suggested Citation:
Sepsis Alliance. Sepsis and Diabetes. 2023. https://www.sepsis.org/sepsisand/diabetes/
Updated December 15, 2023.
Your pancreas is a small organ (about 6” by 1.5”) that is part of your digestive system. It connects to your small intestine and sits just below your stomach towards the back. Your pancreas has a few roles, one is to help digest the food you eat and another is to secrete (send out) insulin, which stimulates your cells to use the glucose in the food and drink you consume.
When a person has diabetes, the pancreas doesn’t function properly. The pancreas either doesn’t secrete insulin at all or not effectively, depending on the type of diabetes.
Type 1 used to be called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes. It is now called type 1. The names changed because older people can develop type 1 diabetes. As well, insulin isn’t restricted to people with this type of diabetes.
With type 1 diabetes, the pancreas cannot produce the insulin needed for the body to metabolize the glucose in the bloodstream.
Type 2 used to be called adult-onset or non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Neither of these names works because now younger people are developing type 2 diabetes, and it is not unusual for someone with type 2 diabetes to need insulin.
With type 2, the pancreas either doesn’t produce enough insulin, or the body cannot effectively use the produced insulin.
This type of diabetes occurs during pregnancy. People with gestational diabetes are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
Type 1 diabetes has no known cause, although researchers agree that it is an autoimmune disease. There are many theories, a common one being that a virus may trigger the disease in people who may be susceptible to it in the first place.
People at highest risk for type 1 diabetes are those:
While some people develop type 2 diabetes regardless of how healthy they are, many who develop it may have been able to reduce their risk by making some lifestyle changes.
People at the highest risk of developing type 2 include those who are :
Or have:
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has a Diabetes Risk Test that you could take to determine your risk.
Diabetes cannot be cured, but it can be managed. If you have type 1 diabetes, the only way to manage your blood glucose levels is by monitoring them, eating a diabetes-friendly diet, and injecting yourself regularly with insulin. Lifestyle changes are usually the first step in treating type 2, along with oral medications. These help your body use the insulin in your system. If your blood glucose levels are still too high, you may need to use insulin.
Given that the infection risk is higher than average for people with diabetes, it is essential that you watch for signs of sepsis should you become ill with a possible infection.
Gestational diabetes can often be controlled with diet and exercise, but some people do need insulin to keep their blood sugar at safe levels. The disease usually goes away after the baby is born.
I started feeling unwell at the beginning of June this year with diarrhoea and vomiting and a chest infection, but as I’m type 1 diabetic didn’t think too much of it as infection tends to make my blood sugar unstable. (Sepsis and Diabetes) I did however go to my local hospital where I had a few bags of IV saline to rehydrate me. The junior doctor commented that my inflammation levels were raised but I was discharged with no treatment and my GP wasn’t alerted. As the chest infection developed into a hacking sputum producing cough, my GP prescribed penicillin ... Read Full Story
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My mom started getting sick I believe April/May 2011. She had type 2 diabetes so infection was always on our mind. (Sepsis and Diabetes) She has a significant head injury /trauma from in April 2011 that she didn’t pursue any treatment for. She was 73 years old. She developed significant lower back pain and had difficulty walking. Presented to the ER twice within a month and was evaluated and sent home with pain medications for her back. My next contact with my mom I knew something was really wrong. She was not talking straight. I live 3000 miles away so ... Read Full Story
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One October day my wife and I were on our yearly vacation in the mountains of western Marylands, celebrating Autumn Glory, at a vacation rental in Deep creek lake. The rental cabin had a hot tub. I enjoyed soaking in it since it was crisp outside and the trees were really beautiful in the colors of fall, I like saying they looked as if they were painted by God’s paint brush. The trip was great and I was fine for a few weeks after returning home. Then one night I couldn’t get warm. My wife put all of our blankets ... Read Full Story
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Our daddy died on the 30 June 2017 we took him in to hospital on the Thursday by the Friday he had gone we found out a few days later he died of sepsis. He was the best dad ever. It started on the Monday when the doctors failed him. They said it was his cellulitis and gave him antibiotics without coming out. (Sepsis and Cellulitis) He became very ill through the week and on the Wednesday he had hypoglycemia due to type 2 diabetes. We had gotten him stable. (Sepsis and Diabetes) The next day frantically rang the doctors ... Read Full Story
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Shawn was a coherent man who had been holding down a full-time job. He walked into the hospital ER under his own steam for a diabetic sore on his foot. (Sepsis and Diabetes) He would be in the hospital 2 weeks where he would have foot surgery and his health started declining. Instead of keeping him in the hospital though, because he was uninsured, he was put into a crappy run rehab center where he was not given adequate care. He started to have severe tremors, so much so that he couldn’t even hold his phone to talk. He was ... Read Full Story
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Diabetes is a chronic (life-long) autoimmune disease that has a significant impact on your life. Having this chronic disease means you must work to control your blood glucose (sugar) levels to be sure that they don’t get too high or too low.
