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Prevention of diabetes will help vaccine against hepatitis
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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To a rather unexpected conclusion came a group of researchers in one of the medical centers in California. As scientists have found, vaccination against viral hepatitis B is capable of halving the risk of developing diabetes.
Experts analyzed information on more than seven thousand volunteers who were healthy at the time of the study and did not have diabetes. About 1400 participants were vaccinated against viral hepatitis B. After several years of observation, scientists found that of the group of people infected with hepatitis, the number of people with diabetes was slightly higher than 1%, while among those who did not get vaccinated, about 6% of the sick volunteers fell ill.
As calculations of specialists showed, vaccination against hepatitis B reduced the likelihood of diabetes by 81%.
The human liver takes an active part in the metabolism of glucose and insulin. According to experts, the prevention of infectious diseases, in particular, that violate the normal functions of the liver (which is observed in viral hepatitis), can be of significant significance in the development of diabetes mellitus. This assumption will be tested in the course of the following studies.
Research groups from the United States often conduct new studies related to viral forms of hepatitis (mainly B and C). In one study of American scientists it was found that in men and women the course of viral hepatitis C differs. This study is linked to a program that has been conducted in the United States for the past few years on the prevention of viral hepatitis and the detection of infected people among the population.
According to the results of the study, in women who are in reproductive age and are infected with hepatitis C, the probability of developing such a serious complication as cirrhosis of the liver, in contrast to men, is lower. Scientists suggest that this is due to female hormones, which have a hepatoprotective effect. However, after menopause in women, the risk of developing cirrhosis becomes the same as that of men.
Also, the protective effect that female sex hormones exert is associated with several other phenomena. Thus, experts noted that the predictions about the independent death of the virus and self-healing in men are always worse than for women. The likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted viral hepatitis in men increases in the case of contact with a woman during menstruation (if it is infected with a virus).
In addition, among women who had undergone a caesarean section before 1992, there is an increased likelihood of contracting chronic form of hepatitis C. This is due to the fact that during the operation, the blood was often transfused to the women, but the blood of donors was checked for viral hepatitis only after 1992 of the year.
For this reason, millions of women who are infected with hepatitis can live on the planet in different countries, but they do not even suspect about it, since for years (within 20-30 years) the disease can not manifest itself in any way.
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