As expected, metformin was associated with a higher incidence of acidosis. However, this was accompanied by a reduction in heart failure and inflammation, and there was no overall unfavorable effect on COVID‐19‐related mortality.
Outpatient metformin use is associated with reduced severity of COVID-19 disease in adults with overweight or obesity. J Med Virol. 2021;93(7):4273-4279.
The meta-analysis showed that metformin was significantly associated with lower mortality in COVID-19 patients with DM in both unadjusted (OR 0.61 [95% confidence interval: 0.53-0.71], P < . 00001, I2 = 70%) and adjusted (OR 0.78 [95% confidence interval: 0.69-0.88], P < . 00001, I2 = 67%) models.
A: People with diabetes are more likely to have serious complications from COVID-19. In general, people with diabetes are more likely to have more severe symptoms and complications when infected with any virus. Your risk of getting very sick from COVID-19 is likely to be lower if your diabetes is well-managed.
Diabetes and Coronavirus
One reason is that high blood sugar weakens the immune system and makes it less able to fight off infections. Your risk of severe coronavirus infection is even higher if you also have another condition, like heart or lung disease.
“COVID seems to have a dramatic effect on stimulating cytokines, which are inflammatory factors. That makes insulin resistance worse and can elevate blood sugars,” says Athena Philis-Tsimikas, MD, an endocrinologist at Scripps Clinic, and medical director at the Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute.
Unfortunately, in diabetes, the host's immune response is disrupted. In addition to the risk of natural barrier damage due to neuropathy, T2D can also affect cellular immunity. This is caused by insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia [45].
Hyperglycemia in diabetes is thought to cause dysfunction of the immune response, which fails to control the spread of invading pathogens in diabetic subjects. Therefore, diabetic subjects are known to more susceptible to infections.
Glucose-lowering drugs used in the treatment of patients with diabetes might have significant effects on COVID-19 pathophysiology, potentially affecting the risk of progression to severe disease and mortality.
Interactions between your drugs
No interactions were found between metformin and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. However, this does not necessarily mean no interactions exist. Always consult your healthcare provider.
Due to its inhibitory effect on the proinflammatory phenotype of immune cells, metformin seems to reduce auto-immune disease burden not only in several animal models, but has also shown beneficial results in some human trials.
The FDA has approved the antiviral drug Veklury (remdesivir) for adults and certain pediatric patients with COVID-19. This is an intravenous therapy (IV). The FDA has also approved the immune modulators Olumiant (baricitinib) and Actemra (tocilizumab) for certain hospitalized adults with COVID-19.
Recent studies have also found that metformin has a positive effect on cardiovascular protection [8,9,10,11,12]. Metformin also lowers risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as blood fats [13,14,15], body weight and blood pressure.
The FDA has approved an antiviral drug called remdesivir (Veklury) to treat COVID-19 in adults and children who are age 12 and older. Remdesivir may be prescribed for people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 and need supplemental oxygen or have a higher risk of serious illness.
Diabetes patients may have compromised immune system that can affect body's healing ability from a disease or infection and reduce the recovery time. Uncontrolled diabetes may have adverse effect on body and cause inflammation to the healthy cells resulting damage to bodily functions.
Summary. People living with diabetes are at a higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection, including complications such as pneumonia and hospitalization and death. If you have diabetes, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 can reduce your risk of severe illness and death.
People with diabetes commonly experience persistent fatigue. Causes of fatigue can include high or low blood sugar levels, depression, being overweight, certain medications, and coinciding medical conditions.
Life expectancy can be increased by 3 years or in some cases as much as 10 years. At age 50, life expectancy- the number of years a person is expected to live- is 6 years shorter for people with type 2 diabetes than for people without it.
And while having diabetes does not make you more likely to get a cold or flu, it does raise your chances of getting seriously sick. Having a plan for sick days ahead of time will help you manage your diabetes and will make additional complications less likely.
A person may have mild symptoms for about one week, then worsen rapidly. Let your doctor know if your symptoms quickly worsen over a short period of time.
You are most infectious (or contagious) in the first 5 days after your symptoms start. You can also spread COVID-19 in the 48 hours before your symptoms start.
You can pass on the infection to others, even if you have no symptoms. Many people with COVID-19 will no longer be infectious to others after 5 days. If you have a positive COVID-19 test result, try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days after the day you took your test.
Long-term side effects
Taking metformin can cause vitamin B12 deficiency if you take it for a long time. This can make you feel very tired, breathless and faint, so your doctor may check the vitamin B12 level in your blood. If your vitamin B12 levels become too low, vitamin B12 supplements will help.