There was an unexpected surge in the diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes among children and teenagers worldwide amidst the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study.
The systematic review, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), analyzed 42 studies on diabetes incidence, including 17 studies involving nearly 38,000 people under the age of 19. The review revealed a 14 percent surge in Type 1 diabetes cases in 2020, followed by a 27 percent increase in 2021, compared to before the pandemic.
Furthermore, the research highlighted a rise in Type 2 diabetes incidence and diabetic ketoacidosis, a severe complication of diabetes more common in Type 1 patients, after the start of the pandemic.
What Is the Link Between COVID and Type 1 Diabetes?
The exact connection between COVID-19 and the higher risk of developing diabetes is unclear, according to the authors of the study. However, some doctors disagree.
Type 1 diabetes is well established as an autoimmune disease, where the body attacks its own pancreatic beta cells, a primary source of insulin.
Both viral infections and vaccinations are known triggers for autoimmune diseases, and COVID-19 and its vaccine could be no exception, Dr. Paul Marik, a critical care physician, former tenured professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and co-founder of the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care (FLCCC) Alliance, told The Epoch Times.
Numerous case reports have documented instances where patients developed Type 1 diabetes following either COVID-19 infection or COVID-19 vaccination.
The spike proteins present in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as those produced by the body after vaccination, are very likely to be causing autoimmunity, according to Dr. Marik.
“There is few doubts that SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is the most likely trigger of Type 1 diabetes,” Dr. Flavio Cadegiani, an endocrinologist and researcher at Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil, told The Epoch Times via email.
The primary role of COVID-19 spike proteins is to attach to ACE-2 receptors on cell surfaces and enter the cells. Pancreatic beta cells, which have ACE-2 receptors, are vulnerable to infection and potential damage caused by spike protein entry.
Spike proteins also share similarities with human proteins, and their presence may lead the body to produce antibodies that not only target the spike protein but also attack human tissues, including the pancreas.
This phenomenon of molecular mimicry is seen in vaccine-injured patients, and those with long COVID, Dr. Marik said. Studies have found autoantibodies—antibodies that attack the body’s own tissues or cells—in both groups of patients.
Type 2 Diabetes: More Common and Complicated Consequence
The study may mistakenly conflate Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes as the same disease, hence the “no clear underlying mechanism” conclusion, board-certified internist Dr. Keith Berkowitz told The Epoch Times.
Type 2 diabetes, compared to Type 1, is more complex and metabolic, influenced by factors like obesity, processed food, heart disease, blood cholesterol, and hypertension.
Dr. Berkowitz said he has observed a unique blood glucose dysregulation pattern in his post-COVID and post-vaccine patients.
Patients with Type 2 diabetes typically have high blood sugar levels with high or low insulin levels as the beta cells become fatigued. However, Dr. Berkowitz said he observed that some of his patients had low blood sugar alongside high insulin levels, a condition he said he has never encountered before.
“Even my well-controlled diabetic patients are not faring well, especially those who have received both vaccinations and had COVID infections,” Dr. Berkowitz added.
Dr. Berkowitz uses intravenous fluids to address these conditions in Type 2 diabetics, restoring their water balance and blood sugar regulation. “When a diabetic goes to the hospital, the first thing they do is administer intravenous saline because insulin doesn’t work well in a severely dehydrated cell,” he said.
Treatment for Autoimmunity and Type 1 Diabetes
Autoimmunity is a condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly identifies its own cells, tissues, or organs as foreign invaders and attacks them. This can lead to various autoimmune diseases.
But the body may be brought back into balance.
1. Remove COVID-19 Spike Protein
The spike protein may contribute to autoimmune disease, prompting doctors to consider therapies that may remove these inflammatory proteins.
Research suggests that fasting can trigger autophagy, the process of clearing old, damaged, and foreign proteins.
Intermittent fasting and prolonged fasts, even for three days, may “reset” the immune system, potentially reducing autoimmune activity. Fasting, however, is not recommended for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Other recommended therapies for spike protein removal include ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplementation.
2. Supplement With Vitamin D
Vitamin D insufficiency, a common deficiency among the U.S. population, has been linked to autoimmune disorders.
Research shows vitamin D supplementation reduces autoimmune disease risk by 22 percent. Infants given vitamin D also have lower Type 1 diabetes incidence, a 2001 study found.
Vitamin D reduces inflammation and provides infection protection. Some scientists propose it helps the immune system differentiate between self and non-self.
Dr. Cadegiani stated that one of his first therapies is to increase Type 1 diabetes patients’ vitamin D levels between the range of 60 to 90 ng/ml, which is around 6,000 to 9,000 IUs of dietary vitamin D per day.
Vitamin D is also linked to improved insulin sensitivity.
3. Reduce Sugar Intake
Sugar contributes to inflammation, and studies have found that those who consume high levels of sugar over extended periods are at a higher risk of developing autoimmune diseases.
In the case of patients with Type 1 diabetes, Dr. Cadegiani said that cutting glucose and carbohydrate consumption reduces insulin, and, therefore, can prevent the body from forming more autoantibodies against pancreatic beta cells.
4. Hydroxychloroquine
Dr. Cadegiani said that he sometimes prescribes hydroxychloroquine when a patient is positive for Type 1 diabetes antibodies, but still has around normal blood sugar levels.
The anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine is a powerful drug that fights autoimmune diseases. It is able to bind to the ACE-2 receptors and prevent spike protein entry and is also able to block spike protein from causing further harm.
It is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in chronic discoid lupus erythematosus, systemic lupus erythematosus in adults, and rheumatoid arthritis, all autoimmune diseases.
Studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine can also reduce blood sugar and is associated with a reduced risk of Type 1 diabetes. The use of chloroquine, a hydroxychloroquine derivative, in Type 1 diabetes cases can reduce inflammation in the body.
5. Plant Supplements
Plant supplements like curcumin and berberine also have anti-diabetic properties and may help prevent Type 1 diabetes.
Curcumin can decrease blood sugar and insulin levels and reduce inflammation and oxidation. Some theories have suggested that curcumin may be able to prevent the immune system from overreacting, which results in autoimmunity.
Curcumin reduces inflammation in the gut, helping with digestion and overall gut health. An unhealthy gut can lead to a dysregulated immune system, increasing the risk of autoimmunity.
Despite being a plant compound, berberine has been found to have potent blood glucose-lowering properties. Berberine has been shown to be protective against pancreatic beta cells and also improve insulin resistance.
Thus, both patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes may supplement with berberine. Those already taking medications for diabetes may need to consult their doctors before supplementing with berberine.
6. Diabetes Drugs
Dr. Cadegiani also uses diabetes drugs like metformin and liraglutide to treat and prevent Type 1 diabetes.
Metformin is a common diabetes drug that can reduce blood sugar levels. In Type 1 diabetes, metformin increases insulin sensitivity and action and also increases peripheral glucose uptake.
Liraglutide increases satiety and slows gastric emptying. Studies have also shown that the drug increases pancreatic beta cell mass, improves the cells’ functions, and prevents beta cell deaths, all of which may help prevent Type 1 diabetes.
Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.
Two Storms, One Harvest
Every food crisis in living memory has been a one-shock event. The 2008 price spike was a commodity bubble. The 2020 shortages were a logistics failure. The 2022 grain scare was a war on one exporter’s ports. Each time, the system bent, adjusted, and recovered, and each time the experts assured us afterward that global markets are simply too big and too diversified to fail.
What nobody in Washington seems eager to discuss is that 2026 is shaping up to be something the modern food system has never actually faced. Two independent shocks, one climatic and one geopolitical, are converging on the same harvest cycle at the same time. Not sequentially. Simultaneously.
Start with the weather. The Pacific Ocean is currently building toward what forecasters now openly call a record event. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center puts the odds of at least a strong El Niño near 88 percent, with roughly two in three odds it reaches “very strong” status, the tier reserved for perhaps three or four events in the entire satellite era. Every major global model now projects a median peak in Super El Niño territory, and most of them project it exceeding the 2015-16 event, which until now held the modern record. Sea surface anomalies were already brushing the super threshold in mid-July, months before these events normally peak. The atmosphere has already shifted into El Niño mode, and the event is forecast to crest in late fall and early winter.
This is not about “climate change.” It’s about the standard cycles of weather, and the cycle we’re currently in is one that has likely devastated societies in the past. We’re better prepared as a society today, but not all Americans are equally prepared.
Serious households have started doing the quiet math on their own. Grocery bills tell part of the story, and the forecast maps tell the rest, which is why long-term food storage has moved from fringe hobby to mainstream line item in the family budget, with established suppliers like Heaven’s Harvest seeing demand from people who five years ago would have rolled their eyes at the idea. That instinct is not paranoia. It is pattern recognition, and the pattern is worth walking through carefully.
Editor’s Note: Heaven’s Harvest IS a sponsor, but the warnings of this article are real and would be written even if we didn’t have a survival food sponsor. With that said, those who take advantage of what they offer can use promo code “Patriot” for 15% off.
The Fertilizer Clock Is Already Running
While the Pacific warms, the second shock has been unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict with Iran turned the world’s most important energy chokepoint into a contested waterway, and the consequences reach far beyond the gas pump. Roughly a third of global fertilizer trade moves through Hormuz, and the disruption sent urea prices up 86 percent year over year by March, with a 53 percent jump in a single month.
The World Bank projects energy prices rising about 24 percent in 2026 and fertilizer about 31 percent. By its own accounting, fertilizer prices ran 35 percent higher in the first five months of this year than the same period last year.
Here is the mechanism the nightly news will not explain. Fertilizer is not a grocery item. It is a time-delayed input. The nitrogen a farmer in Iowa or Punjab could not afford to apply this spring does not show up as a problem this spring. It shows up as a thinner harvest six to twelve months later.
The World Bank’s own food security brief concedes that the effects of reduced applications earlier this season “are likely to become visible only later in harvest outcomes.” Translate that from institutional language into plain English and it means this. The damage is already done, it is already in the ground, and we are simply waiting for it to arrive on the shelf.
Now check the calendar. Six to twelve months from the spring planting season lands us squarely in late 2026 and early 2027. Which is precisely when the strongest El Niño in the instrumental record is forecast to peak, bringing its signature droughts to Southeast Asia, Australia, southern Africa, northern Brazil, and South Asia, the very regions that grow the world’s rice, sugar, and oilseeds.
The World Bank warns openly that a strong El Niño “could disrupt multiple crop belts simultaneously” on top of the conflict-driven input costs. Their baseline projection assumes the Middle East disruptions ease by autumn. What in the last two years of Middle East history suggests that assumption is safe?
The System Has No Slack Left
The comfortable answer is that global markets always adjust. But adjustment requires slack, and the slack is gone. Global cereal production is expected to decline from last year’s records even before El Niño does its work. The UN World Food Programme, hardly a den of right-wing preppers, is calling this the most significant disruption to its supply chains since Covid and the invasion of Ukraine, and its supply chain director put the stakes bluntly.
Today’s supply chain challenges are tomorrow’s hunger crisis.
There is also a political dimension that markets cannot price. When food gets scarce, governments do not behave like economists. They behave like politicians. Export bans, hoarding mandates, and panic buying at the national level turned the modest rice shortfall of 2008 into a global crisis, and analysts are already warning that import-dependent nations are the first dominoes.
The 2015-16 Super El Niño, a far weaker event than what is now forecast, threw tens of millions into food stress across Africa and Asia. This one is projected to be stronger, and it arrives with fertilizer already rationed by price and shipping lanes already contested by missiles.
What Joseph Knew
Scripture does not treat preparation for lean years as faithlessness. It treats it as wisdom delivered in advance to those willing to act on it.
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
Joseph did not respond to that warning with a hashtag or a committee. He stored grain during the years of abundance, and when the famine came, Egypt stood while its neighbors begged. The lesson is not that famine is certain. It is that the time to prepare is precisely when preparation still looks optional.
Nobody who filled a pantry in a year of plenty has ever regretted it, and nobody standing in an empty aisle has ever been glad he waited for certainty.
None of this calls for panic, and panic is the enemy of sound judgment anyway. It calls for the same unglamorous prudence our grandparents considered ordinary. Keep some cash margin, know your local growers, and put real food in deep storage while it is cheap and available, because the entire arc of this story is that cheap and available is a closing window.
Families looking for a straightforward place to start can visit Heaven’s Harvest and use promo code Patriot for 15 percent off long-term storable food. The forecasts may yet soften, the strait may yet reopen, and we should pray they do. But hope is a fine thing to hold and a foolish thing to eat.
