Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast, BC 🇨🇦

Endocrine complications of COVID-19: diabetes, musculoskeletal, thyroid, pituitary, adrenal, and gonadal disorders 🚨COVID can trigger new diabetes, crash calcium, inflame the thyroid, and suppress testosterone or cortisol. Benefits of vaccination still dwarf the rare endocrine side-effects, says a 2026 Endocrine Society review. ➡️The USA review synthesizes English-language reviews and meta-analyses from March 2020 to June 2026 on endocrine effects of acute SARSCoV2. ➡️SARSCoV2 enters cells via ACE2, aided by TMPRSS2 and ADAM17. Damage occurs through direct invasion, cytokine release, autoimmunity, and medication effects, hitting pancreas, thyroid, pituitary, adrenals, gonads, and parathyroid/bone. ➡️1. Pancreas. - New-onset diabetes rises after infection (relative risk 1.41 in a 12-study meta-analysis, about 1.37% prevalence in a 43-study review of 4.4 million patients, mostly type 2), - Diabetic ketoacidosis and severe outcomes increase, especially in type 1 diabetes, - Risk peaks in the first year and varies with severity, variant, age, and comorbidities, - Metformin and DPP-4 inhibitors are noted as potentially protective, ➡️2. Thyroid: - Non-thyroidal illness syndrome is the commonest change (pooled prevalence about 26%), - Subacute thyroiditis and new autoimmune hypo- or hyperthyroidism also occur and track with severity (odds ratio 3.77 for abnormal tests in severe versus milder disease), - Dysfunction can persist into longC0VID, ➡️3. Pituitary: - Reported effects include hypophysitis, apoplexy, SIADH, rare central diabetes insipidus, and hypopituitarism (secondary adrenal insufficiency or hypogonadism), mainly after severe illness, via hypoxia, thrombosis, or inflammation, ➡️4. Adrenals: - Adrenal insufficiency appears in roughly 3.5–6.8% of mild and 7–38.5% of severe cases, mostly central and often reversible. - Primary failure is rare (haemorrhage, infarction, or adrenalitis). ➡️5. Gonads: - Low total testosterone with normal LH, reduced libido, and erectile dysfunction are described, especially in longC0VID, - Permanent infertility is not established, - Higher male severity is not fully explained by androgens, ➡️6. Parathyroid/bone: - Hypocalcaemia occurs in about 55% (range 23–78%, up to 87% by ionized calcium) and tracks with severity and mortality, - Mechanisms include parathyroid invasion, vitamin D deficiency, and calcium use during viral entry, - Remodelling shifts toward more osteoclasts, lower bone density, and higher vertebral-fracture risk, - Hypercalcemia is rare. ➡️Most selected studies are non-randomized and heterogeneous. ‼️So, AGAIN, any tissue expressing ACE2 can be injured by SARSCoV2, so the largest absolute endocrine burden falls on the millions with mild-to-moderate infection rather than only the critically ill! ‼️Mild COVID-19 is not trivial for the endocrine system. The review notes that while severe infection produces the starkest individual complications, the largest overall burden falls on the far larger group with mild-to-moderate illness. Unexplained fatigue, rising blood sugar, neck pain, muscle weakness, low libido, or menstrual change after even a mild case therefore justify checking glucose or HbA1c, TSH, and calcium—and, when symptoms point that way, morning cortisol or testosterone, rather than dismissing them as ordinary post-viral tiredness. People who already have diabetes or adrenal insufficiency still need tighter sick-day attention, because a “mild” infection can unmask or worsen those conditions! #AvoidSars #AvoidReinfections academic.oup.com/jes/article…