[Diabetes-talk] Insulin and calcium deposits

[Kelly Thornbury]

Since this topic first came up I've searched dozens of medical journals and couldn't find any good studies or published findings on the subject. Not saying it isn't out there, but if it is its pretty obscure. What I did come across is a correlation between diabetes (both insulin-dependent and not) and calcium deposits in arteries (causing athroscorosis or hardening of the arteries). Increased serum insulin levels increases serum triglycerides, which may be a cause (just speculating as none of the research specifically said this). Also, there are studies that show bone calcium deposits on Type II diabetics, but the studies attributed this to most likely being caused by obesity (placing more stress on the bones causing increased bone density) rather than the diabetes itself. So as to the question whether it could affect more than just the shoulder, most likely. I looked at a couple studies on "frozen shoulder" and diabetes, and the correlation seemed a little weak to me. The studies I read left a lot of questions like past history and current activity unanswered...they just didn't look at as many alternate possibilities for the condition as I would have liked to have seen (probably why I'm not a diabetic frozen shoulder researcher, eh?). 

As for trigger finger, I think that is typically when a tendon slips from the normal groove it travels during a muscle contraction. So maybe, it (or for that matter frozen shoulder I guess) could be more frequent in diabetics with less than perfect control, or a diabetic that went a long time as undiagnosed. As the lack of insulin causes the body to catabolise muscle for fuel, the tendon tension would be less and the chance of it slipping out of its normal groove would increase...Perhaps?