Ok, I’'ve had Type 1 Diabetes for thirty one years and admittedly haven’t kept up with all of the news throughout the years, but I happened to watch Celebrity Apprentice last night and unfortunately it was a very emotional time for Bret Michaels because he received news that his daughter might also have diabetes. Anyway, I’ll skip ahead to when they were in the “boardroom” with Donald Trump and this info was reported, then Mr. Trump asked Mr. Michaels about the hereditary factor for diabetes and I think Bret Michaels actually said “if the father has it, then there is a 50% chance the child will have it”!!! Now am I mistaken or is this true? I’ve NEVER heard of such a thing. I know there is a gene which shows a susceptibility for Type 1 Diabetes, and perhaps that is what Bret meant to say was 50% hereditary, but I’m certain that Type 1 Diabetes is not as hereditary as what he reported. I’ve been thinking about this all day. Please let me know if I’m wrong. I just get upset when misinformation about diabetes gets out there. I find it hard to believe that children of a male diabetic have a “50% chance of getting diabetes” but maybe I’m the one who is wrong. Otherwise, there would be a lot more children with diabetes than there already are, right? And you poor guys with diabetes; Bret Michaels may have sabotaged your chances of marriage and procreation! And then again, what does it matter whether the parent with diabetes is male or female for purposes of passing on the disease, right?
For a long long long long long long time, females with T1 diabetes only rarely had kids. Witness “Steel Magnolias”. I think that this didn’t skew statistics (which are not fooled!), but it did skew perceptions.
The fact is, genetics is complicated, T1 is complicated. And every old wives tale about anything having to do with genetics or diabetes is gonna be WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.
If Bret Michaels is passing on old wives’ tales, does that make him an old wife? 
Yeah, thanks, my husband and I thought this also. Maybe his entire answer was edited down, unfortunately. Also, his emotional state was not at its optimum level, understandably. They also showed previews of next week’s episode where he states they are still waiting for results from blood tests for her, and I was saying “what is taking so long for a diagnosis?” and my hubby said “they’re doing this for the show.” Who knows? I hope she’s alright.
I think the statistics I have read say there is a 10% chance if the father has it and like a 5% chance if the mother has it. I did some research last year after I was diagnosed and my kids were a bit freaked out. I wanted to reassure them!! Life is full of chances…take one when it comes to kids. Having children is by far the best most fulfilling thing I have ever done in my life!!!
Oh Steel Magnolias! That movie was out just months before my first pregnancy and, yes, my co-worker actually said something about the “danger of pregnancy for a diabetic” and I wanted to pull my hair out!!
I think he was talking about the probablity of an event with two possible outcomes. You either have it or you dont and therefore you have a 50/50 chance of getting diabetes. There are 2 possiblities in the child, you either have it or you dont. Thus, the individual probability for either event is p = 1/2 or 50/50. It all depends on how you interpret what he was talking about
So the chances of me getting hit in the head by a flying siamese cat on my way home from work are 50:50? Either one’ll hit me, or it won’t.
Lordy . . . Good thing Brett Michaels isn’t teaching math.
I have a Type 1 daughter ( I have Type 1 too) Her father’s mother (my mother-in-law) was a Type 2 when my daughter took Type 1 the Dr told me it wasn’t MY fault she took diabetes, that her father had handed her those genes. Maybe that’s what Bret was referring too? Recon? In other words even from my diagnose to her’s it involves the fact that sometimes the father can pass down those genes to his offspring, not the mother.
Yeaa, he was a bit off. Here’s a website.
http://diabetesnewshound.com/type1/bret-michaels-diabetes/
As I posted on another discussion, unfortunately these stats omit the large number of people with adult-onset Type 1a diabetes, so the stats are skewed low. 50% is probably too high for T1 (that’s the stat for Type 2 diabetes), but until a study includes all people with Type 1a in the stats, we don’t actually know.
Oh, that movie gets me every time! I sit there crying and my husband asks me why the heck I watch the darn thing!
I hate Steel Magnolias
I’ve never heard the 50% figure before, last I heard it was like 7-10% for type 1 men and 2-5% for type 1 women. I also wonder if there is some inheritance factor in some families, and not others. Not sure if early type 1 diagnosis has anything to do with passing it on or not. So much goes into these autoimmune diseases which researchers still have not uncovered.
But I think he’s exaggerated the figure.
The female figures are curious. I have less of a chance of passing it on since I was 30 when I had my first child, hmmmm.
The article said the tests his daughter was undergoing would take time to come back. I don’t recall having to wait for any test results to come back to be diagnosed 13 years ago.
My first thought was maybe he actually has MODY? That I believe is 50% chance from the father passing it on???
Cara,
That’s exactly what I said in a pm! I’m a Type 1 from years back. It took an afternoon to tell my parents that. When my daughter took Type 1 it took about 10 minutes to find out!
my doctor told me that type one is less then one percent genetic!
Next time, ask him for the source of his information - where did he learn about this and is it available on the internet?
Yea, me too. It was 34 years ago, I walked into my Doctor’s office, gave my symptoms, did a blood test and yureeka! sent to the hospital with diabetes. Like I said in another post, it’s TV, we must have drama.
That’s what I thought and really the only way it could be that high.