I’m thinking of the theory of how my diabetes developed. I had the chicken pox years before type 1 diabetes diagnosis and a local study found a commonality in the chicken pox and type 1 diagnosis. I am wondering what theories other type 1s attach to their diabetes. Did anybody have the measles, chicken pox, a virus, the flu or anything before the diabetes developed?
Although I was diagnosed T1 as an adult, I did contract salmonella as a baby (infant, really; apparently very sick and didn’t grow for the first year or so). At 29 I developed shingles as a result of stress in my personal and work life. I’ve also have a history of alopecia areata (hair loss). That I developed Type 1 diabetes really wasn’t a surprise, given the auto-immune history; contracting salmonella at the critical stage of immune system development probably sealed my fate.
My greatest fear now is that I could be proportionally more susceptible to another outbreak of shingles. The variety I had was facial, affecting the trigeminal nerve (the three-branch nerve that serves the upper & lower jaw and wraps around the ear); unbelievably painful.
When I was 25 I had my apendix ruputure and I was in ICU for 4 days with 4 different antibotics dripping into me. I lost a ton of weight and was very sick for a about a year. After that I was really sensitive to sugar, it would always make me very tired, so I avoided it. Since that time, I have had a total hysterectomy, my gallbladder removed, I have celiac, and T1 diagnosed at 31. I believe it was the apendix “disaster” that started the whole ball rolling.
I had the chicken pox… but 5 years after T1 diagnosis!
No obvious cold or flu in the months preceding my diagnosis.
Although the medical studies trying to find correlations between things and T1 diabetes are interesting, please remember: correlation is not causation. I’m sure the correlation is interesting from a medical research side, and will undoubtedly help figure things out eventually, I’m not sure that anyone with autoimmune-type T1 can say exactly what caused their T1 diabetes.
so i got the chicken pox vaccine when i was born, and then STILL got chicken pox when i was 7. shortly thereafter i started to get sick, and then the 'betes. i guess i think these are somehow related, but im not sure if it had to do with the vaccine or the illness. hm.
I agree. Impossible to tell… But interesting to theorize about.
The chicken-or-the-egg question… so to speak 
That’s even assuming that the chicken is related to the egg.
Thinking back to my childhood: Everyone got chicken pox (pre vaccine) sooner or later. Half the kids with T1 diabetes had already had chicken pox. Does this mean that chicken pox causes diabetes? I don’t think so, because then every kid who had chicken pox would’ve gotten T1 diabetes. And what about the other half?
I agree the statistics showing correlation are interesting, but not everyone who had chicken pox got T1 diabetes, and not everyone who has T1 diabetes had the chicken pox before.
So please don’t presume the chicken and egg are always related. Maybe it’s a chicken and an ostrich egg.
I was a healthy 29 year old. I got my first ever flu shot due to having a new born baby and was diagnosed 3 months later. ALthough my wife is fine. I will not let my daughter get the flu shot. When I googled flu shots and diabetes I found a few people also say either themselves or children got type1 after a flu shot.
It was the Chicken first fyi. Eggs require the OC-17 protein which is only found in chicken ovaries. So it much be chicken and the ostrich. Now, thats an odd one! =^D
I had Roseola, which is a viral infection that causes a high fever and rash. It is most common in infants and pretty rare after age 4. I was diagnosed with T1 in 1988 at the age of ten, a couple weeks after the Roseola. We’ve always suspected a link.
Type 1 Diabetes takes years to develop before you show symptoms. Flu shots do not cause any type of diabetes. You will also find lots of people that wore jeans three months before they were diagnosed with Type 1, but there is no reason to suspect wearing jeans causes Type 1.
My own “theory” is pretty boring- those of us with a rather rare genetic sensitivity to a common environmental trigger were exposed to that trigger and our immune systems permanently compromised. Years later, we start ■■■■■■■ 24/7 and lose 40 pounds in a month.
I honestly believe that with disorders such as T1 diabetes it is a case of Genetics load the gun and environment pulls the trigger. There are numerous studies that show discordance between monozygotic twins for T1 which in scientific terms suggest that there is an environmental influence that triggers the development of the condition. I know that in my case I had a big schock physically and a bad and prolonged dental infection before my diagnosis. Bizarrely enough my consultant asked me if I had problems with my teeth as it is something he sees regularly.
My Mom said that I had chicken pox when I was 6 months old(only 6 pox) and I was dxd. at age 3. There were probably many possible triggers though. I guess we’ll never Really know for sure and I guess it doesn’t Really matter. I’m over it long ago.
i had been diagnosed with graves disease and had rai treatment. a year or so before the d dx my thyroid sputtered back to life for a bit and caused havok, then i got really sick and was dxd with type 1. mine is so obviously a huge autoimmune issue. after i was dxd with d i got sick again and was dxd with celiac. i’m hoping nothing else decides to pop up.
My endo seems to think that everyone had a “triggering” illness before they developed type 1. She does tons of research at UNC Chapel Hill and she swears by it. I dont know how true that is but I do remember having a viral infection before I got diagnosed.
I was the same hayfever when I was wee developed into asthma then , pancreas went next, then the thyroid, then PCOS, then coeliacs and I’ve just spent a week in hospital being tested for cushings which can be a root cause of all of this
Sometimes it just all feels neverending 
Everyone I know who’s had shingles thought it was almost unbearable. I am so sorry this happened to you, and I understand how you must fear a recurrence.
My son had the chicen pox vaccine so he never had chicken pox… he and my niece came down w/ type 1 w/in three months of eachother and both had the swine flu. So maybe… it isn’t one type of virus that “starts” it… maybe it is just a weakening of the amunesytem that sets off the “right cercumstances” for the autoimune reactions that starts to attach the Beta cells. Maybe… one of them gave it to the other even??
I have reasearched a lot on this topic… evey answer makes sense to me… Milk…hormones in food…preservatives…antibiotics… who knows what causes it… All I do know is that I hope someone figures it out in my son’s life time…I don’t want him to have to live w/this his whole life. He is handling it with such courage and strenght that I do feel it has “matured” him in ways he might not have been at this age. To learn that you are not imortal or immune from illness at age 15…now 16 is something most teens don’t understand. HE does… and instead of being depressed about it…he has decided to make the most of it and his life.
My son had a urinary tract infection that took months and months of antibiotics to kill…wonder if that was his trigger illness.