I’m not sure what I think…my original endo, brilliant man but only dealt with one pump company and I didn’t want that brand so I switched endos - told me he thought mine was brought on by a traumatic experience or two. He theorized that mine was a gradual decline from the time I was in my mid/late teens (after my HS sweetheart died in a car accident on the way to the Homecoming football game in my senior year) until I was dx’d about 9 years later. I wasn’t too sure about that because I had no signs of any kind of diabetes during my pregnancy, which was 5 yrs before I was dx’d. A year after my son was born, I was raped and nearly murdered…but even that was 4 yrs before diagnosis. I’ve never been one to get colds or the flu or anything (I had pneumonia when I was 3…could that be it?)…I was extremely sick for 2 days before my diagnosis, but it was severe DKA (sorry, docs, to me, any DKA is severe, but whatev). There is no one else on any side of my family with diabetes, save for my 2nd cousin - his mother is my own cousin, and his father’s side of the family has several diabetics, so we attributed the genetic factor to him (the father), not my cousin’s/my family (well that sounds bad lol). I really don’t have a theory…since I don’t really fit any of them. Seems to me that if it were a traumatic event, there would be a sh!t ton more people with it than there are…every college student, divorcee, person who moves, bad haircut recipient, etc would have it. Same with a virus…everyone who’s ever had a bad infection would have it. My grandfather had malaria, but he never developed diabetes. One of my friends has had HSV I & II for nearly 20 years, but he has yet to develop diabetes (before anyone gets all ewwww about that, just know that 1 in 4 people in the US over the age of 12 has herpes, yes 25% over age 12). Anyway…I guess I might be inclined to think there’s a biological/genetic (not hereditary, but having to do with genes and possibly mutations or abnormalties?) aspect to it. Wow. Didn’t intend to write a novel. Sorry about that.
~Jeska
T1 since 05/05
Podding w/ Podme Apidrala since 08/09
Starting Symlin and CGMS in June 11!
Hi Richard, I have been type1 for 59 years and I am in good health. Needless to say, I have taken good care of my sugar.
Other T1’s, who have taken good care, get all kinds of problems or die young. I do not see much on this web about why this is so constantly the case. Why do some controlled diabetes have dire consequensies so much more than others?
Any ideas on this?
They come in the middle of the night and play(ed) whack me with their giant hammers. They also account for all ~alien~ readings, bizarre numbers etc. which cannot be understood with any kind of “cause and effect” or laws of chemistry (ie 10 units should produce X bg drop, but purchased nada… no change what so ever…).
I belive, after 59 years of T1, there will never be an established single cause of what brings on T1.
Medical billlions of dollars, I would hope, would have come with at least this by now.
I am convinced there are either many reasons or we are some how pre-disposed to be diabetics.
I believe long before there is a cure there will be a prevention.
I would love and be satisfied to see this in my lifetime.
I believe,the cause of my Diabetes at such a young age,was because of my other autoimmune disease"celiac". The inability for my vili in the intestines to take in protein from wheat. They have a bond with each other making me a healther person. I hate to say but I like my Celiac and Diabetes,your probably thinking “Who is this crazy kid?”,well if it wasen’t for my diseases I would be around 200 lbs right now,my parents are both obese and I’m the only one thats considered thin at 170 lbs. As a kid, I remember before I have celiac and diabetes, I would eat what ever I wanted when ever I felt to,now I have cut my calorie intake to half of what it used to be! I do have days that I say " I wish I could have that" But then I just think," Ha,I’ll be skinny and healthy,and you,yes you, the person eating that cake,will be fat". Lol,Just joking to the people eating cake right now. Well,I’m going to have a protein bar and some 2% milk before I hit the hey…See you all around!
I am of the mind that diabetes of any kind is caused by our pancreas’ not creating enough insulin, perhaps this is type I, or none…or our bodies not using it properly if we do have insulin in our bodies…perhaps type II. I don’t think it has a thing to do with what we eat, to begin with, I think it’s our bodies…sorry, no punches here. But what causes some pancreas to work and some not, now that might just be an act of God. Like why do some babies or people’s hearts work and some do not.
Great topic and everyone’s replies made for some good reading!
My conspiracy theory is that there is a huge black market in human pancreases. When I was 6, a group of men in white coats abducted me in the middle of the night and simply stole my pancreas. Must have been some pretty impressive keyhole surgery too as for the life of me I am still trying to track down the scar
In all seriousness, I think its a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental/life changing events. I too am the first in my family to have T1-D however my father’s mom suffered from another auto-immune disease. There was a study done in the UK a while ago that investigated the link between the two and the results showed a possible link - hence the genetic predisposition. As for the life changing event that could’ve pulled the trigger, my parents had just moved our family from one country to another mere months before I was diagnosed. At age 6 a child is starting to develop life long memories, develop friendships etc etc and despite not remembering being upset at the time, I am sure this impacted on me. There is no blame here, looking back on it I wouldn’t have it any other way. Despite changing schools and losing friends growing up in different countries as a kid gave me a background that not many people have. Developing T1-D was simply a ‘sh1t happens’ moment that became part of the kaleidoscope that is me
i believe it is mother nature’s stress to constantly push for survival and change and evolve evolve and always evolve but in this process just as you have successes you also have failures for every einstein there is a baby born with an equal opposite malady…for every sports phenomn you have a baby born in a vegetative state…
now obviously enviornmental factors take part but isnt this also mother natures reaction to situation i.e. babies getting more cancer around powerlines, or polluted well water from and energy or sewage company… these things alter the orignal intention of mother nature and the wildlife around it but out of it comes tolerance to those chemicals and new and different life is formed that are variations of the previously affected thing.
but through it all the group(people,fish, toads, plants, trees etc etc) somehow survives changed in what ever form but survival is what is always the key, and sometimes you can’t make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, we just happen to be one of the eggs that broke luckily dr. banting discovered how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas and inject it into us so we may survive but for only a little bit longer in the perception of time…
please dont beat yourself up diabetes has been around longer than the bible and has been documented throughout history… i am quite sure those people werent given any of those chemicals you wrote of…
I think it is a combination of some hieretary factors (predisposition) and having some bad virus or major stress issue that sets it off. So in my case having a father with diabetes and being a really sickly child before my diagnosis. I became healthier after diagnosis for some reason.
Combination of genetic predisposition and environmental stressors on the immune system that futz up its ability to tell what it’s supposed to be attacking – I think it is a cumulative effect of chemical endocrine disruptors, personally. All the damn plastics and the crap that’s in the groundwater. I was working in Sudbury MA in 2006/7 when pregnant with my son – the one who was Dx’d with T1D at 17 months of age(!!) – and that little community happens to be downstream from Woburn, MA, home of the superfund site described in A Civil Action. Is it a coincidence that there was a rash of T1D diagnoses among children in Sudbury and surrounding communities between 2003-2009, the same time that I was pregnant with Eric? Is it coincidence that my thyroid crapped out during the same period? And that Eric developed T1D at an usually young age? Well, sure, it very well could be a coincidence. I don’t happen to think it is, but I have no evidence to show that it’s not. But that’s my hypothesis, anyway – that exposure to whatever the hell is floating downstream from Woburn triggered my familial tendency toward autoimmune disease while I was preggers. It expressed itself in me as hypothyroidism, and affected Eric as T1D. That’s my humble opinion, anyway.
I’m new to TuDiabetes and this is my first post in a forum.
I’ve been a Type 1 Diabetic for 24 years. Diabetes does not run in my family, was NOT obese has a child, and would take a whole squadron of Marines to come get me to come inside from playing (in other words…I was an active child). My theory and search for a reason for being a diabetic, is…I came down with the chicken box 5 months prior to getting sick with diabetes. I had a minor case of the chicken pox externally; but I feel internally the virus attacked the pancreas. This is the only explanation I can come up with.
Oh…I sure as hell try my hardest not to smack those folks upside the head with those stereotype theories about Type 1’s. I also feel the media makes things worse when it comes to those stereotypes of Type 1’s.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 at the age of 40. Logically, I know there’s no link, but when I’m feeling especailly paranoid, I think what triggered it was the H1N1 vaccine I received about a month before I was hospitalized. I know there have been studies disproving that vaccines have any effect on getting Type 1, and I have an aunt and nephew, both Type 1, but it’s still something that nags at me from time to time.
I developed type one right after going into remission from Acute Lymphoblsatic Leukemia (ALL). The treatment for my ALL include chemotherapy and total body irradiation. I have always attributed my pancreas failing to these treatments…
My dad’s crazy mother (she literally becaem crazy) first said I was type 1 because we had a cat (1984). About 6 to 9 months later it was because we had a microwave. Why do I have no siblings with Type 1? Someone from church told me it was because I was eatign too much sugar. My brothers ate way more than I did.
No diabetes anywhere in my family, but if you go along my family tree, you can find plenty of autoimmune diseases RA, PBC, AFAP, and severe allergies (some people conisder severe allergies to be autoimmune). I recently read that lack of vitamin D levels are common in people with autoimmune diseases. I asked my dr to check and it was at 13. I guess 50 to 100 is normal, but the docs worry if you drop below 30. I wonder if spending too much time inside and the shade has kept us from getting enough vitamin D. As time goes along, we spend more and more time in our cars and buildings. Sun through car windows doesn’t count for vit D absorbtion.
My theory and search for a reason for being a diabetic, is…I came down with the chicken box 5 months prior to getting sick with diabetes. I had a minor case of the chicken pox externally; but I feel internally the virus attacked the pancreas. This is the only explanation I can come up with.