Dr. J. Bart Classen, a Maryland immunologist has proven that certain vaccines are the largest cause of type 1 diabetes in children, yet for whatever reason, this finding has received very little public media attention, while parents of autistic kids continue to argue that their children’s developmental disorder is due to vaccinations even though no fewer than 3 major studies have proven this not to be the case. Specifically, Dr. Classen’s data shows that vaccines cause approximately 80% of cases of type 1 diabetes in children who have received multiple vaccines starting after 2 month of life. Specifically, his data included vaccines for pertussis, mumps, rubella (mumps and rubella vaccines are among those found to be given too frequently in the U.S.), as well as hepatitis B, hemophilus influenza and others. However, the data indicates people with vaccine-induced type 1 diabetes may not develop the disease until 4 or more years after receiving a vaccine.
As for the other theories, I was diagnosed in July 1976 as a 7-year old, and I can honestly say that I never had so much as a cold as a child, so there was no trauma or illness to attribute my diagnosis to. But, I was vaccinated and I believe that the scheduling of vaccinations has more to do with getting them per se. Why must a child have so many within such a short timeframe? It seems like we could be confusing the immune system with these different signals, and consequently, autoimmune diseases arise.
I was diagnosed in January just before I turned 20. I had been sick on and off all Fall semester, and I really never get sick. Then I got sick on last time over Christmas Break and that’s when the excessive thirst and urination started. Eye sight went blurry in mid-January…
The weird thing is, the year before, as a freshman I lived in the dorms and Spring semester, my room mate was diagnosed as a T1 too. She had a family history though. I don’t at all, but thyroid problems run in my mom’s family. My endo described it as being very similar to diabetes, only affecting the function of the thyroid instead of the pancreas.
Scott- thanks that was interesting. Andy–Many kids are dx between 12 and 14, so I wonder if it has something to do with that-- it is another endocrine issue. We tell our nonD son to watch the candy or he will become D (He knows it is a joke). He is a big sweet eater, and his pumping sibling is not.
I don’t know about most people but I believe that there are several reasons that Type 1 happens. There is immunological, enviromental, chemical…I could go on. Maybe we will never know. A month before I was diagnosed I was in the hospital with an unnamed lung infection. The next month while standing in line for lunch on my first day of high school I fainted and everyone thought I was pregnant LoL…I was only 13. After being taken to my pediatrician my stepmom was told to pack a cooler with diet pepsi and drive as quick and safely as possible to the local children’s hospital at Duke Univ. and not to let me fall asleep because I was type 1 diabetic and my sugar was over 900. He said he was surprised I hadn’t slipped into a coma yet. I spent a month in the hospital and was never given an explanation. I found out later that my maternal grandmother had been a type 2 (no one knew in my family) and she controlled it with diet. Until now I am the only diabetic on either side of my family. I think that when I had the lung infection my immune system attacked my pancreas. Or maybe it was all the processed foods and chemicals I had consumed in my short lifetime. I guess I will never know but I do believe that heredity is NOT the biggest cause. Diabetes has blown up in the last 20 years and like cancer, there aren’t too many people I know that don’t know or are related to a diabetic. I think technology and everything that goes along with it has made it more prevalent. I am 37 now and I remember 24 years ago diabetes was presented to me as “your normal life is over and you’ll never have children.” Even though and I have diabetes I came to realize that this was false. I live with it everyday but it does NOT define who I am. Thanks to my pump I can live relatively normal as non-diabetics (which doesn’t mean I can eat as much as I want). I do think that even though it’s not a conspiracy caused by the pharmaceutical companies or the medical community I do believe that they are benefiting outrageously from our small misfortune. Instead of constantly raising the prices of our supplies they should be lowering them and helping out those who cannot afford to properly take care of this condition. It shouldn’t be a choice between “Do I get my supplies which will keep me alive and healthy?” or “Do I buy food, pay bills, or buy gas?”
I think mine was from an incredibly stressful job. I hadn’t been sick in over 2 years, but this job gave me migraines 5 days a week. I was fired in March, diagnosed in September of the same year. No one else in my family has type 1. I’m thankful for this fact. My 3 kids are all anti body negative, but my son is in the TRIGR study and my girls are in Trial net.
An old discussion, but still going strong, so I’ll chime in.
I was diagnosed at age 7 just as I was getting over a pretty bad case of the chicken pox. I was out shopping with my mother, was really thirsty and kept needing the bathroom, so she took me to the pediatrician and the rest is history. I was actually in a private room in the adult ward (not pediatric) at the hospital for the beginning of my stay because they were afraid that the chicken pox still could be a bit contageous, and my entire first grade class thought I was out with the chicken pox, not with diabetes.
I suspect that my immune system was in overdrive at the time, and attacked the beta cells along with everything else. My mom was also a bit of a health-nut and I think the virus came as a huge shock to my system, triggering a huge unfamiliar response. That’s one reason my wife and I don’t protect our son from every germ out there. We do practice common sense hygiene, but if he gets dirty or drops a pacifier or piece of food on the floor, we’re not so quick to break out the antibacterial soap.
I was diagnosed at age 29, this year. My older brother has asthma, one of my uncles also has asthma, and my paternal grandfather had diabetes (I was told T2, but he was on insulin so I’m not sure). My aunt has Grave’s Disease, an autoimmune thyroid problem. There is a strong history of ovarian cancer in my mom’s side of the family. Because of my brother’s asthma I was raised in a fairly sterile environment, although that was many years ago.
I was really interested to read that diabetes could be brewing in your body for 7 years before you are diagnosed, because I feel strongly like there was something wrong with me for a long time before I was diagnosed. I lacked energy, and chalked it up to depression. Three years before I was diagnosed, I did a VERY stressful university course and it took it’s toll on my body. Near the end of that year, my cousin, whom I am close to, was diagnosed with leukemia. My body and emotions were hit hard by the news. Anyway, I finished the course and moved towns to do a very stressful job (if I had known at the time I wouldn’t have taken it!). My office was also very dark and damp, and I’m sure has plenty of mould in it. I started on an SSRI. I gained a lot of weight over this period, and was sick very often due to sinus allergies. There were times when I visited my doctor once a month to try to clear it up, but nothing ever worked for long. At the end of that year my gran was diagnosed with terminal ovarianan cancer, and I enrolled to do a part-time Masters degree. My allergies continued to plague me, and then the doctor put me on prednisone. By the end of the week of taking it, my vision was blurred, I was exhausted, drinking excessively, struggling to breath normally and urinating so much I developed an infection.
While I think the prednisone and the allergies were the latest triggers, I can also see a family history of cancers and autoimmune disease.
What caused my type-1 diabetes? While I’ve talked about my theory many times to my doctors, nurses and anyone else interested, I’ve never made the kind of public proclamation on a site like tudiabetes.com so I’m a little nervous. But for the sake of adding to this string on possible causes, here goes. For me it was approximately 20-years ago when I was 34 years old. Although both of my parents were deceased at the time, and I have only one half-brother, there is no known history of diabetes in my family. 24-hours prior to signs of diabetes becoming evident in me, I had a flu shot. I understand that this is approximately when the transition from live attenuated vaccine to inactivated vaccine took place in the US. Approximately 24 hours after getting my fly shot symptoms started (increased urination, general bad feeling). After 6-months, during which time I lost about 25% of my body weight and was tested numerous times by doctors to figure out was wrong with me, my wife at the time diagnosed my disease from her reading. My doctor tested me and I was diagnosed as positive for type-1 diabetes. There was no correlation made at the time of diagnosis as to the cause. I didn’t push for this and neither did my doctor. I immediately started insulin therapy and focused only on that because the positive affect of insulin was immediate. Whether the flu shot was directly or indirectly responsible for my type-1 diabetes I will never know for sure. I’m 53 now, on a pump and CGM, and trying to manage as best as possible my type-1 diabetes. That’s my story.
Government Conspiracy for sure! Lol
I think part of it is how you treat your body…When I was diagnosed I was drinking alot of alcohol and my food consumption wasn’t very healthy. but being a type one we know that food isn’t the culprit. But it may have something to do with it.
They told my it was a virus.
So like me if you already have a low immunity you can’t fight off something as strong as a diabetes virus.
And though type 1 isn’t genetic I found out AFTER I was diagnosed that about 8 or more people in my family have had it! Thanks genes you are awesome…NOT.
Wait… you’re saying it’s not genetic, but then you’re saying it is genetic? Also, there’s no such thing as a diabetes virus. There is a theory that some viruses (like a flu virus maybe) can trigger the etiologic auto-immune response though.
They’ve identified genes associated with T1, so it is genetic. And even if someone doesn’t know of anyone in their family with it, that doesn’t mean someone didn’t have it 100 or more years ago, back when families had herds of kids because kids died of everything from simple infections to stuff like T1 that doesn’t normally kill people today. If someone’s great-great-great-great aunt had a 4-year old die of T1, that child died fairly quickly, and there might not be any record or memory of the cause of death so how would anyone today even know about it without doing an exhaustive historical record search.
No one in my family has it except for me, but I’m sure someone had it way back when and just died from it, and no one today knows or remembers.
So my theory is genetic predisposition triggered by as yet unknown environmental factors.
I don’t think that sounds paranoid at all. I also disagree with the rampant use of antibiotics and anti-bacterial products, and I believe it’s contributing to all sorts of increased health problems. Remember when it was OK to bring a PBJ to lunch at school? Now every other kid seems to have some deadly nut allergy (or something comparable) and kids aren’t allowed to bring PBJ to school which is a crime! You sound a lot less paranoid than the people who are terrified of germs and buy all that stuff are.
I was told by my doctor that Type 1 isn’t genetic, but yes my family is very prone to it so I think that doctor’s don’t have all the answers and that it could be genetic.
I KNOW there is no such thing as a Diabetic virus! Thats just what I call it. Sorry for the miscommunication. I had a have a low immune system. I got a virus of SOME SORT and then I just caught the diabetes? You don’t just catch it!!! It came to me in some form so I was just commenting…
Mercury fillings are not out-lawed in Canada yet. Last month, I asked the dentist if it was true there is mercury in the “traditional” fillings and she said yes and there have been using mercury fillings for over 150 years.
