What causes Type 1 Diabetes?...state your theory

I had strep throat for two weeks and I guess it was after that that my symptoms started to appear. I agree with the theory of people being born with a predisposition for it, although I wish it wasn’t true. Yesterday my brother got some blood taken for a study regarding the genetics thing.

I was diagnosed in May 1991 at age 9 (18 year anniversary in a little over two weeks!). I had strep throat often as a child. I was given antibiotics to treat the strep and my mother recalls being instructed to give me a “double dose” of a combination of antibiotics in the winter of 1990-91. The pediatrician thought that I was old enough and strong enough to handle the antibiotics which would eliminate the need to have my tonsils removed. Well, I was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes later that year! I do not blame my mother for the damage I believe the antibiotics did to my immune system but she carries some guilt for giving me the medicine. I’ve enjoyed reading these various theories!

Antibiotics do not really have anything to do with malfunctioning T-cells in the immune system. Antibiotics disrupt protein synthesis in bacterial cells. Tell your mom not to feel guilty at all! You probably got hit with a virus when you were a toddler and it triggered your Type 1 genetic profile. Six years later. . .

Well, here’s the theory to my diabetes.
In november 2005 i got a staph infection under my finger nail and my doctor put me on Bactrum (sp?) and pencillin for it.
After a few days, i began to get worse rather than better. I had petiki (sp? pee-tiki-eye) all over my body, and a butterfly rash on my face. Its a rash from the apples of your cheek to the end of the cheekbones that fades out around the end of it. Anyways, my doctor admitted me into the hospitail so they could find out what the heck was going on.
They drew a BUNCH of blood from me, which fueled my already exsistent hate of needles. After about 3 days with no improvement or diagnosis, my doctor was searching online for symtoms like mine, and he found one similar to mine and diagnosed me with Acute Bone Marrow Suppression from a allergic reaction to the bactrum.

They gave me steriods through an I.V. (which co-incidentally fell out at 4am and i woke up in a pool of the blood from it. lol) after it fell out they tried to put a new one in and it took like 3 tries, ugh!
My white blood cell count was wayyyyy down, so whenever anyone came into my room, they had to wash their hands outside and put on a mask. xD
i eventualy went home after about 4 days.

My mom came up with the idea that since my reaction to the meds was auto-immune, that it later triggered my body to attack my pancres, and viola, diabetes! lol.

i have some pictures of me while i was in the hospitail, i was so tiny!
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Hi everyone, this is my first post! Just found you guys yesterday. I have something called Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome caused by a collagen gene mutation. NIH presented info from an EDS/Marfans Study showing 80% of people with my form of Ehlers-Danlos have autoimmune disorders. In EDS Vitamin D is not made properly and what is made or even taken by mouth is not used properly by the body. This is though to be responsible for the high incidence of autoimmune disease. I also have an autoimmune inflammatory arthritis (Lupus.) I’m 28 and developed type 1 diabetes at age ten after an infection. I was only diagnosed with Lupus recently though I’ve had symptoms and a borderline Lupus dx since about age 16. My mothers brother who does NOT have EDS though is also a Type 1 Diabetic. Autoimmune disease (Tranverse Myletis, MS, LUpus, Celiac, and Thyroid) run rampant in my family, though all of those people also have EDS. My mother who has EDS and Thyroid Disorder was dignosed with Type 2 diabetes a few years back but is positive for GAD65 antibodies so she is probably really LADA.

I believe we need to have the right (or wrong!) genes to develop Type 1, and from there if we develop it or not depends on environment (toxin loads, vit D levels, infections, etc.)

I’ve been told that T1 is in the genes. It is hereditary and tends to skip generations unless the T1 gene is possessed by both the mother and the father. Both of my grandmothers had it, but none of their children did. I was diagnosed T1 in 1956 but none of my four children have it, Praise the LORD!. However one of my grandchildren was diagnosed T1 when he was 7.

When I visited him in the hospital at the time of his diagnosis, he asked me bluntly, “Grandpa, is it true that you gave me diabetes?” I quickly responded, “NO! God gave it to you because he knew you could handle it.” He turned around a day or so later and shared that news with the hospital’s chaplain (who should have been a plumber). The chaplain was speechless, to say the least.

I, too, have read that Type1 is on the increase, and at later ages. I was diagnosed at 58(!). I didn’t have any underlying illness but my cholestoral was at 200 and my MD decided I needed a statin. Within a few days I experienced joint pains and when I complained, my MD switched me from Zocor to Lipidor to others, insisting that I needed a statin for my 200 cholesterol. I flat refused to take any more statins and was priscribed Niacin and Omega3 and my chosesterol is down to 170. But my story is not over, and here is my theroy on why so much Type 1. Four months after the statin fiasco, guess what? I get diagnosed with Type 1. I’m the only one in my family, near and far. Statins are priscribed to many many folks; it’s one of the largest selling drugs, and if my theory is true, we will be seeinf alot more Type ! cases. My MD, of course, insists it had nothing to do with it, but I have my serious doubts and wish to spread the word.

  1. Type one on rise theory:
    Insulin resistance is on the rise as one of the triggers. Besides the viral or bacterial infection…gaining weight or stress (stress that causes lack of sleep has been proven to cause glucose to go up)
  2. Genetics from both parents. Genetics, IMO do not predispose but rather do not protect someone from diabetes (this would be for either T1 or T2). Thus when the system is challenged it fails (antibodies for classic T1 and some type of lipid disfunction for classic T2). For many this happens over years and then the system gets to the point that an infection can cause it to break quickly. Like a hole in a dam that is not plugged - fine for a while then it bursts. The younger the patient the quicker this process was. Surprisingly, T2 acts very much like this also - there are more than I would have suspected T2’s coming to the boards who had been to their doctor a year prior with a normal FBS then within a year they are diagnosed. I also think when someone has the genetics for T1 and T2 this causes a rise in the risk - some diabetics are officially T1 and others T2. I do believe this is my case.
  3. stats wise 1 in 300 children will get T1 where the stats for adults is 1 in 100. I believe this is due to the time element and appears to be skewed however… childhood doesn’t last as long. Point being…more people are being properly diagnosed - this is another reason why T1 is on the rise.
  4. Many of the same reasons are why T2 is on the rise…but with T2 you have the added reason for a lower FBS diagnostic point. This increased the numbers of T2’s quickly.

I am T2 with a bad mix of genetics for T1 (from both parents). I guess this is why I feel this way on T1 (I know it doesn’t fit for everyone) but my T1 genetics did not protect me from diabetes. I have not much in common with T1 or T2 except my glucose system is broken. So my comments are based upon someone who fit’s between the types without LADA or metabolic syndrome but with other autoimmune issues.

Unless I’ve missed it in this thread, no one has mentioned that researchers have discovered a link to one of the enteroviruses as trigger for T1. Yes you’ve got to have the genes, but it’s also known that identical twins who have the genes, don’t always both develop T1. Something has to trigger it. Scientists seem to assume that it’s not always the enterovirus, but it’s thought to be one of the triggers. Plenty of articles on the internet about it.

I had a serious stomach virus when I was diagnosed. Though, actually, I’d had the symptoms for at least 5 months before; the only reason I ended up being diagnosed was my parents took me to the doctor to find out what was wrong. (He’s our family hero; he took one look at me and said, “I think she has diabetes.” When they tested, I was about 1900. And, really, the reason I got the stomach virus was probably because I was so high.) I was in 3rd grade, so it wasn’t stress. (I mean, come on, I think the most stressing thing that had happened to me was misspelling “fairies” in the 2nd grade spelling bee and being really jealous of the kid who correctly spelled “buddies”.)

No one else in my family has or has had any form of diabetes. I really have no idea why I happened to get it. I figure I just happened to be born with a really awful immune system. Stupid parents could have tried harder…

Yes, the incidence of T1D is increasing worldwide (for the latest research, see www.pubmed.gov and search for type 1 diabetes incidence). Why? That is up for debate-- the scientists have a variety of theories that they are testing (search pubmed for info). I think one idea they are generally missing is the role of environmental contaminants… see “The Autoimmune Epidemic” by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. There’s a lot of evidence that early exposure (e.g., in utero) to contaminants can affect the immune system later in life, increasing the risk for various diseases (including other immune system problems like allergies). We are all exposed to hundreds of contaminants, including in the womb, and the numbers of contaminants have increased since the 1940s, when T1D incidence began to rise. So there is correlation of timing, and there are various biological mechanisms that could be involved. E.g., contaminants can cause oxidative stress, which may be involved in T1D, contaminants can compromise the regulatory abilities of the immune system, potentially causing autoimmune disease, and contaminants can interfere with genes in a number of ways. There are scientific articles on all these things and more… I’ve been doing research and wrote up an article if anyone is interested in seeing it.

Could the rate just be increasing because people are being diagnosed more? I know that way back, at the beginning of the 1900s or so (so I’ve heard), diabetes could have been diagnosed as consumption or some other weird disease. I mean, just because there are more diagnoses doesn’t mean there are more diabetics.

There’s a good article on this entitled “The rise of childhood type 1 diabetes in the 20th century” by EA Gale, who edits the journal Diabetologia. You can read the abstract/summary on pubmed, but I had to go to the library to get the full text. Basically, they’ve known about diabetes since ancient times, and while the data aren’t as good as today, clearly many more people are getting the disease today. And better diagnosis is not a factor. The large increases seen in the past few decades are well documented and widespread.

Some of the current theories involve viruses, lack of vitamin D, lack of omega 3 fatty acids, cow’s milk, gluten, air pollution, etc. What is interesting to me is that environmental contaminants can interact with other factors, ie interfere with vitamin D production, or act like viruses, or mess up the intestinal barrier, or lead to allergies, etc. So I think a combination of factors could be involved, and it’s probably different in different people.

Here’s a link to one article entitled “Prenatal immunotoxicant exposure and postnatal autoimmune disease” by S D Holladay. It’s a bit old (1999), and there’s been more research since then, so now there is more information on some of the things he writes about.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&amp…

well i was thinking about this as i was trying to go to sleep last night. the conclusion i came up with was this. you can get it from history in your family or from virus. as we all know. i think that those who get it out of no where may have a gene that is likely to be faulty and cause you to get diagnosed with type 1. whether you have a history with diabetes in the family or not. that’s my thought.

Well, I have a few theories.
One is that there was a reaction to some immunity that we were injected with as a child. You know all those shots that we are required to take for diseases that are no longer even around? Well, I think that those shots, while at such a young developing age, caused a break up or some kind of cell rejection in our bodies.

If you think about it, the pancreas isn’t even an organ- just a group of cells. Which means there really isn’t anything protecting it like a thick “skin” or anything. So, if there’s something going to go wrong inside the body- the pancreas is a very viable option to quit. This theory has begun to be backed up in scientific tests in Japan.

Theory Two is that we’re a very “fat” country/ world. People seem to be getting bigger and bigger- and it’s not necessarily because of how much they eat, but more WHAT they eat. T1 could be evolution trying to get us to focus on what we’re putting in our mouths, and to realize the consequences of un-healthy eating. Being forced to take a shot every time we eat definitely keeps our minds on WHAT we are eating.

Theory Three is it’s an environmental issue. We have a lot of smog and other surrounding ailments that we are subjected to in the air around us. Like mentioned earlier- our pancreas is a very “naked” “organ” and is subject to the bad substances that get washed through our systems. Causing it to choke up and fail.

I am the first diabetic in my entire family- I believe this makes me more focused on my body and how it works. haha. :slight_smile:

haha. I misspelled “hickory” in my second grade spelling bee. I cried.
When I was diagnosed, at 14, my BS was 1700. I can’t believe it.
I was tired at the time, but I didn’t feel sick.

Isn’t it weird that I could have survived at 1700, but now if I go over 400 I feel like I’m friggin dying?

Oh, god, I know. Well, I’m terrified of highs now – maybe, subconsciously, I remember how horrible I felt back then, and that’s why I refuse to let myself get so high… But, yeah, now, if I get to 300, it’s like – aagh! Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Okay, rambling. Need sugar.

Diabetes could very well be just 1 desease plan and simple. What sets it apart as far as types is the rate at which it progresses. Studies have shown that both types have the antidodies. Neither type is antibody free nor does either type have 100 % of its victims with antibodies. This leads me to beleive that both are the same desease. Type 1 is accelerated at a much faster rate than type 2. This explains why some type 1 diabetics develope insulin resistance and why some type 2 diabetics quit producing insulin all together.

This is my 57TH year w/T1 and, as far as anyone can recall, I am the first in my family. Just lucky, I guess.
As I was told, when at the age of nine my first symptoms followed some routine illness, which I had severely.
The, well meaning, family sympathy led me to believe I had been issued a death warrant. Because of this I couldn’t comfortably discuss my diabetes with hardly anyone and dreaded schoolmates from learning. These kinds of feelings persisted until I was close to 30 years of age.
Any parents of new diabetic kids, please carefully consider my words. No matter what your words try to express, kids can read your feelings and will react accordingly.
Hopefully, my circumstance wouldn’t happen today.