Environmental "triggers" for developing T1D?

[dnl.phillips]

I was diagnosed with T1D after a trip to Nepal last year, doing the trek to everest base camp. During the course of 2 weeks we were exposed to a new foods/environments/sanitary conditions/etc. Half way through I started to feel weird but figured it was the nature of the trek-altitude, fatigue, etc. When we returned to Katmandu I developed an insatiable thirst and felt generally spacey, and it just got worse from there. Long story short, I endured the 17 hour flight home but the next day collapsed in DKA and spent a few days in ICU. The diagnosis was late onset T1D. I'm 30 years old, and have no history of T1D in my family. After a year of adjusting to the new normal, I'm still really unclear and curious about how this could have happened. The best they could tell me is that it was some kind of environmental "trigger", or illness that impacted my pancreas adversely. So my question is, has anyone else heard of this happening, or heard any research on it? I'm really curious to know if this is an actual phenomena or if I'm just particularly strange case. Any insight would be very much appreciated.

Daniel

 

[noblehead]

As you know Daniel type 1 is an autoimmune condition with no known cause, plenty of theories but nothing concrete as yet, but environmental factors is one of the theories.

 

[azure]

My consultant told me Type 1 is 20% genetic, 80% environmental. That is, you have to have the 'diabetes genes' but then there has to be an external trigger to cause diabetes. Many people have the genes but never get diabetes.

Your trip to Nepal sounds very cool, by the way, but the process that caused Type 1 would have no doubt started a fair time before that. You can lose approx 80% of your islets before you become diabetic.

Possible triggers are things like cows' milk, wheat, viruses, etc. Personally, I think its most likely to be a combination of things: you have the genes, something happens which makes you vulnerable in some way, then you get the final trigger which starts the auto-immune response that leads to Type 1.

 

[dnl.phillips]

Thanks all i appreciate the insight. Interesting that it could have already been well underway before the trip. Much easier to blame the yak cheese though...

 

[Totto]

I live in Sweden and apparently the rate of T1 in children and young people is very high. New studies indicate it may have a connection to grain intake. Don't know anything about T1 of your age though.