Strong question- what do you think caused your diabetes (type 1)

[Kels*]

I personally go back and forth with this . I have nobody in my family who are diabetics other than type 2 . I was a very active , healthy kid when I was young, I would just like peoples open opinions on how they feel on why/how they got diabetes.

 

[Rokaab]

To be honest I have no idea and see little point in speculating about mine, none of my blood relatives had it either (one great uncle did apparently but he married into the family so was not a blood relative).

I got it when I was two, not sure I'd done much by then except eat, sleep, poop and crawl

 

[Ushthetaff]

I know I’ve heard of some people developing diabetes following trauma, I got knocked unconscious about 2 weeks before I started drinking an ocean and peeing the same ocean , the rest as they say is history , not saying that’s what caused it , but it’s a thought

 

[Mad76]

No family history of type 1 at all
Diagnosed at 42
I'm.convinced it was linked to a very very stressful year with a few traumatic events for me
(Purely guess work)

 

[Antje77]

Just bad luck, nothing else.
People develop all kinds of conditions seemingly randomly, I have no reason to think my diabetes is anything different than my mother's progressive hearing impairment from a young age, my neighbour's Bechterew's disease, my best friend's gastroparesis or my cat's heart failure.
Why would diabetes be different?

 

[Yaya10_10]

I think we got diabetes because we were asking our math teachers (back then)
where would we use maths?.

So, now we have the answers, calculate carb, units, corrections, and ratio!


LOL.

Just kidding, actually I think I got it because of some stressful time.

 

[Yaya10_10]

Actually @Antje77, I do agree with what you said.
Diabetes is not different from these kind of conditions.

 

[searley]

Strong family history on my dad's side so I always knew I'd have it

I knew things were not right and went to the gp 12 months before I was diagnosed as the hba1c threshold was higher then

 

[Rhys.]

Ahh Tough One!

From a scientific guess, I am going with the Coxsackievirus. This seems to be the one that is backed up with the most data. But still nowhere near enough!

Personally, I believe a major Trauma / Stress Event caused it.

Other notable mentions from me is Kenalog ( Immunosuppression Hayfever Injection I had ) or Covid ( Diagnosed April 2020 ).

One thing that stuck out to me, was that when I was in a honeymoon period and still had antibodies, I was repeatadly getting mouth infections every month. Once my pancreas packed up and I returned to back to insulin again this year, I never had one since. Ironically, I remember having a bad one in March 2020 last year aswell, before I went into Hospital close to DKA on diagnosis...

Still, this is our great unanswered question. Who knows

 

[Yaya10_10]

Hi @Rhys.

You actually refreshed my memory.

Yes i remember before i diagnosed seeing many doctors because of throat infections.

That hqppened to me but i forgot it because i diagnosed in 2007/2008

 

[Erin]

I personally go back and forth with this . I have nobody in my family who are diabetics other than type 2 . I was a very active , healthy kid when I was young, I would just like peoples open opinions on how they feel on why/how they got diabetes.

Probably hereditary; but I have a strong suspicion that lithium, despite its wonders, was typically given too high, too long.

 

[jonathan183]

The short answer is I don't know for sure, but in most to least likely I'd say in my case:-
1. leaky gut (probably caused by a combination of gluten and emulsifiers in processed foods) and immune response to part digested foods that got into the bloodstream as a result leading to food associated autoimmunity.
2. high stress/shock event (being knocked off my bicycle with an associated ambulance trip to hospital) and it was my own fault
3. infection either viral or dental infections.

Of the three the leaky gut is one I can do something about in terms of trying to at least slow progression - the others I can't even hope to fix without a time machine

For me the huge increase in type 1 has to be related to food/environment factors ... genetics might make people more susceptible but does not explain the recent increase.

 

[chrisbug]

Hi, I was diagnosed at 27.
My grandmother developed diabetes late in life (within my life), so could it have been in my genetic make up?
(I was told at the time that it skips a generation).
Do you get asked if there is family history of diabetes at medicals for the armed forces?

At 27, I had no traumatic event, I was fairly fit, slim, and liked beer.

 

[Member496333]

I'm not type 1 so forgive the transgression of sticking my nose in, but this reminds me of something I was pondering a while ago. My personal belief is that there are almost certainly unidentified dietary and/or environmental factors that aggravate a genetic predisposition. If it's true that incidences of T1 are on the rise, then it doesn't make sense that it could be only genetic. Since T1 can kill at any age, evolutionary pressure, if anything, should gradually breed it out, but it seems this is not happening.

 

[KK123]

Without wishing to sound flippant, I think it's the luck of the draw.

 

[jonathan183]

Do you get asked if there is family history of diabetes at medicals for the armed forces?

When they decided I was type 1 rather than type 2 I was given the JDRF Straight to the point A guide to living with type 1 diabetes ... one of the facts (page 21) 90 percent of people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have no family history of the condition
Which did make me wonder at the time why they ask the question at all

 

[Grant_Vicat]

Diagnosed at 11 months. Not in family, but as others suggest stress/shock. Same month I had 2 examples. 1) an alsatian put it's head in my pram and barked. 2) stung by wasps 7 times. My money has always been on the wasps since I still get recurrent nightmares about them. Who knows?

 

[Grant_Vicat]

I'm not type 1 so forgive the transgression of sticking my nose in, but this reminds me of something I was pondering a while ago. My personal belief is that there are almost certainly unidentified dietary and/or environmental factors that aggravate a genetic predisposition. If it's true that incidences of T1 are on the rise, then it doesn't make sense that it could be only genetic. Since T1 can kill at any age, evolutionary pressure, if anything, should gradually breed it out, but it seems this is not happening.

An immunologist pointed out to me that the progressive survival of Type 1's (in the last 100 years) has ironically benefitted the human race. The fact that an over-powerful immune system passes more and more through the generations, the more human beings will cope with new diseases. It does however mean that Type 1 also increases!

 

[jonathan183]

If it's true that incidences of T1 are on the rise, then it doesn't make sense that it could be only genetic.

It's on the increase JDRF facts and figures.

 

[Member496333]

An immunologist pointed out to me that the progressive survival of Type 1's (in the last 100 years) has ironically benefitted the human race. The fact that an over-powerful immune system passes more and more through the generations, the more human beings will cope with new diseases. It does however mean that Type 1 also increases!

Hmmm. Perhaps there’s some merit in that. But it still seems odd to me that a genetic mutation that most certainly doesn’t improve anyone’s lifespan would prosper and become more prevalent. A powerful immune system that attacks your own body doesn’t seem like an advantage. That’s not really how evolution works? Not that I’m an expert, by any means. Just a thought experiment mostly.