Type 1 Caused by lifestyle?

[tim2000s]

What a croc of **** that statement is re Lifestyle bring a cause of type 1 diabetes.

As someone with Type 1 diagnosed >50 years ago, you don't fall in to this study for good reason.

If we take a holistic view of "lifestyle", the facts are that since the 60s as a population:

• Our diet and the foods that our diet is composed of have changed beyond all recognition
• Our activity levels have reduced significantly
• The amount of time that people spend indoors has increased due to changes in past-times
• Household cleaning and overall approach to cleanliness has moved into a thoroughly anti-bacterial model with parents being scared of their kids even getting dirty
• Urbanisation has continued to increase and air quality to decrease in those urban centres

I could go on. In the meantime, the incidence of diabetes in children has continued to increase. This is not simply down to more people knowing what it is. There is something else here. This is simply trying to find out whether these changes to lifestyle are a factor in the incidence of diabetes and are driving the increase.

 

[alexask]

Well the main suspects that bring it on are viruses - Rotavirus and Coxsackievirus being two. I suspect my son got Rotavirus at Christmas and this may have been the trigger. He is suspected Coeliac too which again is brought on by Rotavirus. But studies haven't shown that the Rotavirus vaccine brings rates of T1 down so far. Personally I suspect any one of the following could be a contributing factor for T1 - excessive gluten especially wheat consumption, Milk consumption from infant up (my son was rubbish at breast feeding and had to be bottle fed from a young age), coming across different variant of viruses that one is not used to ( especially when attending a new secondary school) and also not being exposed to other viruses/bacteria first. Possibly inactivity (after eating too many carbs) may be a contributing factor for some and this may be where metformin may help.

The problem I have with the clean hypothesis is why does Japan have such low rates? It may be in genetic in part (they are also less liable to become coeliac), but may also be due to lower milk and wheat consumption.

 

[phoenix]

Wilkins accelerator hypothesis (sorry it is a mouthful) was very much in the T1 'news' about 12 years ago when I was first diagnosed and there were a lot of horrified' posts at the suggestion on forums like this one.
Amongst other academics there also wasn't much support for it http://www.diapedia.org/type-1-diabetes-mellitus/21040851194/accelerator-hypothesis but now it's returned in this trial: more about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerator_Prevention_Trial_(adapt)
We all have biases, I like the coxsackie virus as a trigger for those with genetic susceptibility scenario. It fits for me. I know that I have got the 'right' susceptible DNA, I've had that tested. I spent years working with children and would probably got multiple 'hits' from one variety of this virus over the years This could have gradually killed off beta cells and eventually they were too few to cope.
BUT Prof Wilkins scenario also works. Same genetic susceptibility but perhaps stressed by over nutrition. If he's correct then if I'd been very thin rather than verging on overweight before that dramatic weight loss then maybe I wouldn't have developed it (My ancestor's were probably very thin and undernourished going by the men's measurements on their enlistment papers in WW1,)
Does this work as well with child onset T1, I don't think so though even children have far more nourishment than in the past. At the moment though it's still a controversial hypothesis

 

[JohnEGreen]

Well I wonder what it is in the life style of cats and dogs that causes them to become diabetic, It seems dogs mainly get type1 and cats Type2.

 

[nmr1991]

I think vitamin d deficiency might be the trigger, closest as any theory gets really

 

[Robinredbreast]

Well I wonder what it is in the life style of cats and dogs that causes them to become diabetic, It seems dogs mainly get type1 and cats Type2.

Cats do like to sleep a lot, but both my cats are slim. Harley is 17 this year and Pebbles, who is 6, had her yearly checkup this week and she is the same weight as last year and has all round good health

 

[Robinredbreast]

I think vitamin d deficiency might be the trigger, closest as any theory gets really

When my Ex left, it was a devastating time for me and my two children, I became ill with suspected Colitis, then Type 1.

 

[alexask]

I think vitamin d deficiency might be the trigger, closest as any theory gets really

I think the earlier Sardinia example given kind of debunks that. Also I would have thought in this instance darker skinned people (who absorb less vitamin D from the sun and some of whom cover up to boot and suffer rickets) would have a much higher rate of T1 when moving to northern climes - and I don't think this is the case.

Anyway if I were to be asked how you might possibly reduce the chances of your siblings or children getting type 1 I would go with the following:
Breast feed your kids if at all possible.
Avoid too much wheat, milk
Make sure you get outside frequently.
Play in mud as child - garden as an adult.
Don't use bleach spray
Exercise gently after meals
Low carbs high fat.
Wash your hands and avoid touching small children (other than your own) once you reach teenage years and beyond to avoid rotavirus.
Don't travel.
Don't eat out much to avoid rotavirus
Eat fish/sushi.

 

[1990]

When you consider that a high % of people are diagnosed as children then it seems impossible that it's triggered by lifestyle.

However personally I think it can be triggered by many factors, so it could be lifestyle related, why though think that it's just one factor ? I know there is a higher incidence of type 1 in northern hemisphere countries, so possible sunshine/vitamin d link, and also people are diagnosed after illness so the attack starts with illness depressing the immune system. Maybe this is where we are going wrong and trying to pinpoint a particular reason rather than many, it's how the immune system responds and perhaps if we focus more on strengthening immune systems then this could prevent many from becoming type 1 ?

I can't see how it can be lifestyle as my daughter was diagnosed in January just after turning 13. She loved natural green juices and carrot and orange juice every morning for breakfast. She has always been very slim and active but exactly a year to the day previous to diagnosis she was admitted to hospital with a bad virus and took three weeks to recover fully so her diagnosis would be explained better with the theory of a virus and the immune system malfunctioning and attacking her pancreas instead.

 

[JohnEGreen]

A very good list of does and don't s there alexask, but I'm afraid breast feeding was never an option for me.

 

[Juicyj]

I can't see how it can be lifestyle as my daughter was diagnosed in January just after turning 13. She loved natural green juices and carrot and orange juice every morning for breakfast. She has always been very slim and active but exactly a year to the day previous to diagnosis she was admitted to hospital with a bad virus and took three weeks to recover fully so her diagnosis would be explained better with the theory of a virus and the immune system malfunctioning and attacking her pancreas instead.

Hi @1990 i was diagnosed at the age of 39 after a ski holiday and falling very ill, no previous virus to speak off, just sudden onset weight loss and illness, lifestyle would not been applicable to me as I was slim, fit and had always been very healthy, however have always been clean, kept house clean maybe the immune system needed more dirt to contend with, none of us are experts on this subject so it is very hypothetical.

 

[pinewood]

I think vitamin d deficiency might be the trigger, closest as any theory gets really

Saudi Arabia is the country with the third highest incidence of type 1 diabetes; that alone puts doubt on the vit. d theory.

 

[NZ_Type_1]

I'm interested in the possibility of vitamin D deficiency being linked type 1. I'm fair skinned and live in the south of New Zealand. My maternal grandfather died of skin cancer and my maternal relations all have lesions removed regularly (2 have had melanoma) . Because of the skin cancer risk I have used sun lotion my entire life. When my sister got MS (which seems to be linked to low vit D), my vit D levels were tested and were found to be very low. I have no proof, but I wonder if my adult onset type 1 is related to vit D deficiency. We all take supplements now. On the bright side- no malignant skin cancers so far.

I'm interested in the possibility of vitamin D deficiency being linked type 1. I'm fair skinned and live in the south of New Zealand. My maternal grandfather died of skin cancer and my maternal relations all have lesions removed regularly (2 have had melanoma) . Because of the skin cancer risk I have used sun lotion my entire life. When my sister got MS (which seems to be linked to low vit D), my vit D levels were tested and were found to be very low. I have no proof, but I wonder if my adult onset type 1 is related to vit D deficiency. We all take supplements now. On the bright side- no malignant skin cancers so far.

Hi there I am also intrested in Vitamin D, I was diagnosed with type 1 3years ago, my wife has just been diagnosed with MS and we have noticed when ever she sun baths she feels better! I am also having a lesion removed in 2weeks..Lots of bad things in common with our familys haha

 

[viv k]

Hi there I am also intrested in Vitamin D, I was diagnosed with type 1 3years ago, my wife has just been diagnosed with MS and we have noticed when ever she sun baths she feels better! I am also having a lesion removed in 2weeks..Lots of bad things in common with our familys haha

Agreed! Seeing MS close up makes me realise type 1 ain't so bad really. If only MS sufferers could do a few tests and injections a day and be normal.

 

[RuthW]

Why is it unhelpful? The fact that it is an autoimmune disorder has no relevance to this discussion. AIDS is also an autoimmune disorder and for some....that could have been avoided.

Furthermore, why is it "Unhelpful" to at least CONSIDER the possibility that type 1 and type 2 are similar in that lifestyle COULD have contributed to the disease for some people while for others it was inevitable? Maybe "Type 1" encompasses many different types of auto-immune diabetes, some of which could have been avoided.

I see nothing wrong with discussing a topic that is largely unproven, and very possibly could be (partially) true.

AIDS is not an autoimmune disorder. It's an immunodeficiency. Almost exactly the opposite of an autoimmune disorder, in fact.

 

[Totto]

Saudi Arabia is the country with the third highest incidence of type 1 diabetes; that alone puts doubt on the vit. d theory.

Very low vitamin D levels in the Saudi population apparently.
http://www.arabnews.com/news/519761

 

[RuthW]

Very low vitamin D levels in the Saudi population apparently.
http://www.arabnews.com/news/519761

The Saudis live at night. They sleep a lot during the day and go out shopping etc at night. To avoid the heat. So that might at least partially account for the Vit D levels.

I usually have low Vit D, sometimes extremely low. I also have Type 1 since I was 5 and hypothyroidism since I was 13. My sister got Type 1 at 33. My skinny Dad and skinny aunty both got Type 2 in their sixties.

So I think there's an autoimmune element and a genetic element but it needs a trigger. In my family those of us with these conditions also had severe viral infections in the months before diagnosis.

The 'lifestyle' change we have seen in the last century or so might not be good or chemicals, etc. It might just be urbanization and greater social mobility, possibly patterns of working which carry more men and women into a common work place (instead of people working in the home or in very small groups). That would allow the spread of non-fatal viruses that trigger genetic tendencies.

A case like this is schizophrenia. It is known that viral infections in pregnancy increase the child's risk of been diagnosed with it in his/her late teens/early twenties. But it also has a genetic base (and occurs in the same families as Type 2).

So, going back to Vit D, it might be a causative factor, or it might just be something that co-occurs with Type 1. Maybe some of us simply have a faulty system that makes it hard for us to process or produce it. Hard to know. I have no signs of osteoporosis, interestingly.


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[Diamattic]

Hrmmm...

I am not sure about any of this lol

When I was diagnosed I was seemingly perfectly healthy. I was in fact in mid training for a ~90km Adventure Race (which I completed, with little diabetic issue a month after being released from the hospital)

I was certainly not sick, or unhealthy, or obese. About 3 years prior to diagnosis i had a physical for work and my blood glucose at the time was 5.3mmol/L so I know 3 years prior I had no issues... So somewhere my cells were attacked, and they slowly started stressing and dying off, after 1 or 2 years I think they just bit the dust lol

I dont subscribe to the unhealthy lifestyle scenario...

 

[catapillar]

I dont subscribe to the unhealthy lifestyle scenario...

Im not sure anyone has mentioned unhealthy lifestyle, certainly not the researchers. Lifestyle does not equal unhealthy lifestyle, although when we hear "lifestyle causes" for a condition we are all pretty well conditioned to think fat & lazy, lifestyle doesn't mean diet & exercise, it means lifestyle, literally everything about our lives now - good stuff, bad stuff everything.

 

[Diamattic]

Im not sure anyone has mentioned unhealthy lifestyle, certainly not the researchers. Lifestyle does not equal unhealthy lifestyle, although when we hear "lifestyle causes" for a condition we are all pretty well conditioned to think fat & lazy, lifestyle doesn't mean diet & exercise, it means lifestyle, literally everything about our lives now - good stuff, bad stuff everything.

In the original post the user asks if 'poor lifestyle' could be a cause of developing type 1, I assumed that meant 'unhealthy' because he mentions obesity and drinking to much.

My reply was in response to the original question asked.