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Type 1 diabetes life expectancy?

A difficult question and not one anybody could answer I'm afraid.
 
I asked my consultant a few years ago & he couldn't tell me. So many factors influence it - how long your parents lived, family history of some cancers or heart or stroke disease, smoking history, weight, activity levels, cholesterol, BP - as well as diabetes control.
And plenty of diseases just happen, without any obvious risk factors. Some diabetics die of cancer, even with really high cardiovascular risks.

I have heard that if you've a type 1 & you've not developed any albumin leaks from your kidneys into your urine after 20years, you are very unlikely to develop kidney disease at all. So if your urine microalbumin:creatinine ratios have all been normal so far, you have good kidney function on blood tests & your BP doesn't ever get above 140/90, your kidneys should be OK.

That's a big deal, cos kidney disease increases cardiovascular risk massively.

I recently got income protection insurance - anything that could be diabetes related was excluded, but one of the condition of being offered it at all was that my HbA1c had to be 7.5% or less.
 
I had a Type 1 friend who died in late 2011, in her mid-90s. She had smoked like a chimney in her past, and liked a whisky or two!
She controlled her diabetes extremely well, and had no diabetic complications whatsoever.

So I think the answer to your question is, much probably depends on your genes and unforseen circumstances, but given how treatments have improved over the years, there is no reason why you shouldn't live a long and happy life - provided you have good control and look after yourself properly.

Viv 8)
 
I did a posting ages ago about life expectsncy and was truly astonished about the longest living people with diabetes, and how long they had it for.

I was told I would get complications and a shorter life when dxd 27 years ago... And it put the fear of god into me. I always thought I would die by 50... Well I am 50 this year without complications so far.

I havent always had the good control.. Went through a phase of complacency a few years after diagnosis, only for a short while really.

However, so much of our lufe expectency is down to genes we have inherited. I complain to my mum that I have neuralgia in my face... And ahe tells me my nan had that.. I complain about depression, and know that my mum and nan had that.

I think that so much depends on genes and the length of years our relatives live(d) to as well for a guideline. And of course, we never know if we will have an accident or something else happen.

Wish we could have crystal balls that work!!
 
VickiT11979 said:
I have heard that if you've a type 1 & you've not developed any albumin leaks from your kidneys into your urine after 20years, you are very unlikely to develop kidney disease at all.
Click to expand...



Now that's interesting what you say about diabetic nephropathy, where did you hear this Vicki?
 
Think it was from a type 1 who's had the disease for over 65 years & who has minimal complications, not from a doctor, though I have read an article that says that peak incidence of proteinuria is after 15-20 years duration of diabetes, don't know how to copy & paste on an iPad so will write the link: care.diabetesjournals.org/content/28/1/164.full.
 
Thanks, the article makes interesting reading :thumbup:
 
I have no idea of life expectancy. I did read about a woman in America in her nineties but in America they treat strokes in the same way they treat heart attacks here, by inserting a stent in their head. Although I had this done for a heart attack (my arm not my head)it was much easier preventing strokes. when I was in my fifties I was shown a simple exercise to prevent locked muscles.
It involves stretching our muscles regularly up our bodies over 10 consecutive days. Lie on your back and relax, stretch your toes forward as far as possible and count to 5 then relax. Stretch the toes backwards as far as possible count to 5 and relax again. Then tighten the buttocks relax and tense up the shoulders. Finally the facial muscles contort your face into a funny face and relax. Lie for a minute and think of something pleasant and after that you are prepared. If you have the symptoms of pins and needles over your whole body or find you can't move your arm where you want it to go just do the exercise again in the same way but once should be enough.
I am 67, nearly 68 but I was told about 8 years ago that I couldn't be a type 1 or I would be a permanent resident in hospital but I had been going to the same hospital outpatients since I started.
The reason this works is the heart is helped to pump the blood through the arteries by muscles in these vessels and for some reason they can lock up.
I don't believe blood clots cause the blockage but I'm not in any way suggesting anybody stops taking their pills we have to follow our own experiences.
 
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