Type 1 - Is it genetic?

I'm 29, type 1 and not one single person in my family has diabetes. I've always been the healthiest one as well.

MrsMushroom said:

Can I be nosy and ask if you have diabetes in your family? Do you have siblings/parents etc with Type 1 as well as yourself?

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None whatsoever when diagnosed........ however I do now have an Aunt with type 2 diabetes.

My daughter was 2 years old when she was diagnosed with type 1,and not 1 person in my family or her fathers have diabetes!

I have been type one since approximately 1yr old (now 35), my mother is type1 too, she was diagnosed at age 12

I have diabetis in my family my gran had type 1 aunt type 1 the rest type 2 but my mum initally got told if anyone was going to get diabetis it would be a boy yeh right in 2008 I got diagnosed with type 1 and I'm a female someone got it wrong its been a hard slog been told it will get easier yeh right WHEN ??

Diagnosed at 24, no history of diabetes at all in the family, just 1 of those things i guess..

No one on either side had diabetes i wad the first and still am the only T1 in our family. I was diagnosed 23 years ago. My mum and dad have niw been duagnised T2 but uve been told theres no connection with bith types. In fact my dsn once said its a shame they are called the same as although bith pancreas related are very different conditions.

Definately in my family...
My sister was diagnosed with type 1 42 years ago. She was aged 4 and diagnosed around the 11th September.

My son was diagnosed with type 1 9 years ago. He was aged 4 and diagnosed on the 14th September.

Too much of a coincidence for me... identical ages, month of the year and nearly day...just 38 years difference....

Makes you think?????? :crazy:

No one in my family is diabetic but i also was diagnosed in pregnancy.

It missed two generations with me... My great grandmother had it but not until she was over 70 years old. It missed my grandmother and my mother, but I was hospitalised with Type 1 two weeks ago... Im out of hospital now thank goodness....

I inject five times a day with novorapid and lantus

No-one else in my family has diabetes. I was diagnosed T1 6 yrs ago. Mum died at 35 so dont know if she would have gone on to develop T2.

Lucy xxx

I was diagnosed T1 just before I was six. My mum's cousins, 3 of them have T1, and they're all men.

No-one closer than that though, and no-one on my dad's side.

I was diagnosed type 1 aged 5. No one else in the family with any kind of diabetes. Lucky me!!!!

Hi MrsMushroom,

To answer your question there is likely a genetic element to T1 diabetes (IDDM), in the sense of pre-disposition and risk-factors as opposed to "definitely will get" genetic link. This is why some people have families where it is common, and others don't.

Secondly, there may also be an environmental risk - most people associate this with T2 diabetes (as being diet linked - however T2 also has genetic elements and predisposition factors). For example, a potential environmental risk with T1's may be viral infections - whereby a virus (such as Epstein-Barr virus) can cause issues in the body that over time, result in type I diabetes.

If you think about what T1 diabetes is, it will be a loss of function of Beta cells in the pancreas (or neutralising the body's own insulin by way of auto-antibodies etc). This could be destruction of beta cells by an immune response, which there are tentative links to viral infections starting this process off, or starting off a sequence of events which results in type 1 diabetes.

It may turn out that there are susceptibility genes and environmental factors that interplay with each other resulting in the generation of type 1 diabetes. Whatever it is, it is quite complex and we do not fully understand it yet (plus it is difficult to properly study!).

All the best!
J

Yes. My aunt was a type 1 and she did not take care of herself and died at 52. She had other major problems too, she literally would not go to doctors unless forced.

My uncle was a type 2 but now he is a type 1. (not sure if that's possible??) I think my aunt got it in her twenties, my uncle was older. It's funny, all the non smokers in my family are the ones who get **** wrong with them. My aunt was overweight but my uncle fit as a fiddle and he still got type 2 in his 40s.

I turned 23 last week and got diagnosed June this year. It's definitely genetic or it plays a HUUUUUUUUUUGE part, because I've eaten super duper healthy since I was 16 and lost loads of weight, then I get smacked in the face with type 1 diabetes.

Hi

My uncle on my mums side had type 1, and I was told my mums mum had it? but she died when my mum was only 6 yrs old. I was diagnosed in 1989 and my darling grandaughter was diagnosed aged 2 1/2 last year So yes, it is genetic in my family. Best wishes RRB

From what I've learned is that there are usually autoimmune conditions clusters in the family over all.

Having this vunerablity to autoimmune conditions is surely to at genetic level but inheriting T1 itself is incredibly tiny in terms of probability.

I have two T2 parents (the only confirmed T2s, this has high hereditory factors esp in S.East asians which are 6 times more likely to get it if parents have it) however I'm S.east asian and yet I'm 'LADA' or adult onset T1 and no one else has it :crazy:

In my family some autoimmune conditions include rheumotoid athritis, virtiligo, thyroid, hay fever, as examples. On top of that other things e.g we have thalassemia B deficiency (this is genetic) we have asthma (is this autoimmune? I'm unsure), dermatological problems, alopecia, PCOS, Endometriosis, neurological heart issue (my sister recently, the other being tested) vit D deficiency (my brother recently - he also had an op for double carpal tunnel) the list goes on and on and on...

Out of curiosity is there any other autoimmune conditon around your family?

I am the only one in my family to have diabetes. (As far as I know - as I don't know further back than grandparents) I am also the healthiest in my family, and I was 61 when diagnosed!!!