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Type 1 Type1 and Siblings

L

Loul’

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello

I have 3 daughters (12 - 10 - 8).

In January 2018 my 10yr old daughter got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and treated with a novorapid/glargyne combination.

Last friday my 12yr old daughter got also diagnosed with the same disease and treated the same way.

Doctors/Professors tell me the simulteanity is down to bad luck, but I obviously dont buy this.

I am trying to understand what could have triggered the disease for both girls at the same time, especially since there is no antecedent in our families.

More importantly, I am trying to find out what shall I do to make sure the 8yr old does not develop the same condition ?

Last, this setup ought to be interesting for some clinical trials. Would know any serious research lab in London we could work with in order to help the science (and selfishly us !)

Thanks for your help

Loul’
 
What exactly do you not buy? There is a genetic element to type 1 diabetes, if you have certain variants of the HLA gene you are at an increased risk of getting type 1. It's well known that if there as a family history, ther is an increased risk of type 1. Once your first daughter was diagnosed you suddenly got a family history for your other children, and for you.

Have you signed up to the trialnet study to assess daughter number 3s risk - http://www.bristol.ac.uk/translational-health-sciences/research/diabetes/research/trialnet/
 
Hi catapillar, thanks a lot for your quick answer.
I get the genetic part, I don’t believe in coincidence to explain that both girls aged 10 and 12 got diagnosed 6 weeks apart.
I am looking for an external factor like food, pollution or a drug they would have taken...
Any help on that from is most welcome.
Thanks for trialnet. I’ll sign my third daughter asap.
 
In my most experience with diabetic friends, only 1 of them had a family of diabetics in which the dad had diabetes and his children all developed it at different times so it seems the genetic link is weak (I have been told that my 3 kids have a 2% vs. 1% chance of getting type 1 diabetes) and I wish you luck with whatever tests/trials you find. Some of the rest of us developed it after a viral illness or some other challenge to the immune system. It IS bad luck in the sense that there is no proven way to prevent type 1.
In my case I do not know why at age 10 I developed the condition although I understand the age of puberty is a frequent time of diagnosis (not that puberty causes it!). Your 3rd child may develop it or like my sister be fine (she has another autoimmune condition though - hypothryroidism and many diabetics I know have ceoliac disease).
I hope you find some answers for your family and totally sympathise, as a parent, with your desire to do all that you can to help your daughters. No doubt they are taking it in their stride?!
 
T1 is a funny thing. I believe in some families it is very genetic and since in most type of diabetes (not all) a gene has to be inherited from BOTH parents it means that once one sibling has it all other siblings have around a 1 in 10 chance of also developing diabetes.
In some families it shows once and not again, or other autoimmune conditions present instead. In some families three out of four children have t1. I know of someone who had a t1 dad and she and both her siblings are also t1. However none of their children are and they are now in their 20s so although they could develop it at any time they didn't develop it in childhood.
I believe there should be more research around why it runs in some families and not others - I know trial net are looking at these sorts of issues.

There is some sort of trigger as even if you are an identical twin with t1 your twin only has a 50:50 risk of developing it so somewhere along the line there must be an additional factor as well as genetics but I suspect this trigger is different for different people and also that there are lots and lots of these triggers that cause the immune system to go into overdrive.
 
Dad with t1: around 8% risk
Mum with t1: around 4% risk
Sibling: around 10% risk
Identical twin: 50% risk

General population lifetime risk of developing t1 is around 0.3% or 1 in 300. So clearly having a close relative with t1 massively increases your chances of developing diabetes.
 
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