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Type1 Diabetes a survival traight?

JohnEGreen

JohnEGreen

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Did type1 diabetes arise as a protective measure against extremely cold condition. Ridiculous we may say but there is a theory that says it could be so.

"When temperatures plummet, most people bundle up in thick sweaters, stay cozy indoors and stoke up on comfort food. But a provocative new theory suggests that thousands of years ago, juvenile diabetes may have evolved as a way to stay warm.
People with the disease, also known as Type 1 diabetes, have excessive amounts of sugar, or glucose, in their blood.
The theory argues that juvenile diabetes may have developed in ancestral people who lived in Northern Europe about 12,000 years ago when temperatures fell by 10 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few decades and an ice age arrived virtually overnight.
Archaeological evidence suggests countless people froze to death, while others fled south. But Dr. Sharon Moalem, an expert in evolutionary medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, believes that some people may have adapted to the extreme cold. High levels of blood glucose prevent cells and tissues from forming ice crystals, Dr. Moalem said. In other words, Type 1 diabetes would have prevented many of our ancestors from freezing to death."

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/17/...n-of-diabetes-in-an-age-of-icy-hardships.html
 
Interesting,

Twas the summer of 1976 when I was diagnosed.. Drought, sunburn. & I live in the south west?

One may have temparirily survived the cold? But how does one recover from a screwed up set of beta cells?
Even if there was an abundance of four legged critters to hit with a rock..

So we stayed warm & then died from DKA?
 
I just don't see any credibility in that article, for obvious reasons. Humans knew how to survive without developing an autoimmune condition that kills you. We are still doing it to this day.
 
Jaylee said:
Interesting,

Twas the summer of 1976 when I was diagnosed.. Drought, sunburn. & I live in the south west?

One may have temparirily survived the cold? But how does one recover from a screwed up set of beta cells?
Even if there was an abundance of four legged critters to hit with a rock..

So we stayed warm & then died from DKA?
Click to expand...


yes but managed to breed before that the average life expectancy at that time being around 25 years.

Tophat1900 said:
I just don't see any credibility in that article, for obvious reasons. Humans knew how to survive without developing an autoimmune condition that kills you. We are still doing it to this day.
Click to expand...

It was the ice age huge numbers froze to death and did not survive those that survived either found some where warmer or adapted to the colder climate the author is postulating that one adaption was to have more glucose in your blood.

Enabling them to survive long enough to produce offspring

An interesting idea but not one I necessarily subscribe to.
 
JohnEGreen said:
yes but managed to breed before that the average life expectancy at that time being around 25 years.



It was the ice age huge numbers froze to death and did not survive those that survived either found some where warmer or adapted to the colder climate the author is postulating that one adaption was to have more glucose in your blood.

Enabling them to survive long enough to produce offspring

An interesting idea but not one I necessarily subscribe to.
Click to expand...

I was diagnosed at the age on my 8th birthday. "Girls smell" at that age.. ;)
Lol, I don't think the inclination or the energy could help procreation. Let alone go on an epic quest wiv me little wooden spear.


25 years may have been the rule of thumb for a healthy human.. Everyone else just fell by the wayside.
Blimey, it was only a hundred years ago we had a high mortality rate for childbirth mothers & babies?

It's more likely they realised they could keep warm by skinning the coat off some critter as well as the protien.
Some were lucky enough to follow the food south after thinking, "blow this for a game of soldiers, food a bit scarce & I'm cold?"

Thanks for posting it John. It's a funny read.. Reminds me of that "hunter gatherer gene" guy convinced he may have female chromosomes or something that kept posting on here about T2 & gestational mums, ages ago..?

Edited to add; didn't families & tribes back then pretty much all huddle together during the nights?
There may have been a "hierarchy." But no real modern day privacy. One of the only things we share with our ancestors is disposal of our dead from the living quarters..? (Regardless of culture.)
 
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I just thought it would give us something else to talk about and would be a bit of a distraction.:)

There are plenty of wild and wacky ideas out there.
 
The last time I actually knew my core temperature with any accuracy was when testing NBC suites and respirators under extremes of temperature and humidity at Porton Down in the about 1969 and had a temperature sensor shoved in a place where the sun don't shine.

Well I must admit there have been times since but non quite so uncomfortable and in the icu I knew little of what was going on.
 
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