What Do You Think Causes Type 1 Diabetes? Myth & Science

[Dixon1995]

Hi all just a little off topic post about what you think causes type 1 diabetes, even though noone really knows a definitive answer, what did you think when you were a kid, what do you think now?

I was diagnosed when I was 15, but my grandad had it. I always thought as a kid he woke up one morning and he's pancreas had gone invisible and he's body could no longer find it and that made him poorly

Now im older I understand the science behind it, but the Myth I always believe is that some foreign body has hijacked a small discreet area of the brain, infecting it, severing the connection between that, and my pancreas beta cells, killing them, but who knows


Whats anyone else got ?

 

[kitedoc]

Hi @Dixon1995, As a 13 year old I had been sick with a virus bug before the symptoms of diabetes developed. I though the virus had zapped part of my pancreas gland resulting in no insulin.
Over time that understanding changed to: I had a great aunt with diabetes and some years after I was diagnosed, my cousin also developed T1D. So genetics were involved.
Then the plot was: Virus causing infection perhaps a year before.
The body, due to the genetics, let the immune system overshoot the mark, responding too strongly and the beta cells of the pancreas suffered as innocent bystanders. There were no tests for C peptide or islet cell antibodies back then.
That is about it. It is more complex than that but that understanding allows me to not keep dwelling on whether things could have been different. I do hope that one day the cause(s) will be better understood and that prevention as well as better treatment evolves.

 

[Dixon1995]

That is an interesting story @kitedoc

In my family I am certain it is a genetical disorder. Both my grandparents had type 1 diabetes, I have type 1, my uncle has type 1 diabetes, my dad has type 2.

You know thinking back I did think my diabetes was self inflicted, or may have sped up the process. I fell off my bike when I was 14, and the handle bar jabbed me in my abdominal area, it really hurt and winded me like crazy, but the pain went off. 2 months before my 15th birthday, I was diagnosed type 1, I felt fine before I fell off my bike, it's probably coincidence. I don't like to dwell either but you never know lol

 

[Kaisa96]

I have T1D and I think in my case it’s of psychological nature mostly. I have always been a sweet tooth and when I was like 10, my mom told me I would have diabetes if I drank so much sweet juice and crave for so much chocolate (she was right in a way, though, I did develop diabetes). I guess, this thought went into my deepest mind corners and became some kind of a suppressed fear. So when I got a really difficult period (the last year of my university plus various personal matters) it was triggered. I also do believe it has something to do with one’s “self-treatment”. T1D is an autoimmune disorder, maybe it’s kind of auto aggression directed at oneself.