This article came via email in my inbox a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was pretty interesting. Not sure all of the reasons are viable nor proven, but interesting for discussion.
This is what it said:
A 2009 study in The Lancet found that new cases of type 1 diabetes in kids could double in the next 10 years. Possible reasons for this dramatic rise include:
1. Too big too fast. The “accelerator hypothesis” theorizes that children who are bigger and grow more quickly are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes.
2. Too little sun. The “sunshine hypothesis” comes from data showing that countries situated closer to the equator have lower rates of type 1 diabetes.
3. Too clean. The “hygiene hypothesis” is the notion that cleanliness — lack of exposure to certain germs and parasites — may increase susceptibility to diseases like diabetes.
4. Too much cow’s milk. The “cow’s milk hypothesis” states that exposing babies to infant formula containing cow’s milk in the first six months of life damages their immune systems, and can trigger autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.
5. Too much pollution. The “POP hypothesis” alleges that being exposed to pollutants increases diabetes risk.
Any thoughts on this, people? I’ve definitely heard the Vitamin D/too little sun theory before – see this NY Times article (thanks for sending this Sarah).
Article sourced by mercola.com by way of Diabetes Connect.
Posted in Science & Research
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13 comments have been made on this post
Chris wrote
Vit. D (and sunshine) and cleanliness (immune system) are two I’d agree with in relation to all health, not just T1. As both Vit. D and exposure to germs builds a stronger immune system, they may well assist. Too much safety is killing us?
J wrote
Interesting reading, one “theory” which was circulated in the UK related to immune system factors like not being breast fed as a baby or being given too much antibiotics as a kid. I haven’t really read up too much about it for a while but it’s always good to see new research being done.
Ruth wrote
There’s a reason they’re all still in the ‘hypothesis’ stage because they absolutely can’t be proven. It’s like saying okay well people who live near a cell phone tower have higher rates of cancer because of the tower when in actual fact it just so happens that that population smokes more or live on a landlot that was once a toxic waste area! I see them all as clutching at straws, unfortunately.
The irony is that I couldn’t be included in any of the data sets for those hypotheses because I grew at the normal rate, I was always in the sun as a kid, I had measles, mumps and chicken pox as a kid and I remember eating pot plant dirt so I don’t think I was ‘too clean’, haha, and according to my plunket book, I had cow’s milk only once at age 5 months but was otherwise breastfed, (and my brother and sister were breastfed for only 4 weeks and never developed T1 like me), and pollution? I didn’t know what smog was until I flew to Los Angeles!
I sound really negative I know, but you have to remember too that forecasting growth figures are exactly that – forecasting. I watch the weather forecast every night and even they can’t forecast correctly most of the time!!!
I would love it if one or some of the hypotheses were spot on, believe me … but they’re all just a little far fetched for me. I don’t know. It has to have something more to do with our genetic makeup. It just has to. Especially when you consider all those identical twins raised in the same environments when only one is T1 and the other is not!
Chris M wrote
Other childhood disorders are also increasing rapidly – asthma, allergies, autism etc so what are we doing to our kids? I think its a combination of contributing factors – genetics and envoronmental triggers.
The jury is still out on the accelerator hypothesis – a clinic study by Fergus Cameron et al in Melbourne a couple of years ago didn’t support the theory tho I see the number of parents who have had a prem child dignosed with Type 1 and do wonder. Also lots of C section kids..but then in Canterbury we have one of the highest C section rates.
I looked at our own situation for years wanting answers – still really haven’t got any. I’ve had lots of discussions about theories over the years – all fascinating but really nothing more than correlation.
Some are pretty lame too ( do you know how many kids are diagnosed pretty close to or on their birthdays, diagnosed while on holiday, after breaking a bone, when parents divorce or when they move house and my personal favourite, living in areas that were once heavily sprayed orchards or market gardens)
For us, I know genetics is involved in a small way. My MIL had thyroid disease – 2 cuzzies on my side have Type 1. But both Phil and I are from big families so bound to be something there if you look at the law of averages.
Kel was one of twins; the other miscarried at 13 weeks gestation and I was so lucky to continue to carry kel to full term..13 weeks is when organs like the pancreas are developing so perhaps she was shortchanged.
I was an older Mum..we make up a lot of the stats – or are women generally having kids later?
Kel was a big baby and grew rapidly BUT was totally breastfed right up til diagnosis. She was a windy child so I avoided dairy. I was an ‘ earth mother’ growing our own fruit and veg for her…no chemicals ( except residually from the gound they grew in!)
We went for lots of walks in an open pram ( none of this black stuff covering a stroller) and she slept outside in her pram when I was in the garden…plenty if Vit D I’d have thought.
I was a clean freak..but then I was for the 4 before her as well and they’re OK.
I could go on…..!
Roy wrote
while I can claim fully the cows milk, without the formula, I could also add in the “Too clean” hypotheses, even though like you Ruth, I had all the bugs, more than once for some of them. I agree with you that the answer is in the personal genetic makeup file, but I don’t have any hassle with hypotheses old or new and if any are ever proven, then good! But what’s next?
Ruth wrote
Completely agree with all of you … it all does make us wonder doesn’t it. I saw a doctumentary about two children from separate families who suffered a strange skin disorder (but not all siblings had it) and after months of study, a scientist mapped which gene had mutated to cause the disease. I wonder if this has been or can be done for T1?? Does anyone know or have you read anything about this??
I’ve also read a number of studies correlating viral infections with the onset of T1. Unfortunately I could possibly fall into that category as I had chicken pox a year before being diagnosed. (They reckon I’d been T1 for at least 6 months before finding out though so it could make sense.) Maybe I carry the mutated gene and it was ‘turned on’ because of my chicken pox? I’ve seen a number of documentaries about this phenomenon/hypothesis too. It was recently covered by the Twins doco on channel 3 a few weeks ago. I mean something has to trigger our immune system to go from working normally and then make it destroy our insulin producing cells, right?! Maybe it’s not just genetic and not just environmental but both in unison?
Ruth wrote
Sorry one more thing – can someone explain the C-section correlation with T1??!!! Really?!
Karen R wrote
Add this to the plot:
http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/august/selection.html
… and the plot thickens!!
For what it’s worth, my take on things is that one inherits the genes to give you a susceptibility (or protection) and then one or more environmental factors – coxsackie virus, cow’s milk, moon in the wrong place at the wrong time – trigger the autoimune process and then how fast it develops is probably due to additive effects of exposure to more ‘environmental triggers’. And maybe there’s a bit of pot luck involved.
Since my dad and his brother and sister all developed Type 1 at very different ages (15, 27 & 38 ish) and then I got it at 10 I’ve also had this real interest in all this. Sadly, research hasn’t really progressed our knowledge much at all in the last 10 years! Ruth (Hi) you are right to jump on that word “hypothesis”
Sianne wrote
I had chicken pox the year before I was diagnosed too and my brother was siagnosed at 30.
Ruth wrote
Firstly, … WOW KAREN R! What an article! So we are potentially helping the human race evolve?! The only bummer is we unfortunately pulled the short straw in playing a part in it! haha
No but seriously, fantastic article – hope you don’t mind, I’m going to put it up on my Facebook group page if that’s cool. I am having a hypo right now and hope I understood it correctly (possibly may have gotten abit lost, you’ll understand why!) but wow. Not too sure what to make of it but I guess it makes sense, huh? Since I was dxd at age 8, I have always invisaged some remote plant in the Himalayas that only fruits once ever 10 years or something that holds the cure for us and someone just has to find it. I mean if nature makes us more susceptible to T1, surely it can cure us too?! The joys of having a childlike imagination. If only it were true! haha
Karen R again – Regarding your family history, I come from an enormous family on both my mum and dad’s side. To date, there’s almost 60 of us altogether. I’m the only one with T1 and for 4 generations before me (as far as we can go back) I have no family history close enough to have any impact on my having it like a sibling, uncle etc. I know Professor Elliot has done studies in the past on twins where one has it and the other doesn’t or families where practically the whole household is T1, but I have never come across any studies on people like me with ZERO genetic history. I guess my mutated SNP’s really are MUTATED! haha
Karen R wrote
It’s obviously way complex! And plenty of hypotheses around…
I think about 90% of people diagnosed with Type 1 don’t actually have a known family history of it. So that puts you in the majority
Karen R wrote
Sianne, I’ve never met anyone with the same great difference in siblings ages at diagnosis. Cool!
Sophie wrote
Yeah, no-one in my family has any auto-immune disease whatsoever. I was diagnosed at 21 after about four years with many of the symptoms. I hadn’t had any kind of major illness, virus or accident to compromise my immune system either, so it is just a mystery! Not one that I reckon warrants thinking about for me personally, my T1 isn’t going anywhere so I’m happy to embrace it!