Type 1 diabetes
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Type 1 Diabetes
People with type 1 diabetes (also called insulin-dependent
diabetes mellitus or IDDM) don't produce insulin and need regular shots
of it to keep their blood glucose levels normal. Type 1 diabetes was once
called juvenile-onset diabetes, but that name has been dropped because type
1 diabetes also strikes young and older adults alike. Type 1 diabetes accounts
for about 5% to 10% of those who have the disease.
Risk factors
- A family history of the disease increases risk.
- Diabetes happens in people of every race, but
it's most common among whites.
- Half of those diagnosed with type 1 are under
20. Being age 20 or younger increases your risk.
What causes it?
- Most children of parents with diabetes do not
develop the disease. However, scientists have long suspected that heredity
plays a role because type 1 diabetes tends to run in families. Researchers
have identified several genes that appear to increase risk of type 1
diabetes. But they haven't yet found a single gene that causes the disease.
- Type 1 diabetes has many hallmarks of an auto-immune
condition. In auto-immune diseases, the immune system, which protects
you from disease by killing invading germs, mistakes the body's own
cells for germs and destroys them. In the case of type 1 diabetes, the
immune system kills the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin (beta
cells).
- Type 1 diabetes often strikes shortly after a
viral infection, and doctors sometimes notice a sharp jump in type 1
diabetes diagnoses after viral epidemics. Which viruses? Candidates
include those that cause mumps, German measles, and a close relative
of the virus that causes polio.
- Why would viruses cause diabetes? They don't cause
it directly. Instead, these viruses contain proteins that look very
similar to proteins found in the pancreas's insulin-producing beta cells.
The immune system presumably mistakes the beta cells for virus particles
and destroys them -- along with the body's ability to make insulin.
- Studies show that ingestion of Pyriminil, a poison
used to kill rats, can trigger type 1 diabetes. So can the prescription
drug pentamidine, used to treat pneumonia. Other chemicals cause diabetes
in animals, but scientists don't know if they would do the same in humans.
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