How did I get Type 1 diabetes?


Question:
I know that type 1 diabetes can't be avoided, and it's pretty much genetic. Also it's most common in white people. But I'm black girl with no family history of type 1 diabetes. I'm the only person in my family that has it. Do you or anyone you know have the same situation, and do you know how I could've gotten it?

Answers:
Basically you are just unlucky. You are born with the genetic predisposition, so the possibility was always in your genes. Then something in the environment, we don't know what, started the autoimmune process. Some possbilities being researched are cow's milk/cow's milk formula being given too early, certain viruses, major stress on the mom during pregancy - it's also possible that it is a combination of factors.

I know it doesn't seem fair. Actually African Americans have a much higher prevalence of Type 2 diabetes, which is actually harder to live with, in my opinion. They really must stick to a diet, whereas Type 1's can eat anything they want as long as they give insulin.

My daughter use to occasionally ask, why me? I used to tell her that if the diabetes is the worst thing that ever happens to her, she'll be lucky. It's a mangeable condition.
People are usually born with Type 1 diabetes. Though genetics has a role to play, it's not uncommon for people with no family history of diabetes to be afflicted by the disease. Don't worry too much. Just follow your doctor's advice and take your insulin shots regularly and you'd be OK.
type 1 diabetes is in the genes.it may not be present with the members of your family but appeared to be dominant in your genes. aside from this, malfunction in your pancreas may lead to diabetes. ask your doctor about this.
It is an autoimmune disease with a genetic component. It's just in your genes.
It's from birth, or your genetic makeup.
Sometimes, we only have a tendency or weakness that can be exacerbated or brought out by trauma. That's what happened in my case, and now I am fully insulin-dependent.
Justwondering is right. I was the unlucky one in my family too. I'm the only type 1 in a big big big family.
Actually people of different races, such as african, native, or pacific islander are at a higher risk to get diabetes than a white person. Why this is i dont know. Type 1 diabetes is all genetic, and tends to skip generations. your family has the genetics for this disease but it just never got turned on, where in you it did. Im only the 3rd type 1 out of both sides of my family..which is also very large.
I actually recently read from a forum about type 1 and a lot of people that developed type 1 later in life or that didn't have it in their family found they had each suffered an infection such a pneumonia or something quite serious like it not long before their diagnosis. So there could be a link there if it applies for you. I had pneumonia when i was a baby, don't have diabetes but am seeing an endo for abnormal blood tests, they say hormone imbalance... I'm waiting for a real answer since they took about 7 tests in about a month and still didn't know what was up. have a lot of symptoms of diabetes but no answer.. your lucky in a way, because you know whats wrong and you and know how to control it. Better than being stuck in the dark.
good luck and good health!
you got it casue the insulin in your blood isn't enough to take the sugar away. that makes thel iver work harder and therefore that is how it got that way. there is no way you just got it that is what happens and how they get it. there is no cure as of it but we're hoping to find somethign someday. yes everyone can get it also.
Why don't you ask your doctor how you got this, he is more knowledgeable than anyone else here. 'o'
I've been diabetic since I was 13; no one in my immediate family had diabetes and the relatives that did have diabetes were all Type II. I am the only Type I diabetic in my family. I've heard in different seminars regarding diabetes that Type I diabetes could be viral, like the flu virus, that some people get and some don't, and that Type I and Type II are not related. As a child, I had viral tonsillitis a lot; one time so severe, I had to be hospitalized. The viral theory may be why I developed diabetes. Genetics may not even have anything to do with why you and I are diabetic. A lot of black people have Type II; but you and I being Type I's are few.
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