Examining The Causes Of Type 1 Diabetes

When your doctor diagnoses you with type 1 diabetes it is likely that your mind will racing trying to figure out,"how did this happen to me"? Did I catch a virus or something? Was my sugar consumption so much that my body reacted by giving me diabetes? For sure, the causes of diabetes are not so simple.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. This means that in those who have the disease their bodies basically turned against itself, damaging the insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas. Incredibly, the way doctors first discovered that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease is by measuring antibodies in the blood. These antibodies are essentially proteins that are directed against the islet cells of the body. These islet cells are usually discovered by physicians who have examined type 1 diabetics and their relatives a few years prior to the disease taking hold.

Another determining factor in identifying type 1 diabetes as an autoimmune disease is that drugs that reduce autoimmunity, also retard the onset of type 1 diabetes. In addition, type 1 diabetes tends to occur in people who have other known autoimmune diseases.

How is it that doctors know in advance that certain people will develop diabetes. Well, it isn't an exact science. However, doctors have discovered that people who get type 1 diabetes more often have certain abnormal characteristics on their chromosomes that are not present in people who don't get diabetes. Physicians can look for these abnormal characteristics on your DNA. Even so, having these abnormal characteristics doesn't guarantee that you will get diabetes.

A few special circumstances affect the symptoms that you may see in persons with type 1 diabetes. Take note of the following factors:

Warm summer months are associated with a reduction in the occurrence of diabetes compared to the winter months, especially in children over ten years of age. More than likely, a virus is responsible for bringing on diabetes and viruses spread much more when children are frolicking around inside during the winter.

Males and females seem to get type 1 diabetes to fairly equal degree

The "honeymoon" period is a time after the diagnosis of diabetes when a person's insulin needs seem to be less for about a six month period. The condition also appears to be milder. This period of time also seems to be longer when a child is older at the time of diagnosis. Nevertheless, the disease almost always returns.

Interested in more information on diabetes? Check out http://badmetforminsideeffects.com