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Can stress/traumatic events be a cause of type 1?

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Dale walker

Dale walker

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I just wanted to put out there to the followers of this page a question. My question is, did anyone who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, get their diagnosis after a traumatic event, or did a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder happen before the onset of type 1 diabetes????

I ask because myself who was diagnosed with PTSD at the age of 26 after tours of Afghanistan then was diagnosed with type 1 shortly after. I'm trying to see if there is a connection.

Any experience or advice would be greatfull
 
Dale walker said:
I just wanted to put out there to the followers of this page a question. My question is, did anyone who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, get their diagnosis after a traumatic event, or did a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder happen before the onset of type 1 diabetes????

I ask because myself who was diagnosed with PTSD at the age of 26 after tours of Afghanistan then was diagnosed with type 1 shortly after. I'm trying to see if there is a connection.

Any experience or advice would be greatfull
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Very huge welcome from me ex RA, and RGBW, it is possible that an event triggered your immune system.
 
No, there is no established connection between stressful life events and the onset of Type 1 diabetes

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15190162

I have to admit I used to work in War Pensions (not for a while, mind), but I think a "consequential" claim would fail. when did you finish service?
 
mikeyB said:
No, there is no established connection between stressful life events and the onset of Type 1 diabetes

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15190162

I have to admit I used to work in War Pensions (not for a while, mind), but I think a "consequential" claim would fail.
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Agree with mike regarding claims, even if you could tie in the onset to stress, proof would be impossible. It is more likely an infection it illness that may be the trigger
 
Hello Dale, welcome.

It's very unlikely that stress or trauma could trigger diabetes, though that could have an effect on your blood sugar levels. As has been said, it was probably an infection of some kind that set it off.
 
I agree with all the above regarding infection. That's why under the Service Pensions Order (which no longer applies) T1 arising in service was always attributable to service.
 
Much more likely you were just simply headed for it anyway - then with the extra strain on your pancreas caused by all the cortisol from the trauma and then the stress ditto and finally the PTSD ditto (cos all these things shoot everyone's (not just diabetics, but only we 'see' it cos we are testing and non-Ds of course, don't) BG up so your body's need for insulin automatically becomes greater) and after having to struggle to help you through all these events - Mr Pancreas just couldn't cope any more.

My husband worked with a chap who fell out of a tree and broke his arm when he was 11 and Bingo! - he became T1. Exactly the same as what happened to you - he was on the brink, then the trauma happened and it was too much for his failing Beta cells to cope with.

The only trauma I'd had was getting married 12 months previously ! LOL
 
What you are talking about, Jenny, is predestination, not causation. Mental stress does not bring about T1 Diabetes. A physical injury might because of the heightened activity of the immune system in someone predestined to develop diabetes. The onset is nothing to do with cortisol.

Did you read the paper summary on the link I posted?
 
I can only talk from own experience, my diagnosis came after a 12 month period of considerable traumatic events, my Dad died very suddenly, my friend and uncle were both diagnosed with terminal cancer, and my coma happened the day after the funeral of a close family member who committed suicide. The first symptoms appeared shortly after my Dad died which is why the numpty GP decided my questions about whether I could have diabetes was neurosis (my Dad's death was diabetes related). We have a whole pack of autoimmune conditions in my family so clearly we're genetically predisposed to such delights. Given the fact that I'm one of those late blooming flowers who developed type 1 just at the wire (I was 39 but diagnosed at 40) I'd be interested to see more discrete research on the impact of trauma on autoimmune development. By that I mean it's unlikely those diagnosed in childhood have autoimmune reactions triggered by trauma, I would have thought it much more likely the trigger would be viral or bacterial. Those diagnosed later potentially have other triggers. Incidentally my uncle also diagnosed with type 1 at 40 was diagnosed some months after a car accident that killed his wife and my Dad developed Psoriasis after a very traumatic accident involving the death of the other driver (it wasn't Dad's fault but he nevertheless felt considerable guilt).
 
Psoriasis is my other autoimmune condition. Manifested when I was 10 following an ear infection. Since then, it flares up with any stress or trauma (which causes stress), and has always taken hospital intervention to get it back under control. It also flares up (to a lesser degree) a couple of days before I'm aware I'vegot an infection. So between that and my BG I should be well aware when I have an infection on its way🙂. In this respect i.e both flaring with stress they are similar, but there was no major stressful event in the weeks before DX. Assuming I didn't have it undiagnosed before that when my life was very stressful 2014/2015 and looking back Idid have symptoms.
 
The reason I started it out with the word it is possible, like GG, I have more than one autoimmune issues, although technically diabetes is not one of them. They all started at the same time and I was a little stressed. I had a bacterial infection.
I think that the infection I did not take seriously enough due to stress, it's tentative,
 
My consultant told me they suspect that Type 1 is triggered off by a viral infection. But here's my theory about stress. If you're stressed, your immune system struggles to cope, you get more coughs and colds, minor infections and the like.So maybe when your immune system isn't coping because of stress, the infection that triggers Type 1 is more likely to get a foothold in your body.
 
There seems to be a link among the population of people with type 1 diabtes and previous stressful events. However, in my case, the 10 months before my diagnosis were probably the best of my life, travelling & field assisting in Australia, then travelling, volunteering and working on seal and dolphin swimming tours in New Zealand, DIagnosis limited my options considerably, to put it mildly.
 
Copepod said:
There seems to be a link among the population of people with type 1 diabtes and previous stressful events. However, in my case, the 10 months before my diagnosis were probably the best of my life, travelling & field assisting in Australia, then travelling, volunteering and working on seal and dolphin swimming tours in New Zealand, DIagnosis limited my options considerably, to put it mildly.
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How do you feel now, I am still coming to terms, going through a really low period of I am really honest with myself. It's having to keep changing things and hiding from manipulative people who look for any weakness.
 
Owen said:
How do you feel now, I am still coming to terms, going through a really low period of I am really honest with myself. It's having to keep changing things and hiding from manipulative people who look for any weakness.
Click to expand...
Not wanting to derail this thread. My diagnosis was over 20 years ago, and I have managed to do some things that I thought impossible eg went as volunteer leader on expedition to Falklands and South Georgia and worked in British Antarctic Survey HQ in Cambridge, but paid work in Antarctica remained banned. I wasn't expecting that within months of getting driving licence, I'd be back in UK and loses right to drive vans and minibuses, which meant I couldn't persue career in ecotourism. However, have worked as country park ranger, activity birthday party organiser, orienteering coach etc.The worse period was staying with with parents, with no friends within 100 miles, and working in a boring job in a travel agency soon after returning to UK, but things improved when I did my MSc in London and Northern Ireland.

You're right that constant adjusting treatment and hiding injections and tests from people can be tiring, but overall, I think it's worth it, and only tell people about having diabetes when they have seen you deal with normal life and out of the ordinary situations for at least a few months.
 
My mum thinks that her T1 was triggered by the shock of my dad having a motorbike accident which nearly killed him (she was 22 at diagnosis, they had only been married a year). My daughter's was definitely triggered by a viral infection. My mum always used to say that T1 is caused by a combination of genes and some form of external trigger (could be trauma, or virus, or perhaps even other things). I think the official line these days is slightly different, but I think that my mum's theory still fits in most cases!
 
In fairness, I don't think anyone knows what definitely causes Type 1 diabetes. It's still an unknown.

Mine began shortly after an extremely traumatic event but I remain open to all suggestions. There was no history of diabetes in my family.

Recent studies carried out in Sweden suggest a link between psychological stress in youngsters and changes in the immune system and effects on beta cells.

This study provides some food for thought:

https://www.theguardian.com/society...tes-type-1-can-be-tripled-by-childhood-stress
 
Yes indeed. I've seen that study before. What it is saying is that stress in childhood increases the risk of developing T1 later in life, but the main factor is genetic. It adds nothing about stress in adult life. In the western world we are fond of studying childhood stress, but in the developing world in countries where children are subject to the stress of starvation, dislocation and other severe life stressors, there doesn't appear to be an increase in T1. T2, of course, is increasing worldwide as populations adopt a more western diet.

And there are millions of folk who live very stressful lives who don't develop TI, so if stress really does affect beta cells, how is this the case? Just a thought.
 
This is quite thought provoking, is possible for someone to switch types, ie they are awaiting a trigger for type 1, but through lifestyle end up as type 2?
 
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