Type 1 Diabetes onset

[JoeJOns]

Hi there,

I'm wondering how exactly type 1 diabetes comes on in an adult around 25 years old? Have they had Diabetes their whole lives and just didn't know? Is it triggered by infection? Recently I was diagnosed and it seemed to come out of the blue in the last two months.

Thank you.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I'm wondering how exactly type 1 diabetes comes on in an adult around 25 years old?

As far as I'm aware it can develop at any age and it's not known why it happens. I know there are occasional stories that an infection (or something else) might trigger it, but I think it's still the case that it's really not known. (There are a bunch of things that we know aren't involved, like diet.)

 

[jessx2000]

I am 18, and i got told at the start of the year that i had type 1 diabetes because i had lost a dramatic amount of weight in 4 months, and after a few blood tests at my local hospital, it was confirmed. The doctors told me that it was always there and it kinda of just happened? Is this normal? Because i feel like i could deal with this a lot better if it made a bit more sense.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

As far as I'm aware it can develop at any age and it's not known why it happens. I know there are occasional stories that an infection (or something else) might trigger it, but I think it's still the case that it's really not known. (There are a bunch of things that we know aren't involved, like diet.)

That’s pretty much my understanding - they don’t really know!

Sometimes it runs in families, other times not. Sometimes it seems to be triggered by a virus or illness, but it’s pretty hard to be certain I think.

They are beginning to identify markers that can indicate that a person is more likely to develop T1 at some stage, and the hope is that eventually they will be able to prevent those people developing the disease, possibly through immunotherapy I think.

Lots of research underway, but lots more still needed and the answers are frustratingly elusive!

 

[JoeJOns]

I am slowly but surely getting to understand a bit more.

They were looking for some sort of infection while I was in hospital, but to my knowledge they didn't find one. I actually started to feel better after I got my diagnoses, at least then I could pinpoint what had been wrong with me over the last few months!

I am hopeful for a prevention and a cure someday.

 

[Thebearcametoo]

Hi, it used to be thought that child onset diabetes was T1D and adult onset was T2D and even now some general medics may use those generalisations still. The mechanism for T1D seems to be to do with autoimmune antibodies (there have been 4 specific ones identified) that start attacking the beta cells in the islets of langerhans in the pancreas and which eventually stop the pancreas from producing insulin. There is a strong genetic component (about 50% of cases) to the likelihood of ending up with these autoimmune antibodies (you will have been asked a lot about family history of both T1D and T2) but it’s also about 50% likely that there is no family history which can make it more difficult to catch T1D early. There is some thinking that an infection (even a mild one like a virus) may switch on these autoimmune antibodies and start the process that leads to T1D symptoms but they don’t yet know the full mechanism. It’s likely that you will have had the beginnings of T1D before you started showing symptoms (a few weeks/months though not years) but that doesn’t mean you’ve always had it. It may be that you have had the genetic predisposition to it from birth but it wasn’t switched on or it may be that your body didn’t have any genetic likelihood of having it until some illness triggered the autoimmune antibodies. Even if you had a genetic component you may have gone your whole life without those genes being expressed.

There are links between T1D and diseases like coeliac (and I think a thyroid one is the other main one off the top of my head) so you may well be screened for those too.

You will feel a lot better when your glucose levels are within target. Bodies can adapt to a lot of stress so you may not have realised how long you’d been ill until you started to feel better again. If you can keep your glucose levels close to target range for the majority of the time then your general feelings of wellness will be increased as well as your long term health being protected from complications.

 

[Kaylz]

Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

I was also diagnosed at 25 (well a week before) but no they cant have had it all their life being diagnosed at that age as you would've been severely unwell long before now

Don't have much other input but just wanted to say hey anyway 🙂
xx

 

[SB2015]

T1 is an autoimmune disease, where the antibodies are triggered (possibly by a virus) and then they start to destroy the beta cells which make your insulin. Often the diagnosis happens at the same time as a viral infection, at which time your body needs more insulin, but your body is no longer able to make any extra, and it then goes into crisis. Whatever the reason your lack of insulin will make you feel very poorly, tired (no glucose getting into the muscles), going to the toilet lots (the kidneys getting rid of the glucose), thirsty because you are peeing so much and getting thinner (the body using the store of fat as it cannot use the glucose without some insulin). Once diagnosed, given insulin you start to feel a lot better. I was diagnosed at the age of 53. I am often asked what caused it. No idea if it was a virus or stress a few months prior to the event, all I know is I need insulin now, so that’s that.

There is plenty of help and advice on here, that has helped me to manage myT1 effectively. Any questions. just ask.

 

[DaveB]

Hi. I was diagnosed at age 50. Wrongly as T2. I had a high white cell count at the time and mild ongoing abdominal ache a few months before diagnosis so I put my LADA down to a virus. I know some one else who had a liver virus which was believed to have been the trigger. No one really appears to fully understand the full range of triggers.

 

[mikeyB]

You aren’t Type 1.5, @DaveB, you are Type 1. You are LADA, but these are all descriptive, not diagnostic terms. I’m LADA too, misdiagnosed as T2, but I’m T1. A misdiagnosis doesn’t excuse doctors from using the proper term. 1.5 indeed, made up by doctors who can’t be bothered to do the right tests at the right time.

 

[Lizzzie]

Have nothing to add to the intelligent descriptions here already, regarding the Q you asked.

But irrelevantly: Hi! I'm another one. Diagnosed totally out of the blue in my mid 20s, now mid 30s.. Its a good time to be diagnosed in that the technology and understanding has come on in leaps and bounds even in those 10 years. They might even answer your Q better one day.

Just wanted to add, Im sure youve figured by now: Your life isn't over or anything and you genuinely can still do most things - it's just about to get a lot more complicated.

These talkboards are great (save irrelevant unasked for info from the likes of me :0D )

 

[Pigeon]

Hi there, I was 26 and it came out of the blue, although with a slower onset that you. Looking back I had had areally stressful year, moved cities and jobs on my own, did my final exams at work and lost my Grandma to cancer. There is some indication that stress or illness can trigger the onset, but I understand that it would have been programmed to occur at some point anyway. There was no history of T1 and only a great Aunt with T2 in my family so it was a bolt out of the blue. At first I was just grateful to feel better with the insulin but after a few weeks I got sick and tired of worrying about what to eat and when and I was so angry that my body had failed me and it was no fault of my own. I felt like I'd taken my health and freedom to eat what I wanted for granted before my diagnosis - but actually isn't that what we still do with everything else? E.g. I take walking for granted but if I lost the use of my legs I'd realise how different some people's lives are. I was in Newcastle at the time and they gave me a leaflet with all of this in: http://www.newcastle-hospitals.org.uk/services/diabetes_patient-resources_type-1-diabetes.aspx I found the letter by Kelly Murray particularly moving - I never actually spent 2 days in bed sobbing but I did have some low times and the clinic made me realise that was ok - there is a grieving process for this.

What helped was:
Getting an insulin regime that suited my lifestyle - you can research different insulins and ask to change 2 years ago I fine-tuned it more with a pump and that has been life changing
Exercising - I took up running with a friend and did the Great North Run - brilliant for endorphins!
Not living on my own any more -my boyfriend moved in and that helped
Joining here - this wasn't around at the time but I joined a few years later
Educating myself - with the Ragnar Hanas book and a few others, so I understood what happened and why when things went wrong

Better dash to work now but hope you are getting on ok, keep posting if you have more questions and you sound like you are doing brilliantly!