What Poop May Tell Us about Type 1 Diabetes

[Northerner]

It is now clear that over recent generations there has been a distinct rise in Type 1 diabetes. You may never have considered that scientists on the vanguard of this mystery are looking in a surprising place for answers: our poop.

The increase of T1D conflicts with the general understanding of the disease as essentially a matter of genetics. Researchers believe that there must also be environmental influences, as yet undiscovered, that make T1D more likely to develop. There are many theories on potential the identity of these environmental factors. One particularly intense area of study is the microbiome: the microscopic world of bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa that live on and inside our body. The invisible community in our gut is believed to be of particular importance, and to study it, we turn to our fecal matter, each gram of which has billions of living microbes.

Much study has shown one deceptively simple fact: the gut microbiome of people with Type 1 diabetes is different from that of people without. But it’s not easy to tease out cause from effect, or conclude to what extent these differences drive or are driven by the various phenomena of T1D, including autoimmunity and Beta cell loss. The microbiome is astonishingly complex – just one month ago Science Daily called it a “somewhat of a mystery” – and the science is still young.

What Poop May Tell Us about Type 1 Diabetes

Could the microbiome offer a novel avenue for treatment and prevention of Type 1 diabetes?

asweetlife.org

Read 'Gut' by Giulia Enders! 🙂 Brilliant explanation of the gut microbiome and how it affects us 🙂

 

[trophywench]

I'm forever agreeing with the theory - I had a gastric bug in about the January or February and in that August .... Hospital were very interested in that, also if I was breast fed and my birth weight. I could answer the first two, but jokingly said 'I think my sis is bringing my mother to see me this afternoon, I'll have to ask her!' - but no, halfway through visiting the diabetes houseman (who was treating me under the D consultant's eye) came to ask her himself. She burst out laughing and could only tell him 'One was (weight) and the other was (weight) - but I'm afraid I can't remember now which was which!'

D consultant who was a teaching Prof at Birmingham Uni Medical School but lived locally so had offered to do Monday D patient clinics at Kidder hospital as he was approaching retirement so was running down his 'clinical' work at the QE Hospital, even brought a posse of medical students over to see me one day!

 

[Ditto]

I've read it, it's brilliant.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

The increase of T1D conflicts with the general understanding of the disease as essentially a matter of genetics.

I‘m not sure it conflicts at all... People with T1D are living longer and having many more successful pregnancies these days.

It’s less than 100 years since T1 diagnosis was a death sentence, and for quite a bit of that time BG management was rudimentary at best.

 

[Amity Island]

I‘m not sure it conflicts at all... People with T1D are living longer and having many more successful pregnancies these days.

It’s less than 100 years since T1 diagnosis was a death sentence, and for quite a bit of that time BG management was rudimentary at best.

Hi Mike,
The article mentions that Type 1 diabetes is increasing. Do you know if it is increasing because the population is increasing or is it literally increasing?

 

[Bruce Stephens]

The article mentions that Type 1 diabetes is increasing. Do you know if it is increasing because the population is increasing or is it literally increasing?

The latter, by 2-5% a year (though in some places it's falling). See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2925303/

 

[trophywench]

There were no live healthy births to T1 patients until some time in the 1950s and to begin with those mamas we admitted to hospital for the whole of their pregnancy although of course then you needed to be about 3 months gone before a GP could detect it by an 'internal'. We have moved on BUT this led to our eldest daughter needing to slap her eldest daughter to stop her hysterics and screaming when she was very overdue (a fortnight) with her first and the midwives wanted to give her a 'sweep' to try and get her going. Never even had a speculum inserted. (60 whatever year old me went Whaaaat? when I heard that last bit) Bit of a shock to the system ....

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi Mike,
The article mentions that Type 1 diabetes is increasing. Do you know if it is increasing because the population is increasing or is it literally increasing?

I think yes, it is getting more common, not simply more numerous

 

[Eddy Edson]

I really hesitate to ask this but anyway ... A guy with a T1 daughter said to me on Fri that if an infant has worms they never develop T1D. Is that just a sad Facebook-ism or is it actually a thing?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I really hesitate to ask this but anyway ... A guy with a T1 daughter said to me on Fri that if an infant has worms they never develop T1D. Is that just a sad Facebook-ism or is it actually a thing?

I’m not sure either worms or T1 are prevalent enough to be sure?

 

[Amity Island]

I really hesitate to ask this but anyway ... A guy with a T1 daughter said to me on Fri that if an infant has worms they never develop T1D. Is that just a sad Facebook-ism or is it actually a thing?

Eddy, it may sound like an odd statement but the thread article talks about gut bacteria being different in T1, it wouldn't be impossible for worms to have some kind of effect on gut bacteria, who knows? I wouldn't just dismiss it out right.

 

[Amity Island]

I really hesitate to ask this but anyway ... A guy with a T1 daughter said to me on Fri that if an infant has worms they never develop T1D. Is that just a sad Facebook-ism or is it actually a thing?

Eddy I found this article.

Intestinal worms may protect against type 1 diabetes - Diabetes

Intestinal worms could prevent the development of type 1 diabetes, according to a new study published in the journal Mucosal Immunology. Researchers from the New Jersey Medical School in America suggest that short-term infection with intestinal worms provide protection against the type 1 form of...

www.diabetes.co.uk

##

and this one

Worms for Diabetes Treatment? | Diabetes Healthy Solutions

World-first Clinical Trial to Cure Diabetes with Hookworms. Researches from James Cook University are recruiting young female volunteers for this new research project in which hookworms will be used as possible therapy to improve the overall health for people at risk of chronic diseases such as...

diabeteshealthysolutions.com

 

[Northerner]

I really hesitate to ask this but anyway ... A guy with a T1 daughter said to me on Fri that if an infant has worms they never develop T1D. Is that just a sad Facebook-ism or is it actually a thing?

I knew this was the sort of thing I would have written a poem about at some time 😱 From November, 2010 😱

A Whipworm a Day Keeps the Doctor Away!


More bizarre research findings. Apparently, it’s been discovered that people infected with certain species of parasitic worm are less prone to autoimmune diseases and allergies, including Type 1 diabetes, asthma and allergy, Crohn’s Disease and Multiple Sclerois. What better programme, therefore, for the government to conduct than to intentionally infect the populace with these wondrous colon cohabitants? Imagine the huge reductions in healthcare costs if all these conditions could be averted! Surely a small incentive to the doctors in the community would encourage them to start prescribing without delay!

Given your family history
We think that it is critical
That you consume three times a day
A worm that’s parasitical!

A worm, you say? You must be mad!
What good would that do me?
Prescribing worms, good gracious –
What kind of doctor can you be?!!

I’ll have you know, dear patient,
I’m a doctor up to speed
On all the latest guidelines
That the government has decreed!

We have to get our patients
To consume three worms a day,
And if we do then they’ll come through
And triple all our pay!

Physician, keep your whipworms,
I’m afraid I must decline…
I suggest you take them back and stick them
Where the Sun don’t shine!

 

[Eddy Edson]

I knew this was the sort of thing I would have written a poem about at some time 😱 From November, 2010 😱

A Whipworm a Day Keeps the Doctor Away!


More bizarre research findings. Apparently, it’s been discovered that people infected with certain species of parasitic worm are less prone to autoimmune diseases and allergies, including Type 1 diabetes, asthma and allergy, Crohn’s Disease and Multiple Sclerois. What better programme, therefore, for the government to conduct than to intentionally infect the populace with these wondrous colon cohabitants? Imagine the huge reductions in healthcare costs if all these conditions could be averted! Surely a small incentive to the doctors in the community would encourage them to start prescribing without delay!

Given your family history
We think that it is critical
That you consume three times a day
A worm that’s parasitical!

A worm, you say? You must be mad!
What good would that do me?
Prescribing worms, good gracious –
What kind of doctor can you be?!!

I’ll have you know, dear patient,
I’m a doctor up to speed
On all the latest guidelines
That the government has decreed!

We have to get our patients
To consume three worms a day,
And if we do then they’ll come through
And triple all our pay!

Physician, keep your whipworms,
I’m afraid I must decline…
I suggest you take them back and stick them
Where the Sun don’t shine!

I very much like the poem but the thought of you searching for an appropriate worm-GIF is a little disturbing.

 

[Eddy Edson]

Eddy I found this article.

Intestinal worms may protect against type 1 diabetes - Diabetes

Intestinal worms could prevent the development of type 1 diabetes, according to a new study published in the journal Mucosal Immunology. Researchers from the New Jersey Medical School in America suggest that short-term infection with intestinal worms provide protection against the type 1 form of...

www.diabetes.co.uk

##

and this one

Worms for Diabetes Treatment? | Diabetes Healthy Solutions

World-first Clinical Trial to Cure Diabetes with Hookworms. Researches from James Cook University are recruiting young female volunteers for this new research project in which hookworms will be used as possible therapy to improve the overall health for people at risk of chronic diseases such as...

diabeteshealthysolutions.com

Well, maybe ...