Type 1 Diabetes

What causes it

The exact cause of type 1 diabetes is unknown. Most experts believe it is an autoimmune disorder, which is a condition that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. With type 1 diabetes, an infection or some other trigger causes the body to destroy the cells in the pancreas that make insulin.

This kind of disorder can be passed down through families. In fact, in most cases of type 1 diabetes, people inherit risk factors from both parents. Such factors appear to be more common in whites, who have the highest rate of type 1 diabetes.

Moreover, many people at risk do not develop type 1 diabetes. Consequently, researchers want to know what the environmental triggers are. One might be related to cold weather, because type 1 diabetes develops more often in winter than summer, and it is more common in cold climates. Another trigger might be viruses, with researchers suspecting a virus that mildly affects most people may trigger type 1 diabetes in others.

Early diet may also play a role. Type 1 diabetes is less common in people who were breastfed and in those who first ate solid foods at later ages.

Finally, in many people, the pathway to developing type 1 diabetes appears to take years. In studies that followed relatives of people with type 1 diabetes, researchers found that relatives who later developed diabetes had certain autoantibodies in their blood for years.