Diabetes Symptoms Weblog

Diabetes and heridity. <br
cause of diabetes. If both parents have Type 2
diabetes, there is a chance that nearly all of their
children will have diabetes. If both parents have Type 1
diabetes, fewer than 20 percent of their children will
develop Type 1 diabetes. In identical twins, if one twin
develops Type 2 diabetes, the chance is nearly 100 percent
that the other twin will also develop it. In Type 1
diabetes, however, only 40 to 50 percent of the second
twins will develop the disease, indicating that while
inheritance is important, environmental factors (for example,
too much food, too much stress, viral infection, and
so forth) are also involved in the development of
Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an inherited
defect of the immune system triggered by an

environmental stimuli. The problem may be in the on switch of
the immune system in which the viral stimuli do not
turn the system on. The virus is then allowed to
penetrate the beta cell and cause its destruction.
Conversely, the problem may be in the off switch in that the
system turns on appropriately and kills the virus but
then does not turn itself off. The T-cells are then
allowed to attack the beta cells themselves. This is a
very simplified explanation. In point of fact, it is
much more complex, involving many, many steps in the
immune system. The beta cells themselves may contribute
to this by producing antigens or chemicals on the
cell surface that stimulate the immune system, and
there may be many other environmental stimuli rather
than just viruses. Indeed, there is some evidence now
that protein in cows’ milk may cause the formation of
antibodies that can attach to the beta cell or that are
similar to antibodies on the beta cell. When the immune
system mobilizes in response to a stimulus, these
antibodies will attach to receptors on the surface of the
beta cell causing the damage to occur to the beta
cells of the pancreas. For whatever reason, the beta
cells are then destroyed by the immune system in what
is called an autoimmune phenomena, in which the body
has come to recognize itself as a foreign body and
begins to eliminate certain parts. Recently researchers
have been attempting to locate the genes for diabetes.
As a part of the genome project, in which
researchers around the world are attempting to map the entire
gene structure of all the human chromosomes, they have
isolated 18 genes that appear to be involved in the
production of Type 1 diabetes. Not all of these genes have
equal potency. Two of them appear to be most potent,
some others are least potent, and others are simply
auxiliary or helper genes that seem to have some assisting
effect in the process. There are also genes which are
protective so that one might inherit the genes for diabetes,
but if you also inherited the protective genes, you
would not develop the disease. Thus, development of the
disease is not 100 percent in those who have inherited
the genetics for the disease. Those people may have
the genes but may either have protector genes or may
be fortunate enough to avoid the environmental
stimuli. The cause of Type 1 diabetes, then, is an
inherited defect in the immune system that interacts in
some way with environmental factors. These factors may
be viruses or chemicals in the environment or
perhaps other environmental factors that we have not yet
identified, which team up together to result in the eventual
complete destruction of the beta cells and the loss of
insulin secretion.<br

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 23rd, 2006 at 8:53 pm and is filed under diabetes treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.