If you’re a caregiver and your kid has a chronic health problem, it’s understandably frustrating when it doesn’t have a clear cause. That’s the case with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition that impairs the body’s ability to produce insulin and process glucose (blood sugar) for energy. A person can be diagnosed with type 1 at any age (even as a baby!), but the most common times for it to show up are between ages 4 to 7, and 10 to 14.1
Scientists aren’t sure why people develop type 1 diabetes, but they do say it’s on the rise: Roughly 1.45 million Americans have the condition, and that number is expected to jump to 2.1 million by 2040. More kids are being diagnosed in recent years too: New cases of type 1 diabetes among children increased by 14% and 27% in the first and second years of the COVID pandemic, after rising about 3% a year before that.2
Some theories as to what causes the condition point to genes and environmental factors (a.k.a. your surroundings, experiences, and habits). In a lot of cases, these individual “causes” might work in tandem—for example, a viral infection might set the stage for type 1…but only if you also have the genes that make you susceptible to it.3,4
Simple, right? Here, experts decode what the current science says about why people can develop type 1 diabetes—and what to know about when to have a kid in your life screened for the disease.
A complicated combo of genetic and environmental factors is associated with type 1 diabetes.
The genetic reasons that people might develop type 1 diabetes are complicated. “Autoimmune diseases frequently run in families,” Marilyn Tan, MD, FACE, chief of the Stanford Endocrine Clinic, tells SELF. “However, genetics don’t explain the whole story.”
Benjamin U. Nwosu, MD, chief of endocrinology at Cohen Children’s Medical Center at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, New York, tells SELF that type 1 diabetes is often associated with “abnormalities” on chromosome 6, a part of your DNA containing about 150 genes that impact immune function.5 The body can have a harder time distinguishing healthy cells from pathogens, like bacteria or viruses, if there are certain variations in this region. With type 1 diabetes, the body mistakenly goes after healthy cells in the pancreas, which destroys its ability to produce insulin. Without this life-saving hormone, blood sugar rises to toxic levels. This can make people feel super thirsty; have a need to pee more often; and experience insatiable hunger, unintended weight loss, and mood changes, to name a few type 1 symptoms.6
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