Because of the unexplained increase in rates of type 1 diabetes, hypotheses have been proposed to try to explain it. Most researchers believe that some of the risk factors are inherited, and some are environmental. If inherited, the exponential rise in the disease couldn’t be explained by heredity alone. If this were true, the rise should be proportional to the increase in populations the disease might be inherited from. But it is rising much faster than that. Most people favor an environmentally related diabetes hypothesis, which seems to make more sense, even if not proven.
The Accelerator Diabetes Hypothesis
Researchers at the Postgraduate Medical School, at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK, think that weight gain is the main factor increasing the rates of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This diabetes hypothesis proposes that weight gain causes insulin resistance, and the high glucose levels that are caused by the insulin resistance accelerate the beta cell’s destruction. The beta cells that are damaged by the insulin resistance are an easier target for the immune system, and insulin resistance then accelerates the death of the beta cells, resulting in type 1 diabetes. TJ Wilkin, the lead researcher at the facility thinks that type 1 and type 2 diabetes are essentially the same condition, with the only difference being that there is an autoimmune response in type 1. This study is controversial, but weight gain is indeed a risk factor for at least type 1 diabetes.
The Hygiene Diabetes Hypothesis
Researchers in Sweden, at the Umea University Hospital have put forth a diabetes hypothesis that essentially blames improved hygiene for the rise in type 1 diabetes. They think that the main factor in the rise of autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries is simply the reduction in the incidence of infectious diseases in first-world countries. It may be that parasites and other beneficial gut microorganisms stimulate the immune system, and that exposure to these unhygienic conditions early in life may actually protect young people against type 1 diabetes.
The Hygiene Diabetes Hypothesis
Scientists at the Medical School unit of the Southmead Hospital in Bristol, UK argues that a faster progression of type 1 diabetes, rather than more frequent rate of the disease, is behind the rise of type 1 diabetes in young adults and children. This diabetes hypothesis proposes that the increased rate is due to the disease showing up at a younger and younger age. The major role of the environment, then, is to change the rate of the disease’s progression. Some of these environmental factors could include women delaying childbirth longer, a decreasing age of puberty, changes that make beta cells more vulnerable, like growth rates and increasing body fat. Other factors, like viruses or diet may be involved in disease initiation, but may not be responsible for the rising rates of the disease.
