[jacobsam622]

This is one for all the conspiracy people out there. OK now everybody get out their copies of "Catcher in the Rye"
I want to know how many people out there think or believe that they got diabetes from a drug, vaccine etc etc

I will start. It has been my belief that my diabetes was triggered by taking Prevacid for acid reflux that was caused by hiatal Hernia. If you look at the drug fact sheet for Prevacid It lists diabetes as a rare side effect. I was also taking viox around the same time but the pre-diabetes or the unexplained weight gain began shortly after starting the Prevacid.

[Alice]

Well, I'll start...No, not particularly (believe in my type 1 at 7 years of age due to vaccine or drugs)...

For starters, diabetes has been around since early civilations...way before drugs and vaccines were developed. Those people simply died a horrible death of starvation...cells deprived of any source of energy.

In my case, I simply believe in an immune system that worked a little too well...

[fgummett]

I do think there are social and environmental factors at this stage of the 21st century that could possibly have contributed to an increase of both flavours of diabetes... for example the use of plastic in everything from food storage to preparation; or the widespread use of antibiotics and who knows what other drugs, in our factory farmed meat. Even fresh fruit and veggies seem to be laden with pesticides and reportedly have fewer nutrients than in the past. I do believe there are more stresses on our immune system just from living these days. By social I mean the incredible availability of fast food, plus the overwhelming advertising to push it, starting on very young children...does Macdonalds sell food or toys? Or the huge subsidy paid to US corn-farmers which results in it being cheaper to buy 2litres of pop laced with the non-satisfying high-fructose-corn-syrup, than some fresh fruit. But no, I don't think anyone consciously did something that gave me diabetes They were simply responding to an a-moral free-market economy that only has to answer to its shareholders.

[Handybear]

I am a Vietnam vet and found out that the government has taken responsibility for type 2 diabetes in any person who was in Vietnam during the war when they sprayed agent orange.

That being said, I also have a family history of type 2 and was overweight at the time of my diagnosis.

[morrisma]

No conspiracy here!

I got sick (virus I believe). As per my gender & age (male, 35), I took no drugs and ignored it.

6 months later, type 1.

I blame the similarities of the protein coat of my pancreas cells and the virus. Once my immune system was kicked into high gear to fight the virus, my pancreas didn't have a chance.

[Scrabblechick]

Dad, his twin brother, younger brother, first cousin, paternal grandfather, three of his siblings, all diabetic. Nah. I just hit the genetic lottery.

My grandfather (a WWI vet) and his siblings were all born in rural Alabama, either before the turn of the 20th century or shortly after, and grew up on a farm, long before the modern stuff we gripe about was remotely common. All were Type 2.

I think I was born insulin resistant. LOL. I've been plump all my life, no matter what I did. I'm losing weight now, but I'll never be "slender." I'm just not built that way.

[GretchO]

I've got a lot of auto-immune diseases in my family - rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, etc. I was the lucky one who developed diabetes. My endo was of the opinion that either my pancreas was destined to poop out and it finally did in my 30s, or that it could possibly have been a virus of some sort (prevailing opinion at the time, I guess). Regardless of cause, there's no reversing it so I don't really wonder "why?" that much.

[spamlog]

Yeah I bet on the hyperactive immune system causing mine.

I had mono in college..which when it ran it's course really stepped up my immune system. I never got sick, never! I developed diabetes about 2 years later. My sister (who was pre-med at the time) diagnosed me over the phone.

It's funny to take an annual physical at my doctor...and they can't find anything to really complain about other than the diabetes. Thank God for that. I didn't really start getting sick again until I had kids...kids bring home just too many viruses and bacteria for any healthy immune system to handle.

[Evermont]

#1 - my dad is type 2
#2 - my body fat is right around the middle
#3 - I sit behind a computer all day
#4 - the clock keeps ticking

These are the top four risk factors for Type 2. The only mystery for me is why I didn't see it coming!

[Dewey]

Honestly, I don't know & will probably never know what "type" I really am...I'm an odd egg. On the one hand, my father served in Vietnam, was exposed to Agent Orange and after he came home, he & my mom got pregnant with & had me. I developed Diabetes right before my tenth birthday. I often wonder if Agent Orange played some role in my development of Diabetes, because my sister (who was conceived before my dad left & born while he was gone) has never had any issues. She's been tested (out of concern after my diagnosis) & has never been "borderline" or anything. My dad, on the other hand, was considered "borderline" (I guess it's called pre-diabetic now?).

My mom suffered from hypoglycemia when I was younger. Her symptoms usually consisted of headaches and feeling shaky if she hadn't eaten. As I've grown older, I've tested her & my grandmother (my mom's mom) and both have had elevated sugars (mom was 160 post prandial and grandmother was 200). My maternal grandfather was Type 2 later in life, and my maternal grandmother is Type 2. She's 86, so she really doesn't want to treat it by anything other than diet. She also has a heart condition that she's had for some time. I'm kind of wondering if I'm not Type 2 based on family history & most of all due to Agent Orange. I've read that its effects can be passed down to offspring.

On the other hand, I had a flu six months before diagnosis & then again when I was in the hospital (just after diagnosis), so I don't know for sure what type I am. That's usually a character trait for Type 1s, but not necessarily always.

The doctor started me on insulin right away (BG was 400 at diagnosis), and I've been on insulin ever since. I was diagnosed in 1982, at a time when they didn't have c-peptide or GAD antibody tests. I doubt that doing those tests now would provide as accurate info. as they would have had they been available then.

Originally Posted by spamlog

kids bring home just too many viruses and bacteria for any healthy immune system to handle.

LOL, sometimes I think kids Are walking bacteria & viruses. You're very right in that they do bring a lot of stuff home with them. I love kids, but am very glad I didn't have any.

[jacobsam622]

I think we all have a genetic marker that makes us more likely to become diabetic but I also beleive that it can be triggered by different things In my case it was triggered by prevacid. I dont think it was any kind of conspiracy It just happens to be be a side effect of that drug. Prevacid, nexium, viagra, viox celebrex, the list goes on on of drugs that have been released in the last 10 years. I know for a fact two them list diabetes as a rare side effect.

[grace girl]

It's all so theoretical, but still, it's something I wonder about from time to time.
There is no family history of type 1 on either side of my family.
There are no other family members with auto-immune diseases.

That being said, I received a second MMR at age 17 as a requirement to enter the Florida public school system. They stated that the MMR I had received as a child was a bad batch and that all of us who were born in 1968 had to have the shot again. (Ironically, I've never met anyone else my age that had it again) I got very sick from the shot, and during the next 12 months I had bronchitis and various other illness's 14 times...I had never been sick in my life.

My doctor believes that something happened there that triggered this. 12 years passed before I was dx'ed, but he has asked me numerous, numerous health questions about my life during those twelve years and he believes that it was just a really slow onset.
Another doctor explained it to me like this: he said in my case, he felt certain that I got this from a virus. Whether it was directly from the MMR itself, or one of the many, many virus's I contracted during the following year is up for grabs.
I have read about how many children are dx'ed within 12 months of the MMR, and I think there's something there.

[Richard157]

I had measels, mumps and chickenpox within a few months time in early 1945. I lost weight weight rapidly and had no appetite. I was 6 years old. I had all the classic symptoms of type 1. We visited three docs and they had no idea what was wrong with me. Very little was known about D back then. A fourth doc had the bright idea to have my blood tested for sugar. He dx me with "sugar diabetes". I am 99% sure that those diseases were more than my young 6 year old body could handle and that is what caused my pancreas to fail. None of my relatives have had type 1. Thank God pork insulin was available in 1945.

Richard

[MarcS]

My mother is convinced it was when I was a senior in high school (1982) and I got the chicken pox. From that point on my skin was never the same (extra sensitive to heat). I also started putting on weight for the first time. I was always a toothpick, Hyperactive (Ritalin) as a child contributed. I played 2 sports a season some times back then (wrestling, hockey, football, track, baseball, etc), then after class we played Frisbee or skateboarded.

In the 90's I went to working 2 full-time jobs, and barely had time to sleep. I think this was a major reason I needed glasses. I put on a lot of weight then. At 5'11" graduated high school weighing 160, by 1990 I was 200lbs, and by 2000 240lbs.

[slipperyelm]

Well, I do not connect it to any event. I am the classically obese type two, though. No one else on either side of my family has been known to be type 2, and there are now four living generations. But I also am the only chubber among an athletic, active, muscular bunch of people. I too was that way as a child, yet fat on top of it all.