Question of the day

[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.
:eek:

[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 :T 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!
:pcguru:

[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.

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. :eek: 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.

[Alice]

I do believe the cause is very different for Type 1 and Type 2. They are really two very different diseases with similar symptoms. It is my personal opinion that Type 1 is an auto immune disorder and Type 2 (and variations such as gestational) are metabolic disorders.

[Janlaton]

What is the connection betweeh "Catcher" and the rest of your post. I remember reading in way back when not sure if I want to again.

Prevacid may have speed up the diabetic process but 2 to 1 you would have been diagnosed down the line somewhere anyway. I know many things out there affect the pancreas and meds can be among them. I would not rule anything out. But I really think genetics are the biggest. In my family we say who is not diabetic not the other way round.

Janlaton
type 2 40 years.

[Petruchio]

If you look at the drug fact sheet for Prevacid It lists diabetes as a rare side effect.

Info based on the drug approval testing I would take with a pound of salt. Any (and I mean ANY) little thing that comes up must be listed as a possible side effect. If you were in a study and one day ate an egg salad sandwich and that sandwich caused a chemical reaction in your digestive tract . . . For the rest of time that drug would show flatulence as a possible side effect.

[jacobsam622]

I work for a drug company I think I know a little bit about drugs and how they are marketed. The reference to "Catcher in the rye" is that several high profile killers had a copy on their person when they were captured at least thats the way the urban legends go. I never said it caused the diabetes I said it triggered it. This bull about weight causing it is a lot of malarkey I was already pre-diabetic when the weight gain began. I have said this before and I will say it again in a lot of type two weight gain is a symptom not the cause. Read Gretchen's book.:eek:

[Janlaton]

Thanks for the explanation of the book. Had never heard that high profile killers had copies on them. That was required reading way back when I was in high school!

Like I said with type 2 the predispostion was probably there and the med was like a boost to speed up the time when you were diagnosed. If you were not in the drug industry you might not have even read the warnings.
:(

[Carwy]

Heck I do not know how or why I have what ever type it is I have. We find out the 8th of May. However type 2 runs back in my family on my mothers side as far back as you can trace it back to my great grandmother.

Oh lets not for get the service to my country.Desert shield, Desert storm, and playing with WWII ordnance in the PI.

Also check this out.
Maybe we are doing this to our selfs by not making them clean the water right we drink.
Prescription drugs found in drinking water across U.S. - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/10/pharma.water1.ap/)

Just my thoughts.:cool:

[Funnygrl]

I've taken Prevacid for years, but really don't believe it caused my diabetes at all. Prevacid is a proton pump inhibitor. It stops these things in your stomach from excreting H+ (protons), which than binds to Cl-, thus forming HCl, aka, hydrochloric acid. I just don't see how that could in turn cause an autoimmune attack or insulin resistance.

[HelenM]

Very few of us will ever know what caused it.
I’ve read lots of theories , several sound plausible.I'm sure we tend to grasp at what fits in with our own histories.
I had hepatitis A as a child, one (really obscure) study showed that an epedemic of Hep A in a remote African tribe resulted in some immediate cases of diabetes but also instances of it developing some years later. Well mine was many years later, but perhaps it fits.
Another study suggested frequent low grade infections by the coxsackie (hand foot and mouth) virus could result in a series of minor auto immune attacks with a gradual loss and subsequent partial regeneration of beta cells. When the net loss was too great the result was type 1. As a primary school teacher I must have encountered that virus frequently, perhaps that was the reason.
One doctor has suggested stress. Maybe he was right though I think the stress symptoms were caused by undiagnosed high BS.
Who knows?

[jacobsam622]

I've taken Prevacid for years, but really don't believe it caused my diabetes at all. Prevacid is a proton pump inhibitor. It stops these things in your stomach from excreting H+ (protons), which than binds to Cl-, thus forming HCl, aka, hydrochloric acid. I just don't see how that could in turn cause an autoimmune attack or insulin resistance. Just a few things proton pump inhibitor can do to us.

* Impaired synthesis of biological proteins including enzymes and hormones. The gastric enzyme pepsin is vital to protein digestion. The hormones insulin and glucagon regulate blood sugar, thyroxin regulates the body's metabolic rate, calcitonin and parathyroid hormone regulation, bone mineralization, and antidiuretic hormone regulates fluid electrolyte balance (the vital acid/base balance of cellular mineral salts including calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, phosphorus, bicarbonate, sulfates, protein and organic acids)

* Food allergies and leaky gut syndrome caused by incomplete protein digestion

* Calcium deficiency accompanied by abnormal bone mineralization

* Iron deficiency with risk for anemia

* Zinc deficiency with risk for impaired immune function

* Folate deficiency with risk for large cell anemia, elevated homocysteine levels and neurological dysfunction

* Vitamin B12 deficiency with risk for pernicious anemia, large cell anemia and neurological dysfunction and asthma in children

from
FDA Approves Prescription Proton Pump Inhibitor Drug for 1-11 Year Olds (http://www.naturalnews.com/023016.html)

[Alice]

Remember the early Greeks...I don't think they had much of a drug connection to diabetes...or obesity...so there is a lot of natural biology occuring in spite of modern science.

[dar917]

I think mostly it is genetics for Type 1s. I am at least the 8th person in my family to have it and be on insulin. It could be caused by viruses, who knows. I had two colds within two months of each other the fall before I was diagnosed and I hated my job I was at so there was that stress and not getting enough sleep and stuff. I had chickenpox as a kid, and bronchitis (I think) and many colds and flus growing up.

For T2s, I don't doubt that obesity and all the unnatural things in our environment contribute to it. I think medications causing it is a bit far fetched, but many of these drugs have not been around long enough for us to really know all the long term effects of them.

[jacobsam622]

I think mostly it is genetics for Type 1s. I am at least the 8th person in my family to have it and be on insulin. It could be caused by viruses, who knows. I had two colds within two months of each other the fall before I was diagnosed and I hated my job I was at so there was that stress and not getting enough sleep and stuff. I had chickenpox as a kid, and bronchitis (I think) and many colds and flus growing up.

For T2s, I don't doubt that obesity and all the unnatural things in our environment contribute to it. I think medications causing it is a bit far fetched, but many of these drugs have not been around long enough for us to really know all the long term effects of them.
You call this far fetch
A study done by the VA indicates other wise:(
Abstract
Background. Metabolic changes, including weight gain and onset of diabetes, have been associated with both systemic corticosteroid use and atypical antipsychotic drugs. The purpose of this study was to quantify and compare the risk of new-onset diabetes mellitus in a Veterans Affairs population receiving antipsychotics and corticosteroids, using persons taking proton pump inhibitors as a control group.

Methods. This study included data from subjects treated within Veterans Integrated Service Network 23 who had received an outpatient prescription in fiscal years (FY) 1999 or 2000 for a corticosteroid (CS), a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), a typical antipsychotic, or an atypical antipsychotic. Patients receiving prescriptions in more than one class were not excluded. Subjects were excluded if they had a documented diagnosis of diabetes either in the previous FY year (1998) or prior to their index prescription date.

Results. Thirteen percent of the population had a new diagnosis for diabetes during the two-year study. Cox-regression analysis using time dependent covariates determined a significantly higher risk of developing diabetes (RR = 1.21) in users of CS relative to PPIs. Demographic variables including age, race, gender, marital status, and VA financial classification as well as a marker for schizophrenia, were also included in the model. Comparison of both typical and atypical antipsychotics to PPIs found an increased but nonsignificant risk of developing diabetes (RR = 1.18 and RR = 1.19 respectively).

Conclusions. The diabetogenic risk associated with atypical antipsychotics was found to be less than that of corticosteroids when compared to controls. Periodic monitoring of blood glucose should be considered with chronic use of an ag


Additional adverse experiences occurring in less than 1% of patients or subjects who received PREVACID in domestic trials are shown below:

Body as a Whole – abdomen enlarged, allergic reaction, asthenia, back pain, candidiasis, carcinoma, chest pain (not otherwise specified), chills, edema, fever, flu syndrome, halitosis, infection (not otherwise specified), malaise, neck pain, neck rigidity, pain, pelvic pain;
Cardiovascular System -angina, arrhythmia, bradycardia, cerebrovascular accident/cerebral infarction, hypertension/hypotension, migraine, myocardial infarction, palpitations, shock (circulatory failure), syncope, tachycardia, vasodilation;
Digestive System – abnormal stools, anorexia, bezoar, cardiospasm, cholelithiasis, colitis, dry mouth, dyspepsia, dysphagia, enteritis, eructation, esophageal stenosis, esophageal ulcer, esophagitis, fecal discoloration, flatulence, gastric nodules/fundic gland polyps, gastritis, gastroenteritis, gastrointestinal anomaly, gastrointestinal disorder, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, glossitis, gum hemorrhage, hematemesis, increased appetite, increased salivation, melena, mouth ulceration, nausea and vomiting, nausea and vomiting and diarrhea, oral moniliasis, rectal disorder, rectal hemorrhage, stomatitis, tenesmus, thirst, tongue disorder, ulcerative colitis, ulcerative stomatitis;
Endocrine System - diabetes mellitus,

[Hammer]

Well, just knowing how diabetes works is enough to indicate that diabetes can be triggered by various medications or exposure to certain chemicals. Think about it, for anyone who was born without diabetes, was diabetes free for years, then one day they're suddenly diabetic. Apparently their pancreas was working fine till that day, as was their body's use of insulin. They weren't low on insulin and their body didn't reject the insulin....everything worked fine till that day, so what caused things to change?

Anything that alters your body chemistry (drugs) could cause this to happen, so it's not a stretch to think that some medication that you took or some chemical that you were exposed to, could have caused this change.

They say that your DNA has a lot to do with your susceptibility to getting diabetes, but if you didn't have it before and you suddenly have it now, then something else was added to the mix, otherwise, why would your DNA suddenly change something on it's own and cause you to develop diabetes? There had to be outside elements that caused this. It could be your weight, lack of exercise, or something that you did to yourself, but why did it start now and not a year ago when you were still overweight and didn't exercise?

The fact that they think that gastric bypass surgery is effective in "curing" type 2 diabetes is due to bypassing a section of your intestine, and what happens in this section of the intestine relates to absorption of foods and the releasing of certain elements that can interfere with your body's ability to effectively use insulin, means that anything that affects this section of the intestine can initiate the onset of diabetes. That's not to say that it will initiate the onset of diabetes, but that it can.

I don't think it's a conspiracy, but it probably is a lack of knowledge about how certain drugs affect certain processes in the body that are unrelated to what the drug was designed for that might be causing diabetes to develop in people, years after they've taken the drug. I mean, if you took Nexium for acid reflux and it stopped your acid reflux, but while it was doing that, it also chemically altered your stomach pump that was producing the excess acid, and by altering the stomach pump, your digestive process had to digest the food with less acid causing your entire digestive process to change, and this change caused your intestine to have to digest the food differently since it now had less acid to work with, then this change might be what caused the onset of diabetes. The thing is, how would you be able to connect the two things together? There would be too many processes involved to clearly see how taking Nexium brought on diabetes. This is what I mean by the lack of knowledge. Add to this the fact that it might take years before one process causes a significant change in another process, and it makes it even more difficult to tie things together.

[pokie]

I have family history of diabetes, both type 1 and 2, on both sides of my family. An odd thing did happen to me though, right around the time I can first remember having symptoms... I got the mumps when I was 30. Apparently my Mom didn't get me vaccinated, or the vaccine didn't take. So, 4 years later after my daughter was born, they noted that I had no antibodies for MMR and vaccinated me again. Is there any connection? Who knows.

[dar917]

OK, now you got me thinking. I wasn't on any medications when my symptoms started. The only thing I had ever really taken before was the pill and some antibiotics for my skin, but I had stopped taking them a couple years before when my insurance ran out. I wasn't on the antibiotics that long though.

When I was in school I did a lot of walking, to class, to work, etc. then after I moved here I didn't walk much any more.

???

I'm just glad I was out of school for a while before it happened.