By Sarah Howard
Tomorrow, Nov 14, is World Diabetes Day. It is marked every year the birthday of Sir Frederick Banting, who co-discovered insulin along with Charles Best in 1922, saving countless lives. Before 1922, type 1 was a death sentence; the only treatment was starvation.
Fourteen years ago today, Nov 13, my 1 year-old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, joining over 1 million other children around the world with type 1. Type 1 diabetes incidence has been increasing in children worldwide since the 1940s. We still don’t know why. After my son was diagnosed, I started reading the science on this topic, because I wondered why.
The scientists agreed that it was some environmental factor(s) that caused the increase. They were (and still are) focusing on viruses, vitamin D deficiency, the gut microbiome and impaired gut barrier, better hygiene, and diet. While some of these factors have been found to increase risk in some people, none of them has been able to explain the increasing incidence overall.
Meanwhile, the production and exposure to synthetic environmental chemicals began in the 1940s, exactly when type 1 began increasing (both only in industrialized countries), and has increased in tandem with type 1 since then. I suspect exposure to these chemicals plays a role in the increasing incidence. So for the past decade I’ve been trying to encourage more research on that topic, because there isn’t much.
Scientists have found that these chemicals can promote autoimmunity, affect or even kill the insulin-producing beta cells, affect the gut microbiota/promote gut inflammation and impair the gut barrier, reduce vitamin D levels, increase susceptibility to viruses, and cause other health effects linked to type 1 diabetes. But, the large-scale, prospective human type 1 studies still do not measure for most (if any) chemical exposure levels, because it is too hard, to expensive, and requires too much blood. Until there are more small studies on this topic, or easier/cheaper ways to measure for chemicals, that is not likely to change.
Some small studies on type 1 and environmental chemical exposure do appear every so often, and so I keep track of them, write papers reviewing them every few years, and just kind of hope someone out there with a lab and a PhD is listening. Some scientists are listening — mostly the ones who research these chemicals — but there’s a long way to go before we really know why type 1 incidence is increasing.
If you want to see the studies linked to diabetes (type 1, 2, and gestational) and obesity, I summarize 6200 of them (and counting!) on my website, Diabetes and the Environment.
Be well, stay safe, and Happy World Diabetes Day!