[boris]

I am a (type II) diabetic. My understanding is (I am not a doctor) that Type I is "caused by a virus". It appears to be hereditary because the susceptability of the immune system to malfunction when confronting this virus is hereditary. Most normal people fight off the virus and that's it. Those "at risk" for Type I have an autoimmune response that attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas when exposed to this virus.

Cereal? I think not...unless everything I've "learned" about diabetes is wrong.

--Boris

[corkoman]

My understanding is (I am not a doctor) that Type I is "caused by a virus".

I have a strong belief that you are correct in suspecting a virus as the primary cause of Type I diabetes.

All this stuff about TIMING of carbohydrate introduction is goofy.

Viruses are increasingly identified as the culprits in a lot of situations where they were never on the list of potential causes. My dinero is on the virus.

[untenured]

I've been a type I for 23 years, so I try to pay attention to the research. I remember some years back a study or two showed that having infants drink a lot of cow's milk seemed to be associated with development of Type I. That early research never panned out, and now few people think that.

I suspect this research will turn out the same. It's so common for the press to take a single study and make more out of it than they should. Most of what we know from statistical work on any given issue has been learned through the consensus of many studies. But the press jumps on anything that sounds interesting.

It seems certain it's an autoimmune disorder, so perhaps some infectious agent will be the cause. But we're a long way from knowing.