What Causes Type 1 Diabetes?

Every once in a while I get this question from one of our readers:

What is the cause of Type 1 Diabetes?

With Type 1 Diabetes, (which used to be called “Juvenile Diabetes” because it most commonly hit people under the age of 30) the body no longer produces insulin. As you saw in the video the other day here, we need insulin in order to move the food (carbs, sugar) from our body into our cells. That’s how we live and have energy and function.

According to one source, “Doctors say it could be caused by a virus or an auto-immune disorder. The body basically doesn’t recognize its own pancreas and attacks it.”

That’s also why some Type 1’s have problems with thyroid once they become diabetic. The body will attack those two systems because it thinks they are foreign.

There is no hard and fast answer to the actual cause as yet, but scientists have gotten closer and closer to determining how our body reacts once we get Type 1 Diabetes. This knowledge will bring us closer to finding the cause, but even more importantly, a cure.