However, having the marker alone is not enough to cause someone to develop type 1 diabetes – it is thought that an additional trigger causes type 1 diabetes to develop. A child born with these will have the same risk of developing type 1 diabetes as a child with siblings with type 1 diabetes. While 90 per cent of people who develop type 1 diabetes have no relative with the condition, genetic factors can pre-dispose people to developing type 1 diabetes.Ĭertain gene markers are associated with type 1 diabetes risk. We are also unsure about whether type 1 diabetes is hereditary or not. While there are no proven environmental triggers, researchers are looking for possible culprits, such as viral infections and particular molecules within our environment and foods. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys your insulin-producing beta cells.Ĭertain genes put people at a greater risk for developing type 1 diabetes, but are not the only factors involved. Other examples of autoimmune conditions include multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis. An autoimmune condition is when your immune system, which normally keeps your body safe against disease, attacks itself instead. There has been a lot of research into what causes type 1 diabetes, but so far there are no clear answers. Insulin is a hormone that acts like a key to let blood sugar into your body’s cells for use as energy.

Type 1 is thought to be the result of an autoimmune response, where your body attacks the cells in your pancreas that make insulin. What causes type 1 diabetes?īecause the precise causes of type 1 diabetes are not known and there is a much greater awareness of type 2 diabetes, many myths about type 1 diabetes are in circulation. Less talked about is Type 1, an autoimmune disorder, which occurs because of antibodies that destroy your pancreatic beta cells. It isn’t completely clear what causes type 1 diabetes, but we know that diet and lifestyle habits don’t. Type 1 diabetes (also known as diabetes mellitus) is an autoimmune disease in which immune cells attack and destroy the insulin-producing cells of the. In fact, it isn’t caused by anything that you did or didn’t do, and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body cannot properly use insulin, also known as insulin-resistance, and can often be.

T1D accounts for roughly 10 of the more than 420 million global cases of diabetes, and people with Type 1 are insulin-dependent for life. It is important to know it is not your fault that you have type 1 diabetes – it is not caused by poor diet or an unhealthy lifestyle. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an incurable, autoimmune disease, not a lifestyle disease.