I recently read about the Accelerator Hypothesis. (See Testing the Accelerator Hypothesis.) How valid do you think this hypothesis is? If it is, in fact, valid do you believe its hypothesis on the cause of/development of type 1 applies to most cases or only a small percentage? What other factors might account for the increasing instances of type 1 in highly industrialized/First World Nations? Are instances also increasing in less developed countries?

It’s an excellent hypothesis and explains some of the mysteries to which you allude. Nobody really knows, definitively, why there is such an increase in type 1 diabetes. However, it is occurring not only in the US, Canada and Western Europe, but also in Asia and the Middle East as well, essentially, wherever anyone can keep a registry and keep track of such things over several decades. And, it is consistent with what we know about other autoimmune disorders such as thyroiditis, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis among many others. Research into any of these disorders may be extremely valuable vis-a-vis understanding type 1 autoimmune diabetes mellitus.

SB