November 29, 1999
Research: Causes and Prevention
Question from Oregon, USA:
My 9 year old son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 4 months ago. Recently, I was reading a book that suggested that one of the ways children can acquire diabetes is through drinking water that is high in nitrates. Do you know where I can find out more information on this topic? Both my wife and I do not have a family history of diabetes but encountered high nitrate drinking water for 4 months prior to my son’s diagnoses.
Answer:
There have been a number of papers suggesting a link with nitrates in drinking water but all such work is epidemiological, and can’t be directly applied to the individual. I may say that there have also been many papers where no link has been found.
Only 1 in 10 new cases has a positive family history so this is not unusual. Furthermore, your son developed diabetes around the peak time of onset (around 10 years) so this too is the normal pattern and we know that most such children have been heading inevitably towards diabetes for many months or years before the diagnosis is made.
KJR
