February 1, 2001
Research: Causes and Prevention
Question from Ohio, USA:
My three year old daughter was diagnosed with type�1 diabetes a year ago and autoimmune hypothyroidism six months ago. Two other children in our small town were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at about the same time. Also, one adult age 36 was diagnosed with type 1 and had antibody tests done to confirm this. Now, we have learned that another child age 12 has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as well as autoimmune hypothyroidism last week. This child lives four houses away from us. Is this significant? Is there any information on children who develop type 1 diabetes in the same neighborhood and small town within two years of each other?
Answer:
It might be. Contact your local or state health department and report this. They might be interested. It certainly would be nice to figure out a “toxin”/environmental factor that could be associated with diabetes. It might just be that all were just unlucky, or, in a small town, there could be a concentrated gene pool with lots of folks at high risk for developing diabetes.
LD
