The more I read on here-the more I notice that some people with Type1 have a Type2 relative.Is that true in your family ?
My daughter has type1--her dad type 2--her uncle type2
Nope I have one uncle my aunt married who has type two but really I cant see how there can be a link between the two from what I know about t1 and t2 it just doesnt seem possible but by know means am I a expert on this at all.
In my family that is true. My grandfather has type 2, my father had type 2 and my mother also has type 2. I've been wondering if there is some sort of connection between the two also. However my husband has type 1 and there is no one else in his family with diabetes.
The symptoms (high blood sugar) are the same, but the causes (etiology) of the two diseases are very different. I would be very surprised if there is a link. There are also posts on here about how they are so different that many Type 1 folks don't find that the 'Type' differentiator is very helpful and wish the diseases were called different names. (if only to cut down on the "You can't have diabetes, you're not fat!" and similar off-base comments.)
Remember that Type 1 is an auto-immune disease were the immune system has attacked the insulin producing cells of the pancreas and insulin is no longer produced. Type 2 is not an auto-immune disease (or at least I have never read it described that way) but rather the body's development of resistance to the insulin produced - higly correlated with obesity and genetics. One way our CDE described it is that Type 1 is a busted pancreas and Type 2 is busted cells. Type 2 patients may eventually need to get insulin therapy because their pancreases end up not producing enough insulin for their bodies' needs. (This is really a high-level explanation). The ADA website gives a lot more information on the two types (and some other less common ones).
Type 2 is very common and increasing in occurrence - so I would be surprised if most American families don't have some relative that has it. Which would make it even harder to see if there is a link between the 2.
OK Family Tree Break down....and I only just learned of all this over the last three years.
My Grandpa's Dad had Type 2, he had 9 children one passed on in infancy, 1 had Type 1, and 6 had Type 2, one had nothing.
Of all their children (this includes my dad) out of the 14 I know one has Type 1, and three have type 2.
It is interesting.
My husband side of the family has no history of Diabetes at all. Food for thought!!!!
I forgot the great uncle type2---I wish too that the name was changed.That way the mix up would be less..........It pains me that there is a mix up--but what also pains me greatly the steotype put on type2..Compassion should extend to all people with d.From what I have seen type 2 gets no free ride with this....My husband is thin-not a junk food eater-type2....His brother was a active sport player-tops in tennis when he got type2...The great uncle served in WW2 -never fat...came home from the war to months later be hit with this.I know a retired school teacher-and on and on all type2.Fantastic hard working people and none fit the sterotype put on them.I am as you can tell very sensitive to all people caught in this awful web of d.
I
and if they did everything wrong and landed in this.Ifeel even the more for them.We all mess up.
Me-T1 great grandpa-T2 uncule-T2 Gerat aunt-T2
My son T1
His maternal grandfather, grandmother, and uncle T2
Not an answer, but I don't think we can say that because one is an auto-immune disease and one isn't, that they don't have a genetic link.
Excerpts posted below taken from
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/genetics-of-diabetes.html
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes have different causes. Yet two factors are important in both. First, you must inherit a predisposition to the disease. Second, something in your environment must trigger diabetes.
....
If you would like to learn more about the genetics of all forms of diabetes, the National Institutes of Health has recently published The Genetic Landscape of Diabetes. This free online book provides an overview of the current knowledge about the genetics of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well other less common forms of diabetes. The book is written for health professionals and for people with diabetes interested in learning more about the disease
Angie, I like that ADA link you put up. I've used it for other questions before.
Anyways, in some ways, T2 is so common it seems likely to be found in ANY family these days. But, at the same time, it does seem like there could be genetic predispositions for 1 and 2 that are related in theory.
I don't know of anyone w/ T2 in my family, but I've heard there are some distant relatives...
My grandmother was T2
For me I have an uncle(dad), uncle(mom) and mom, but all of this people are stereotype type 2 (very overweight) and couch potatoes. Now me I am the only type 1 in a very large family.
Oh, almost forgot I am one of those freaks of nature. Dx'ed at age 52
Not a single person in either side of my family has or ever had T1 or T2 so I am the only lucky one, lol.
Callie,
They were all great suggestions! I really liked the "you know you're a diabetic when..." section!
landileigh