So, I just finished reading an excellent book for my Diabetes and Obesity class called 'Diabetes Rising'. It's the first book that I've found on the subject of diabetes that actually spends its time addressing the why behind why diabetes is on the rise (aka, I liked it).
Obviously, Type 2 diabetes is associated with excess weight gain, and our world is getting fatter than ever. But does this explain the rise in Type 1 diabetes, otherwise known as juvenile diabetes, that has been occurring as well?
Here are 5 of the top current theories behind this rise.
The Accelerator Hypothesis - kids weigh more now, and at a younger age, than they ever have throughout the course of history. Excess weight is known to overly tax the pancreas, and any life-form is extremely vulnerable during the early stages of growth and development. This excess weight at such an early age allows the pancreas to be forced to work too hard for a longer time-frame than it would have to if say somebody in there 40's gained 50 pounds. Kids have longer to live.
Cons: Though obesity may play a part, what's the baseline cause? If a skinny kid gets diagnosed with Type 1, isn't this theory blown out of the water?
The Cow's Milk Hypothesis - we drink a lot of milk nowadays. However, is the human body designed to be able to digest it? The average person in China drinks 2.3 gallons of milk annually, while the average person in Finland drinks 48 gallons of milk per year. Finland has one of the highest rates of Type 1 diagnosis in the world, whereas China has one of the lowest. Doesn't this show a correlation?
Also, more women are feeding their women formula instead of breastfeeding than ever before. Formula contains cow's milk as a common ingredient. This milk is composed of complex proteins that babies bodies are not prepared to digest, and so the pancreas goes haywire and ends up getting damaged in the process. So, formula = diabetes.
Cons: Asides from potentially being assassinated by the milk industry if you're a proponent, experts argue that you could get the same exact results as some of these studies as you could get with any other protein. Many scientists cannot match the study results that proponents of the Cow's Milk Theory came up with either.
The POP Hypothesis - we live in a polluted environment, and persistent organic pollutants (POP's) are everywhere. These environmental toxins do unknown damage, accumulate in fatty tissue, and have been proven to be building up to very large levels within the human body within the past few decades. Studies have shown that those with the highest levels of POP's in there blood have 37.7 times the risk of developing diabetes than those with the lowest levels as well.
Cons: I actually think that this is the real cause, so I don't have many cons for this one. My only question is this: if POP's build up in fatty tissue, and the only way to make fat cells disappear is through liposuction, wouldn't that procedure significantly lower peoples' risk?
The Sunshine Hypothesis - Vitamin D has been proven to have a lot of important roles in the body, particularly helping the cell junctions to remain tight. The farther away a country is from the equator, the higher the diabetes prevalence as well. Perhaps it is the lack of sunlight/vitamin D in these regions that is leading to the diabetes epidemic.
Cons: Doesn't this mean that all Eskimos/Vikings/Russians throughout history would have been doomed?
The Hygiene Hypothesis - we are cleaner than ever before, but some microbes are helpful. Perhaps our cleanliness is depriving us of microbes that condition our immune system to not attack ourselves. Ingestion of certain types of tapeworms has been shown to lessen diabetes symptoms, so maybe there's something to this.
Cons: I think there may be something here as well, and don't really have too much negative to say.
The cause behind diseases is often a bunch of risk factors combined, so I wouldn't go off and say that milk is the sole reason for the increase in diabetes cases (if one at all). So, stay tuned to the research, and if you want to know more, google it!
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