Type 1 diabetes requires lifelong treatment with insulin after the onset of the disease. Most of them develop in childhood and adolescence, so they all face the problem of getting married and having children in adulthood. Therefore, many patients with type 1 diabetes and their families ask this question. Some patients say that their father or mother had diabetes, so the disease is hereditary; others say that neither of their parents had diabetes and they have type 1 diabetes, but their twin brothers did not develop the disease, so it is clear that the disease is caused by something else.
So, will type 1 diabetes be passed on to the next generation or not? And if so, what is the probability of inheritance?
Actually, the inheritance pattern of type 1 diabetes is not yet clear. Studies are often conducted on identical twins when studying inheritance patterns, but it has been found that not all identical twins of type 1 diabetes patients develop the disease. In fact, the concordance rate for identical twins is only 25-50%, well below 100%. There are significant racial differences in the incidence of type 1 diabetes, with a higher incidence in Caucasians and a relatively low incidence in the Chinese.
So what is the cause of this result?
The answer is environmental factors, which can reduce the role of genetic factors in the development of the disease. Environmental factors that influence the development of type 1 diabetes include viral infections, nutritious foods (soy, whey protein in milk, etc.), and chemical drugs. In other words, if the offspring of type 1 diabetes carry the susceptibility gene for type 1 diabetes, but manage to avoid exposure to the above-mentioned disease-causing environmental factors before and after birth, there is still a good chance that they will not develop the disease. How exactly do you do this?
First, vaccinations should be given on time after birth. Vaccines can help children avoid many kinds of infectious diseases. Pay attention to exercise, add and remove clothing in a timely manner, and avoid going to crowded places during virus epidemics to protect yourself.
Second, breastfeed your child as much as possible after birth. There are many benefits of breastfeeding: ① there are no foreign proteins in breast milk, so you can avoid early exposure to foreign proteins, such as whey protein in milk powder; ② breast milk contains a variety of antibodies, breastfed children are in good health and less prone to disease; ③ breast milk contains a small amount of bacteria, according to the latest research, these bacteria can help children build their own immune defense system early, and milk powder is certainly to be sterile , if bacteria enter, the consequences can be imagined …… It is also true that studies have shown that breastfeeding has been shown to be effective in reducing the probability of developing type 1 diabetes in offspring with type 1 diabetes. As for the duration of breastfeeding, at least six months, according to the latest IMA guidelines, breastfeeding should be more than 2 years.
Third, do not add complementary foods too early, you should add complementary foods six months after birth, and do not add too many types of complementary foods too fast at one time. Many people think that adding more complementary foods can help children grow up faster, but pediatricians recommend that children should be breastfed mainly within 1 year old.
Fourth, do not smoke before pregnancy, during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and minimize exposure to second-hand smoke or third-hand smoke to avoid exposure to toxic and harmful substances.