Some diabetes specialists believe that diabetes may actually have several causes - not just one - and that cow’s milk is likely only one of those causes. Another suspected cause is a variety of viruses.

There is not a diabetes virus, like we know the flu (influenza) viruses or the chickenpox or measles viruses. Diabetes cannot be “caught” from someone else. But in some people who are genetically susceptible to diabetes, a virus such as that which causes some of the common illnesses may directly attack the  beta cells of the pancreas. Or it may possibly trigger an attack by other forces such as the body’s own immune system.

Some studies of people with recently diagnosed type I diabetes show that in many cases the person had recently had a viral infection such as flu, a bad cold, chickenpox, et cetera. Recently diagnosed diabetics also have high levels of antibodies to a particular type of virus by the name of Coxsackie.

Interestingly, many type 1 diabetics seem also to have other diseases of the endocrine glands such as the thyroid or the adrenal glands. The relationship is not yet clear, however.

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Many scientists now believe that type 1 diabetes is the result of the body’s immune system attacking its own insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. This begins way back during infancy.

When a baby is born, its immune system has not yet developed an “understanding” of what it should or should not attack. The cells in the immune system more or less know what belongs to the body and what is foreign. But they do not yet recognize the various disease. For example, it is very unlikely that a baby is born with an immunity to diseases such as Yellow Fever or African sleeping sickness.

As the baby grows, he is gradually exposed to germ of various kinds. With some, such as measles or chickenpox, they young child may become sick with the disease once, but later he will be immune to that particular disease.

For other kinds of germs, such as smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, etc., the baby gets an immunization when he is still very small. The doctor or nurse injects a small amount of treated germs for the particular disease. Those germs do not actually cause the disease, but the immune cells recognize them as foreign kind of protein and go on the attack. Later, the child will have an immunity to those diseases for which he receieved the immunizations.

Whether the child develops an immunity through having the disease or through having the injections, the body’s defense system is actually functioning in the same way.

In the body, the white blood cells carry out the work of protection. Among this army of white blood cells are the special T cells, which are the attack force against foreign proteins such as germs. If a foreign protein enters the body, these T cells launch an immediate advance on the enemy.

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There are at least two particular genes that give a person the tendency towards developing type 1 diabetes. They belong to the so called HLA system, which controls the body’s defenses against infections.

Medical researchers - doctors turned detectives - have been trying to find out exactly what causes type 1 diabetes. Although they still do not fully understand what is happening in the body to cause it, they have made tremendous progress in recent years. They suggest two possible reasons why an already genetically susceptible person may become diabetic.

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