>What concerns me is that we still don't know exactly causes your own islet cells to die. My condition is hereditary insofar as my maternal grandmother and siblings were all Type 1 diabetics. I think that, in my case, it is a genetic predispoition rather than a dead cert. (My Sister has not been diagnosed - nor my Mother).

Hereditary doesn't mean that everyone gets it. It means that the defective gene is in the family line and some get it.


> If that is the case what is it that triggered my diabetes onset? I am reassured by my Specialist that it is not lifestyle (although I had my doubts at the time). I have read that it can actually be an over-reaction by your own immune system - so my immune system at some point kicked in and wiped out my islet cells; presumably whilst I was ill with something else.


There are some things that are genetically influenced, but take an event to trigger them. You might have had the predisposition and then something happened.

Tamar