Type 1 diabetes and MS

Hey,

I was diagnosed with Type 1 when I was 4 years old and 20 years later I was diagnosed with RRMS. I wonder if there is anyone else living with both of these auto-immune conditions? I’ve read that the prevalence of MS is higher in those with T1D but I am yet to meet anyone !

Hiya

This is so interesting. I was d/x with Type 2 Diabetes only yesterday.

GP prescribed Metformin which I started yesterday.

I hear that quite a few of us have been diagnosed with Diabetes too.

Be interested to see the replies.

Take care.

Shazzie xx

Not personally affected, but I believe there is a link with Type 1 diabetes, but not Type 2, which is incidental (hope I’ve got that the right way round!)

Type 1 is the one that can strike at any age, including children, and Type 2 the one that typically strikes in later life (sorry Shazzie!), is that right?

As far as I know, despite both being called diabetes, there’s no causal or statistical connection between Type 1 and Type 2.

Several illnesses and conditions are known to have links with MS, which could point to a similar underlying genetic cause. Type 1 diabetes is one of them, I think Crohn’s disease another, and I believe a third is non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hope I’ve got that one the right way round, as well - I think I do mean non-Hodgkin’s, but I’m being very lazy and not checking my facts - I’ve just done a whole hour’s housework (yes, really - which means I’ve now got approximately one clean and tidy square yard in the whole house!)

It’s not always the people with MS that have these other illnesses, but they are commonly found in the same families - pointing to a common genetic basis. There are a few others as well, which for the moment I can’t remember (nothing new there, then).

I think, very, very broadly, they’ve all been shown to have links with genes that influence the working of the immune system - which supports the most widely-accepted theory that MS is a disease of the immune system.

Obviously, if the same genes are implicated in more than one disease, somebody with one is at higher risk of developing one of the others - as are their blood relatives - but none of them are “single gene” diseases, so you can inherit only risk, not the disease itself.

Tina

x

well done Tina!

that reply was very informative and after doing all that cleaning too!!

i wish i had a clean and tidy square yard in MY house!

carole x

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies!

Shazzie - I hope the Metformin helps keep your blood sugars under control. It is really interesting to hear if others have diabetes & MS!

Carole - I agree! I could do with a clean and tidy square yard in my house too!!

Tina - Brilliant summary! It does indeed show support for genetic theories. I find it all very interesting, especialyl as there is no-one (that I know of) in my family with Type 1 or MS. I must have inherited a big pile of risk!

x

It is a bit weird that there is noone else in my family with MS or diabetes and never has been.

How very dare you Tina, you know I am only 25. Lol!!!

Shazzie xx

I had (unknown to me 'til post diagnosis) a quite distant relative (grandmother’s sister) with MS. Nobody with any of the other conditions - that I know of. But then again, I do not have a very large family - no uncles or aunts, so no cousins, as both Mum and Dad were only children - so we probably don’t have a large enough sample to demonstrate what everyone would have got if the ailments were distributed according to the stats (that might be a very good thing!)

I don’t think the shared genetics mean someone else in the family WILL have MS, or one of the other illnesses mentioned. It just increases their lifetime risk. I do know a girl with five sisters (haha, I say “girl”, but she’s my age - but I knew her from school, so she’s forever a “girl” in my eyes) - of the six of them, my schoolfriend has Type 1 diabetes, another sister MS, and a third has had Non-hodgkins lymphoma (currently in remission after successful treatment, although I do not know if they ever pronounce you “cured”).

I know one anecdote does not good science make, but out of six sisters, three having something the matter, and all of them in the suspiciously linked group, does make you think it’s more than just bad luck. Although in a way, that’s exactly what it is, of course, because the genes you get are down to luck.

I did have another very distant relative with Crohn’s - my mother’s cousin (this is the opposite side of the family to the known MS case, so I don’t know if I got a dollop of bad luck from both parents). My grandma (Mum’s mum) had been rather keen that she and her cousin might hit it off romantically - which they never did - but Mum was nevertheless quite fond of him, and devastated to find out decades later that he’d died really young, from the Crohn’s. She’d always imagined him to be still living, with a family somewhere - the same as she was.

Anyway, completely off-topic - especially my gran’s failed scheming to get my mum married-off to the cousin! But I don’t know if there’s any relevance as far as familial risks are concerned. Generally speaking, the closer the relationship, the higher the risk, because you have more genes in common. If Mum had married the cousin, I’d have had no risk of anything, because I wouldn’t be here!

T.

x

Hi.

I have type 1 diabetes since I was 11

hypothyroid aged 19

pernicious anaemia aged 22

MS aged 29

Crohn’s disease aged 31.

im still only 31!

Nobody seems to link all these autoimmune diseases. Part of the issue dealing with specialists only I think. My neuro only discusses ms, endocrinologist mainly diabetes, Gastro crohns…

Also type 2 DM is a very different disease process to type 1. Practically unrelated diseases. Type 2 DM is largely a metabolic disorder where Type 1 is autoimmune.

Feel free to PM me.

Hi lilly,

That is a lot of auto-immune conditions! It is such a shame that there is a lack of interdisciplinary teams so diabetes could talk to neuro, gastro etc!

I think you are right that T1 and T2 DM are practically unrelated, different causation, different treatment and so on. I think the media always uses the term ‘diabetes’ and lumps them both together !

Hi

I was diagnosed with T1 diabetes at 7 years old and 20 years late I was diagnosed

with RRMS as well. Thought i was the only one haha

Hi. Im living in Iran. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabete since 9 years old and I was diagnosed with MS since age 20. And now Im 25 years old… nice to see you here

Hi, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11 also , then underactive thyroid at age 43 then RRMS at age 49 last year , this year I started on Tecfidera and was very concerned as MS. Nurse had only 1 previous patient who tried tablet form of DMT which made very uncontrollable blood sugars for him. So far only been on tec for 8 weeks blood sugars are stable ( I do carb counting and 4 injections a day ) and minimal side effects from the Tec after following all the advice from this

I too have Type 1 D and M.S. And think they are linked. Now 61

I have type 1

Addison’s

Underactive thyroid

MS

Coeliac

Antibodies for pernicious anaemia

Hi everyone I have rrms and have had it seven years now. I’m 51 I also have underactive thyroid and a lump in my parathyroid which was removed around the same time as ms dx . Lump non cancerous thankfully. My son has diabetes type 1 and was diagnosed at 2 also ashma same time. No one else in family has any of these.

I’m a tad different…

I have recently been dx’d with MS.

I was dx’d with Osteoporosis about 20 years ago… not an autoimmune disorder, but related to Vitamin D deficiency.

My mother had Rheumatoid Arthritis which is an autoimmune disorder.

Oh, I also get Hayfever…!!! What an assortment,we are…???

Anne