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'Clean' Children At Greater Risk Of Diabetes

Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2007

Better hygiene and clean environmental living conditions lead to a greater risk of diabetes in children, according to a new study.

Researchers at Bristol University blame better hygiene conditions for the soaring rates of type 1 diabetes in children. The study, involving data from 2.5 million people, says that cases of Type 1 diabetes have increased five-fold in children over the last 20 years.

Professor Polly Bingley from Bristol University added: “The incidence of childhood Type 1 diabetes has been shown to be increasing all over Europe, particularly in the very young.

“The increase is too steep to be put down to genetic factors, so it must be due to changes in our environment. This could either mean that we are being exposed to something new, or that we now have reduced exposure to something that was previously controlling our immune responses. We now need to work to identify what these changes might be.”

The results come from researchers at the University of Bristol who were funded by Diabetes UK. The study looked at Oxford’s population of 2.6m people between 1985 and 2004.

"It could be a result of people being exposed to fewer infections. Some scientists believe this is why rates of asthma are also rising. The immune system is supposed to fight infection but in asthma and type 1 diabetes it gets misdirected," says researcher Polly Bingley.

"The increase is too steep to be put down to genetic factors, so it must be due to changes in our environment. We now need to work to identify what these changes might be," media reports quoted Bingley as saying.

Source: Diabetes In Control