The Type 1 Connection

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
and what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
and rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard
and answered when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that and someone believed it.
Look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us star gazing
and what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

All of us under its spell. We know that it's probably magic.

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors.
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.
-Kermit the Frog in the Muppets "Rainbow Connection"

I think a lot about diabetes,and not just because I have to..I wonder more about the mysteries of autoimmunity. Type 1,is,of course,a serious muck-up in the list of possible muck-ups but it rarely stops there. Diseases such as
Celiac
Hashimoto's-both over,and under,active thyroid
Addison's Disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Lupus

as well as asthma & food intolerances/allergies seem to run rampant in the type 1 community.(and those related to them) It seems to me that so,so much of it is genetic...and then there's that small,small subset of human beings whose only medical problem is T1...and no one else in their 5-10 siblings/extended family has it. (And what about those people who literally eat buckets of simple carbohydrates a day,yet their robust pancreas happily trucks along to a ripe old age,never failing to deliver)And then there's the whole "age at dx" gamut...ranging from hours old(!!) to 70+(I honestly dunno who the oldest person to get type 1 was.) Scientists/researchers have little clue why one really get it when one does.(breast milk does not prevent it...formula doesn't cause it,some people have viral like illnesses that provoke it,some people have antibodies, some people live in places where it seems like it is caused by the environment.)But it also seems to me that the more autoimmune drama one has in their life,the more likely it is to be passed on to offspring. Perhaps we will never understand the "whys," and really, I'm ok with that..if we could only cure the durn thing. But the other autoimmune diseases still crop up,still complicate lives, they can't be ignored. We need to understand a lot more about why the body attacks itself to be able to develop therapies to treat (and prevent) it. (And them)I think that there may be multiple paths to a cure,tailored to that particular PWD..someone dxd at 2 may need a different therapy then someone dxd at 45. (This is why I think there are many triggering causes...not just the "viral" one. We all have some immunity, but it seems like the bar on some peoples is extremely low, to get diabetes so young.

Somewhere out there,is an answer to this autoimmune mess...and I have faith that we'll find it,one day.




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