Many scientists now believe that type I 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 diseases. There is no need for a baby to be born with an immunity to every kind of disease. For example, it is very unlikely that a baby born in Thailand or in the Philippines would ever need to use an immunity to diseases such as Yellow Fever or African sleeping sickness.
As the baby grows, he is gradually exposed to germs of various kinds. With some, such as measles or chckenpox, the 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 a foreign kind of protein and go on the attack. Later, the child will have an immunity to those diseases for which he received 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".
Another vital unit in the white blood cell army consist of the B cells. These B cells produce antibodies against specific types of invaders, such as measles or polio or smallpox. These antibodies are what give the body its future immunity against a particular kind of disease.
Suppose that Baby Lina had her BCG immunization against tuberculosis when she was only three days old. When she is two years old, Lina and her mother are riding on a bus. The old woman sitting next to them coughs several times. No one knows that she has tuberculosis. But as Lina sits on her mother's lap, she breathes in some of the tuberculosis germs that the old woman has coughed out.
Fortunately, Lina's white blood cells have met tuberculosis before - when she had her BCG immunization. Way back then, her B cells produced antibodies against proteins of the tuberculosis germs. Now, as this same enemy invades again, there is a whole arsenal of weapons ready and waiting just for tuberculosis.
The white cells waste no time sitting around analyzing whether this is really tuberculosis or possibly some other kind of foreign protein that is just similar to tuberculosis. When they see something that looks like it might be tuberculosis, the defenders strike. Apparently the body's immune system, in its efforts to defend quickly, may sometimes attack look-alikes.
And this is what researchers suspect may be causing type I diabetes in at least some children who already have that genetic tendency toward diabetes. Only in this case, cow's milk may be the enemy.
Cow's milk contains several different proteins. An adult's digestive system is prepared to handle these proteins. However, a baby does not have all the necessary digestive enzymes to break down these proteins into amino acids. It appears that one of these cow's milk proteins may be somewhat of a look-alike with the beta cells in the pancreas. Therefore, if the small baby is given cow's milk to drink, his body may develop an immunity against that particular protein. Later, the antibodies against the cow's milk protein may begin to attack and destroy the insulin-producing beta cells instead. this destruction process may go on for weeks, months, or even years before the person actually shows the signs and symptoms of diabetes.
Obviously, every baby who drinks cow's milk is not doomed to get diabetes. Yet scientists have already collected enough evidence that they are now more suspicious of milk that ever before.
Mother's milk has always been the best food for babies. Now, it seems that there are even more reasons for breastfeeding. A nutrition expert predicted years ago that the time would come when it would no longer be safe to drink milk. It appears, at least for babies, this may be true. Because of the possible link with diabetes and for other reasons as well, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that mothers avoid giving whole cow's milk to babies under twelve months old.
Source: Sickeningly Sweet (What You Really Need To Know About Diabetes) by Marilyn Johnson
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