Hi, all. Attie asked about juvenile (Type I) diabetes. I just
happened to find an earlier post of mine on this, so am sending
it again.:

Hello again, everyone. In Israel's English-language daily
newspaper, The Jerusalem Post (Jan. 30, 1996), I found a very
exciting article that I wanted to share with you. The title:
"Juvenile diabetes soars among Jews here". "The rate of new cases

of juvenile-onset diabetes has increased in the Jewish population

by 50 percent from 1985 to 1993, compared to 1965-1984, but
remained stable in the Arab population. Researchers are not sure
of the reasons for the increase, but it seems to have something
to do with the decline in breast-feeding, which is known to have
a protective effect against the development of insulin-dependent
diabetes in children. This was disclosed yesterday by Prof. Zvi
Laron of the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University,
at the annual Solomon Berson Lectures. In juvenile-onset (type I)

diabetes, the body's immune system attacks the islands of
Langerhans in the pancreas, halting the production of insulin. In

recent years, there have been 6.6 new cases of type I diabetes
for every 100,000 in the Jewish population. But surprisingly, the

rate has not increased among the country's Arabs, even though
marriage among close relatives is common. According to experts,
juvenile-onset diabetes involves a slow process of the immune
system attacking the insulin-producing tissue; this seems to
begin very early - even soon after birth. Children who breast-fed

for at least three months have a significantly lower incidence of

type I diabetes, but the exact mechanism for this is not known."

I have a question to the physicians online: I was under the
impression that an infant's immune system was immature,
especially "soon after birth". In layman's language, could
someone explain the claim in the above 2 sentences beginning
"According to the experts..."? In short, I think it remarkable
that only 3 months of breastfeeding can result in a significant
difference. BTW, I'm not so sure that this "3 month wonder" will
work for me or against me. Looking forward to all threads.
Judy Knopf in Beer Sheva, Israel   [log in to unmask]