# bbc news



## aymes (Mar 5, 2009)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7926026.stm


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## Vanessa (Mar 6, 2009)

Surpised to see the link to 40% of Type 2 having the virus too


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## Freddie99 (Mar 6, 2009)

Personally I am surprised that they did not hit upon pancreatitis as a cause. I've been led to believe that it was a cause, that's having done some histology for my A level biology...I am the class reference on that sort of thing. Doing diabetes related stuff for the second time around this year now.

Tom H


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## Northerner (Mar 6, 2009)

Tom Hreben said:


> Personally I am surprised that they did not hit upon pancreatitis as a cause. I've been led to believe that it was a cause, that's having done some histology for my A level biology...I am the class reference on that sort of thing. Doing diabetes related stuff for the second time around this year now.
> 
> Tom H



They asked me at the hospital whether I'd suffered from pancreatitis. I said 'What's it like?' The doctor said, if you don't remember it, you haven't had it! So I guess it's pretty horrible!


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## Copepod (Mar 6, 2009)

Interestingly, after the discussion of Lesley Garrett's comments, there is an association betwenn heavy alcohol intake and pancreatitis


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## Northerner (Mar 6, 2009)

Copepod said:


> Interestingly, after the discussion of Lesley Garrett's comments, there is an association betwenn heavy alcohol intake and pancreatitis



That's possibly why the doctor asked me about it - as I admitted to being a heavy drinker. He didn't, however, think that the alcohol had been a cause of my diabetes, since I hadn't had any problems related to it and my liver was fine. 

I did, however, have a virus of the kind described, which they think may have precipitated my DKA/diabetes.


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## Copepod (Mar 6, 2009)

*Association in epidemiology*

Hi Northerner - pretty sure that the known association between heavy alcohol intake and pancreatitis was the reason your doctor asked you about it. But, it's an association - not all lives of heavy drinking lead to pancreatis. 

Even in the best known case of cause and effect, not all smokers develop lung cancer. Austin Bradford Hill and Dr Richard Doll, the epidemiologists who published the paper in 1950 linking smoking and lung cancer, are two of my heroes - and I was delighted to discover that my doctor grandfather was in one of the longitudinal studies started by Doll. Richard Doll died, aged 94 in 2005 - obituary here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article547715.ece. 
Austin Bradford Hill died in 1991, details of his life here: http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/37/8155.htm


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## Freddie99 (Mar 6, 2009)

Northerner said:


> They asked me at the hospital whether I'd suffered from pancreatitis. I said 'What's it like?' The doctor said, if you don't remember it, you haven't had it! So I guess it's pretty horrible!



Hi Northerner, 

I wasn't too clear in my earlier message. I've seen some photos of slides with pancreas on them, more specifically the islets of Langerhans tissue in stages of pancreatitis. On a tissue level it does not pleasant.

I personally have been fortunately have not had to undergo this terrible malady. Though I am the resident expert on diabetes. We're doing diabetes related stuff again.

Tom H


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