Anthropogenic and temporal components in a complex trigger of type 1 diabetes suggest the active participation of antipyretics

Abstract

Tremendous efforts in research without a conclusion on the cause of type 1 diabetes allow the presumption that there is still a blind spot in the development of T1D that is not covered by current hypotheses. The review of geographical knowledge suggests that there is a well-expressed anthropogenic element within the complex environmental trigger of T1D. On the other hand, the initiation of T1D's directed autoimmunity is temporally related to the organism's immune response, induced by entero-viruses, most expectedly. Consequently, the searched for anthropogenic environmental factor is a player temporally linked to enteroviral infections. This paper discusses the participation of antipyretic medicines, and especially paracetamol, with a whole century's history of growing sales and popularity, including indirect influence through phenacetin during the first half of the 20th century. As proposed by several independent studies, the use of pharmaceuticals to reduce fever may counteract with the protective features of the immune system and create favourable conditions for a virus to spread within the organism and damage specific tissue. A preliminary comparison of paracetamol sales with the incidence of T1D data in Lithuania and the other countries in the North-eastern Baltic region supports this hypothesis.