Doctor Cites Inbreeding As Source of Diabetes

Filed in archive Research on August 11, 2006

And here I thought I'd heard everything. Physician and lecturer Ian Gibson has apologized for possibly offending anyone, but still posits that Type 1 diabetes may have developed from a gene produced by "inbreeding".

"In a county where it's from way back in the past there have been smaller numbers of people, localised in small areas there may be some degree of familiarity, family relationships you know in terms of brothers and other families with the same name and so on," he said.

He said that some people thought of Norwich as "closed off" which was "nonsense".

"It does happen everywhere, there are different groups of people who for historical reasons have certain genetics which other people don't.

"As I said there are different frequencies of blood groups in different parts of the UK. Who knows why, but it could be an explanation of certain illnesses."

What do you think? Does Dr. Gibson's theory hold any possibility of being viable, or is this an extreme insult against diabetics?

(Photo: Dr. Ian Gibson, source BBC News)