It’s been a busy week for rocker Bret Michaels. When we last saw the Poison frontman he was teary-eyed following a phone call from his daughter Raine, who said she may have diabetes. Since that time Michaels has himself been rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy while rumors swirled that his daughter had died.
Those rumors, of course, are not true and were no doubt started because of the mention of his daughter Raine on the Celebrity Apprentice show last week. On this week’s show, which was filmed months ago, we learn that Raine unfortunately has Type 1 diabetes. On an up note, Michaels once again survived the boardroom and will hopefully get another chance to raise money for the American Diabetes Association and its summer camps for kids with the disease.
As for Michaels’ trip to the hospital, he says he could have died if he waited any longer to go to the ER. He said it will take him 4-6 weeks to recover.
Bret Michaels was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 6. While Bret has been a great ambassador in raising awareness and money for diabetes charities, last week I had to correct a statement he made about the odds of parents passing the disease onto their children. In that episode he said the chances of a child of a Type 1 diabetic also developing the disease is about 50%. He repeated false claim again this week.
So, just for the record, once again I want to state the facts:
For men with Type 1, the actual chance of having a child with Type 1 diabetes is about 1 in 17, or about 5.9%. For women with Type 1 giving birth prior to their 25th birthday, the chances are about 1 in 25, or about 4%. However, those giving birth after 25 have odds of about 1 in 100, or 1%. The odds obviously increase if both parents have Type 1 diabetes.
For more info on the topic, please see the following Diabetes News Hound articles:
When to Worry About Your Kids Getting Diabetes Too
How Likely Are You to Pass on Diabetes to Your Kids?
Expert: Why Diabetes Caused Me to Adopt
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I have type 1 diabetes. There is no history in my family. I had my son at age 26 and he was just diagnosed at age 16 (6 weeks ago) with type 1. I have been told the statistics of this occurance are going up. We will have my 10 year old tested to find out his chances of also becoming diabetic.