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Difference between type 1 and 1.5

Rosieroo

Well-Known Member
Messages
63
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all
So I saw a specialist who called me today and confirmed i do not have type 2 diabetes.
He said I have a diabetes which is similar to type 1 and eventually I will need insulin.
I'm due to see a nurse next week who is going to go through it all and show me how to test my keystones .
I currently take metformin and gliclazade and even on my best eating days my levels are still high. I literally have to eat nothing to get them to drop. I developed gestAtional diabetes and it continued after I had my baby.
The doctor thought it was strange as usually it goes and I have lost a lot of weight etc.

What is the difference between type 1 and 1.5 - do I more or less have type 1 .
Thank you
 
Yes, you more or less have type 1. Type 1.5 or LADA is slow onset type 1. I started insulin 2 years ago at 50 years old. I maintained good bs for years eating very low carb and excercising. Eventually none of it worked and no matter how much I ate to try to gain weight I dropped 20 pounds in a month or two.
Your doctor probably ran a GAD and c peptide test to determine you're T1 or approaching it. GAD tells you if it's autoimmune and cpeptide tells you how much insulin your pancreas is producing
 
How high are your levels @Rosieroo ?

You're not the only person here who was found to be Type 1 having initially been thought to have GD.

My consultant doesn't use the term Type 1.5. She just calls it Late Onset/Slow Onset Type 1.

Can you give us an idea of your levels during an average day?
 
My levels are usually around 12. The lowest usually is 9 . They have been around 5-7 today but I've literally not eaten anything as I've been so busy today.
I admit I sometimes don't eat great but on the days I do they are still pretty high. I feel I can't eat any carbs at all
 

@Rosieroo No one here can give you medical,advice. We can only give our own experience and opinions. Having said that, if I was you, I'd be back at my doctor's asking about insulin.

You shouldnt have to not eat to control your levels. In addition, some specialists believe starting insulin in good time helps preserve the remaining islet cells in the pancreas. You may do better with small doses of insulin rather than Gliclazide, etc. You could then potentially eat properly and get better blood sugar numbers.
 
My sister was diagnosed with 1.5 when she was 50 she's 59 now and is on a similar management regimen as myself who was diagnosed at 4. It was like our immune systems decided to wage war on our Islets of Langerhans at different points in our lives. I wonder if that's the only difference between 1 and 1.5?
 
The difference between type 1 and type 1.5/lada is simple the duration for which residual insulin production is retained, or the length of the honeymoon period.

In type 1 you might get a short honeymoon, during which less insulin might be required.

In type 1.5 / lada you get a longer honeymoon and it might be a stronger honeymoon - might even get to come off insulin for a bit.

It's the same autoimmune disease killing off the insulin producing beta cells in both type 1 and type 1.5/lada, the only difference is the speed at which the beta cells die. Poor beta cells.
 
Thank you . I saw the nurse today I am not yet on insulin but they have said I eventually will be. They have given me kit to test my key tones
 
Rosieroo said:
Thank you . I saw the nurse today I am not yet on insulin but they have said I eventually will be. They have given me kit to test my key tones
Click to expand...

be very careful to test for ketones, especially if slightly ill, or off colour, then - i was slow onset tho not picked up by my doctor despite visits, but one minor ear infection landed me in intensive care for days, and hospital for weeks. Perhaps you could find out more about the doctor's reasoning, it may be your situation is very different from what mine was.
 
Hello,
I am from the U.S. and am 74 years old. I was very healthy all my life......at 70 I was diagnosed as a Type 2....BUT I couldn't control the Glucose with the meds you are taking! I did research and discovered I had 1.5 I didn't realize that with the above meds You and I were Killing our Beta Cells in our Pancreas! NOW I am on a Medtronic Pump which has Improved my LIFE 125% Before Pump: Felt terrible all the time....High readings even though I watched Everything I ate.. I weigh 128lbs
Now after a Year on Pump, I am also going to a GM system which works with 630 GMS it will tell me in my range 95-135
if I am going Low or High without Sticking myself as Now= 8 times a day!! If I were YOU and knew THEN what I KNOW NOW...I would GO on Insulin before ALL of your Beta Cells are destroyed! If this is your Diagnosis..then you WILL be on In insulin for the Rest of Your Life. Start and get your body into a Great A1C range. My last reading was 6.4

The Pump is something you MAY want to do Research on and I love my Medtronic and the People at Medtronic are like a Family always There for YOU! Just Saying....Blessings and Happy Research to You!
 
Hi Rosieroo.

I'm another Type 1.5.

It means, as someone above said, that you can extend your honeymoon a lot and maybe never develop full-blown Type 1. That's good because it means you can keep your insulin doses low, which is much better for you in all sorts of ways. I was dx in June 2014, started basal/bolus Jan 2015 and am still on more or less the same insulin dose, 14 units/day, nice and LOW.

It's in your interest to get straight onto insulin now. Waiting will mean the end of that nice slow honeymoon. Doctors who aren't used to LADA/T1 often make this mistake. It *is* a mistake. Take charge of your future and be well.

Only with insulin will you be able to slow the degradation of your beta cells. The drugs you're on now will wallop them.

I was very afraid of going on insulin in the beginning, but it's saved me. I low carb and exercise and as a result I have not put on weight. I am svelte and steady at weight of my 20s.

I'm linking (or trying to) my story and Ian DP's. Have a read.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/an-older-and-wiser-new-lada.70099/

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/ladas-preserving-their-beta-cells.62177/

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/can-i-prove-the-drs-wrong.53061/

Courage, and all the best.
Lucy
 
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I find myself in the same position. I have believed I was 1.5 since I was first diagnosed because I have several auto immune diseases. My recent long term glucose was 99 and my morning result is now around 14. My previous tests were more normal. I recently had an injection of a steroid into my spine so I thought that's ask it was. I'm quite surprised that it's a permanent change to insulin.

Starting humalog 16/14 isn't so hard. I had to use it when I took steroids with my cancer treatment 3 years ago. I think it will be gradually increased as the other meds are withdrawn. For now I'm still on metformin and gliclozide.The hard part is learning to eat regularly as INCLUDE carbs, my nurse said I need it for brain function.
 
Thank you all for your replies . Well I'm still struggling to get control of my levels I'm on the max dose of 4 gliclazade in the morning along with metformin . Although I know it doesn't mean I can eat all I want I literally can't eat anything without it affecting my levels . My levels in the morning at the moment are around 13

The other thing is my arms are tingling and my vision feels weird. I had my eyes tested and they said there is no damage . My doctor mentioned about neuropathy but can I suffer with that after only a year of having diabetes ?
 
@Rosieroo Have you asked whether insulin might help you now? Insulin can help preserve any remaining beta cells you have for longer. You might only need a tiny amount but it could be a great help in getting your blood sugar better controlled.

In theory, if you had undiagnosed diabetes for a while, you could have neuropathy, but if you have any concerns ask for a proper investigation.

High blood sugar can affect your vision, making it blurry or affecting your focus.
 
i assumed that by now you would have firmly raised the issue with your doctor and got ketone sticks prescribed, please go to a hospital walk in if you are not getting help with a correct diagnosis - it sounds to me as if you need insulin, and if you do, my experience is that the longer you are off insulin, the longer you will take to get back to normal. i went thro all this, including tingling hands, poor vision etc, and my GP did not pick diabetes up, neither did my optician, blurred vision and accommodation problems are simply as a result of the high glucose levels, and often vary thru the day. That was the 1970s, and i was in intensive care in a coma, some years later, and told it would take as long as i had been having symptoms to recover - and yes, it did take years,
 
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Rosieroo said:
Thank you . I saw the nurse today I am not yet on insulin but they have said I eventually will be. They have given me kit to test my key tones
Click to expand...
I am not a doctor but judging by my own and others' experience I would say there is no reason to wait. You should be put on basal/bolus insulin right away.
 
I'm another recent 1.5 diagnosis after been diagnosed as type 2 initially. After a horrible year of increased metformin and gliclazide, victoza injections, numerous visits to out of hours and a hospital stay I was finally started on insulin. My sugar levels were rarely in single figures during this time and my HBA1C results were seriously high as well. There wasn't a carb I could eat that didnt send my BG through the roof. Insulin is the only thing that helped and if you're still having issues with your BG levels i would push to be getting put on this.
 
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