LADA - is this type 1 or type 2 diabetis.

[Linda51]

I’m very confused, I’ve had diabetes now for 5 years. It’s not getting any better, I’m on tablets 4 times a day. I’m too thin and have been told I must eat carbs and also see a nutritionist. I’m type LADA but don’t really know the significance. Please advise

 

[Antje77]

Type1 is when the immune system is stupid and makes antibodies to kill your insulin producing cells.
LADA is diagnosed when having antibodies, so LADA is T1.

It develops slower than T1 in children, and may look a lot like T2 during the first months or years. If your blood sugars are too high you'll need insulin, as you don't produce enough of it yourself.

Do you see an endocrinologist for your diabetes? GP's often do not know much about LADA.

 

[Juicyj]

Hi @Linda51 When you say it's not getting any better, what are your Blood Glucose levels like ?

If the tablets are not controlling your BG levels then insulin is the best way to manage your BG levels, which is key to good control, it's getting the right medication to manage these better.

 

[Deleted Account]

diabetes.co.uk is much more than this amazing forum: it is also a great library of easy to read diabetes articles.
For example, this tells you about LADA.
Go back to the homepage (if you are on the website) and take a look around - it is amazing how much you can learn in a short time.

 

[Linda51]

Type1 is when the immune system is stupid and makes antibodies to kill your insulin producing cells.
LADA is diagnosed when having antibodies, so LADA is T1.

It develops slower than T1 in children, and may look a lot like T2 during the first months or years. If your blood sugars are too high you'll need insulin, as you don't produce enough of it yourself.

Do you see an endocrinologist for your diabetes? GP's often do not know much about LADA.

Yes I’m seeing an endocrinologist and only now she has suggested insulin, I’m 67 and diagnosed 5 years ago, but only now she told me I can no longer take tablets.

 

[Antje77]

Yes I’m seeing an endocrinologist and only now she has suggested insulin, I’m 67 and diagnosed 5 years ago, but only now she told me I can no longer take tablets.

If your blood sugars have been reasonably well for the past 5 years and started to deteriorate now, that sounds like the right thing to do. LADA can come on very slow, making it possible to manage with tablets for years, as you did.
Once too many insulin producing cells are damaged tablets won't work anymore, so it's time for insulin.

 

[Daibell]

With LADA moving from tablets to insulin will almost always be needed as the honeymoon period progresses. To overcome being thin you should not be increasing the carbs but increasing fats and proteins. The body will be burning body fat as it can't metabolise the carbs you eat and having more will merely put your BS up and risk DKA. Who told you to eat more carbs? Also, beware NHS nutritionists as many have weak qualifications and also are not very clued-up about nutrition.

 

[Bluey1]

I was LADA in my 30’s, however by the time I saw the Dr I was sent straight to the specialist and put onto insulin. I valiantly fought D for about 3 months. Don’t worry about taking insulin and injections. I know that is easy for me to say as I’ m not you being confronted with this, however I have over 10 years experience with injecting insulin into myself. Once you get over the initial shock and all sorts of other emotions, it’s painless and really quite easy, after a year or so, if your lucky you can stop injecting insulin and go onto a pump. Injections for the most part are painless. I can still remember my first injection and my last injection, there maybe more injections to come if my pump fails.

 

[CliveT2]

Was diagnosed what i thought was type 2 8 years ago....managed it really well with just diet and exercise for several years, couple of years ago started to get harder to manage despite eating barely any carbs, exercising for hours and being stick thin, started meds but they didn't do much. Decided to go and see an endocrinologist recently...I'm actually type 1!

They did 4 key tests on me
GAD - which was surprisingly negative (but they think that's because I've actually been type 1 for years!)
C-Peptide - very low for my blood sugar reading - type 1 marker!
Insulin Anti-bodies - off the scale - very strong Type 1 marker
And zinc transporter anti-body - again off the scale - another strong type 1 marker

So whatever has caused it, 3 of the 4 anti-body tests showing type 1....came right off the metformin (and coming off those made me appreciate they were doing nothing for me) and straight onto Lantus 6 units (long acting) and Novarapid (around 1 unit per 10gms of carbs)...I feel fantastic! It's not too arduous to be honest and actually far more black and white to manage than type 2...at least I now know and the future looks bright again...

Seems mis-diagnosis is becoming less rare and a myth that type 1 always manifests as a youngster. Call it LADA, type 1.5, whatever, my pancreas is barely working and I don't have the type 2 things I thoughts I had (no insulin resistance)..

Hypos are the issue for me with my job, so managing carbs and insulin and avoidance of big lows crucial to me....But i've never felt so good and realise that what glucose I did have in my system simply was't being used properly by the muscles due to no insulin (which explains the extreme tiredness I was getting!)...

My message to people is don't just take the docs assumption that it's type 2...if you're thin particularly, get tested for T1. My other message is, whilst it's early days, T1 isn't so bad....You know what you need to do, you can manage it...