Newly Diagnosed LADA/Type 1.5

[kaplageman]

Hi all,

I was just diagnosed as LADA last week. I am 21 years old, 105 lbs, eat healthy, and am active. My glucose tolerance test results were fasting 132 and after 2 hours 252. This is what primarily diagnosed me with diabetes. Then a week later my doctor tested me for GAD65 antibodies which came back positive at 4.65 and insulin antibodies which were 0. They confirmed me Type 1 or LADA since I am very young, thin, and was GAD antibody positive.

At the doctors they gave me a meter to test my BG for 2 weeks - then I was told the endocrinologist will look at the results and figure out the best treatment from there. Over the past 2 weeks my fasting numbers have varied between 108-144 and my 2 hour after meal numbers are always in the 200's (sometimes low 200's, sometimes high). I am curious what treatment the endo is going to give me. Will they start me on low doses of insulin to maybe preserve beta cell function (which I have heard is best)? Or will they start me on pills which will burn out my pancreas? Or will they simply tell me to continue eating healthy? I did not get a C peptide test so I am not sure how much insulin I currently have left.

I am just curious what treatment you all think is most likely for me this early in the game: starting insulin? oral pills? nothing (diet changes)?

Thanks
Kelly

 

[Daibell]

Hi. I suspect you may be started on tablets at first if your blood sugar control measured by the HBa1C isn't too bad currently. The jury is out on whether tablets such as Gliclazide (Diamicron) burn out the pancreas. I was on full dose for may years and will never know whether it did that. Some people say starting insulin early avoids that risk and gives complete control. I wish I has gone onto insulin a year before I did as it was a relief from all the tablets and starvation diet. It is unlikely a low-carb diet alone will work for you but it may work for a while. A c-peptide test may be worth having. I had one done privately, even though I'm in the UK and with the NHS, and it showed insulin at the bottom end of the scale and I found that useful to know.

 

[kaplageman]

Daibell,

Thanks for the response! I should have mentioned that my HBA1C was 6. Yeah I am also in agreement that simply eating a low carb diet will not work for me, since I always have been very conscious of the food I eat yet this still has happened. Do you think it is worth suggesting or implying that I would like start insulin early rather than try pills?

 

[Daibell]

There's no harm in asking to be started early on insulin, but that HBA1c of 6 is really good and almost non-diabetic, so at present low dose tablets may be fine and give excellent control?

 

[LucySW]

From my experience Kelly, you want insulin. Nothing else will really do the job. You want to lower your BG to near-normal levels if you can. If so, you can extend your honeymoon which means lower insulin doses and more stable BGs and few hypos. That is worth having. As that is not normal practice, you may have to push to get what you want.

It's worked for me, ma sha Allah. Ten months since going on basal/bolus, my total daily dose is low and stable and has actually gone down slightly. I've never had a hypo.

The more care you put into looking after yourself, the better control you will get.

My story - all our stories are worth hearing -

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

Oh, by the way, read Dr Bernstein. It doesn't work for everybody, but it's worked for me.