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Hi. Type 1½??

AmandaPanda

AmandaPanda

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1.5 LADA
Pronouns
She/Her
Hi everyone. Diagnosed last March with type 2 diabetes, but questioned the nurse at the time about it being type 1 as I have quite a few (9, in total) autoimmune diseases.
I was told an outright, "No it's type 2", but my readings are all over the place. I have recently seen an endocrinologist, who is testing for type 1½, or LADA.

I've recently started biologic immunosuppressants for a couple of the other AI diseases, and I'm not sure if that will affect my BG.

Can anybody give me any hints or tips for navigating diabetes with LADA?

Thanks, Manda x
 
Welcome @AmandaPanda
LADA is a variant of Type 1 diabetes diagnosed as an adult. Many doctors do not use it as it is not really understood and the treatment is the same as Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1.5 is an even more confusing term because it is ambiguous - to some it is LADA and to others it is Type 1 diabetes with insulin resistance - in other words a combination of Type 1 and 2.

When it comes to navigating LADA, my advice is to look for advice for navigating Type 1 and not get hung up on the LADA part.

Are you waiting for the results of your tests before being started on insulin? Insulin is the only way to manage Type 1 because it is an auto-immune condition which kills off all your insulin producing cells.

Well done on pushing for Type 1 - it is scary how many people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as an adult were first misdiagnosed as type 2. I think I read it was something like 30%.
 
AmandaPanda said:
Thanks Hayley. I'd never heard of it before my hospital appt either!!
Click to expand...

That’s because some people don’t use the term due to its being rather woolly and taken to mean different things by different people. LADA is basically slow-onset (or late) Type 1 but my consultant rarely uses the term. Are you on insulin?
 
Hi @AmandaPanda and welcome to the forum - as previously mentioned, the LADA or 1.5 term is very vague - although my Diabetes diagnosis was later in life (as many others here have too) it was never mentioned to me at all - always been considered Type 1 and treated as such (3yrs ago, this July) - I'd imagine they are doing an antibody test to see if you have the auto-antibodies associated with Type 1 (Usually takes 2-3 weeks to come back from the lab) - if you have any questions regarding anything, please ask - we're all here to help 🙂
 
Thanks helli.

My understanding is that the specialists will try other medications before insulin to try to regulate my BG levels? It's not treated as type 1, until it basically is type 1 and the pancreas has stopped producing all insulin...
 
AmandaPanda said:
Thanks helli.

My understanding is that the specialists will try other medications before insulin to try to regulate my BG levels? It's not treated as type 1, until it basically is type 1 and the pancreas has stopped producing all insulin...
Click to expand...

Early introduction of insulin is thought to preserve the remaining beta cells for longer. Some of the other (Type 2) meds run the risk of exhausting them faster.
 
Inka said:
That’s because some people don’t use the term due to its being rather woolly and taken to mean different things by different people. LADA is basically slow-onset (or late) Type 1 but my consultant rarely uses the term. Are you on insulin?
Click to expand...
Nope. I'm currently on Metformin and Gliclazide. My BG levels swing between hyper and hypo. My Hba1c, as an average, was pretty normal. Thank goodness I've insisted on a finger prick blood monitor so i could prove it!!
 
I’m glad you have a blood glucose meter 🙂 When you say hypo and hyper, what kind of numbers are you seeing @AmandaPanda ?
 
Inka said:
Early introduction of insulin is thought to preserve the remaining beta cells for longer. Some of the other (Type 2) meds run the risk of exhausting them faster.
Click to expand...
Thanks Inka. That's useful to know... I'm currently awaiting the auto-antibody results. I've got every other auto-antibody I've ever been tested for, so I'm expecting a +ive.

I was all ready to fight for myself with the consultant as I thought he'd just dismiss me like the diabetic nurse had, but he was actually great. He suggested LADA which totally went along with how I was feeling, i.e. that my pancreas was slowly stopping producing insulin. I didn't know it was a "thing", just knew that was my gut feeling.
 
Yes, all the other auto-immune conditions definitely make Type 1 a big possibility! Well done on being on the ball (and ready to fight!). The antibodies and C Peptide tests (if done) do take a while to come back - ie weeks.
 
Inka said:
I’m glad you have a blood glucose meter 🙂 When you say hypo and hyper, what kind of numbers are you seeing @AmandaPanda ?
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's within 'normal' range. But then it can spike to (max.) 16.4 and fall to (min.) 2.8.
It's even fell to 3.2 an hour after I'd eaten a chocolate brownie. The readings don't make sense.
 
Inka said:
Yes, all the other auto-immune conditions definitely make Type 1 a big possibility! Well done on being on the ball (and ready to fight!). The antibodies and C Peptide tests (if done) do take a while to come back - ie weeks.
Click to expand...
They did both tests. I also have other AI diseases like PBC and hashimotos which I believe are big predispositions to LADA/type1.
 
The beta cell function can decline erratically. One thing I was told was that you might still make your own insulin but very erratically. Another thing was that, because the whole system is failing, it can release insulin either too late or/and too much. That is, you can go high after food then plunge down hours later as your own insulin kicks in.
 
Inka said:
The beta cell function can decline erratically. One thing I was told was that you might still make your own insulin but very erratically. Another thing was that, because the whole system is failing, it can release insulin either too late or/and too much. That is, you can go high after food then plunge down hours later as your own insulin kicks in.
Click to expand...
Thanks Inka, that makes a LOT of sense!!!
 
The Gliclazide can make you go into hypo territory I understand and as @Inka has said you can still produce some insulin (sometimes for quite some time - the dreadfully named "Honeymoon Period" - which it isn't!) where it is very erratic (it was for me) - wishing you all the very best with it - and I hope you get your results soon
 
mashedupmatt said:
The Gliclazide can make you go into hypo territory I understand and as @Inka has said you can still produce some insulin (sometimes for quite some time - the dreadfully named "Honeymoon Period" - which it isn't!) where it is very erratic (it was for me) - wishing you all the very best with it - and I hope you get your results soon
Click to expand...
Thanks Matt. I've halved my Gliclazide from 80mg to 40mg, after I read research papers saying that the immunosuppressants I'm now on can make the gliclazide more effective.

"Honeymoon period" sounds like fun... not!!
 
AmandaPanda said:
Hi everyone. Diagnosed last March with type 2 diabetes, but questioned the nurse at the time about it being type 1 as I have quite a few (9, in total) autoimmune diseases.
I was told an outright, "No it's type 2", but my readings are all over the place. I have recently seen an endocrinologist, who is testing for type 1½, or LADA.

I've recently started biologic immunosuppressants for a couple of the other AI diseases, and I'm not sure if that will affect my BG.

Can anybody give me any hints or tips for navigating diabetes with LADA?

Thanks, Manda x
Click to expand...
I was diagnosed with LADA eight years ago: I was put on insulin straight away and it's well controlled now.
 
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