Last post I talked about what Type 1 diabetes is in basic terms. Usually when someone says diabetes, they don't mean type 1, they probably mean type 2. But there are actually several types of diabetes. Here are a few (remember I am not a medical professional):
- Type 1: When the body's autoimmune system attacks the Beta Cells in the pancreas and the body can no longer produce insulin to stay alive. Type 1 used to be referred to as juvenile diabetes, but since 85% of Type 1's are adult, juvenile doesn't accurately describe it properly. Type 1 is rapid in onset (usually weeks to months). Also referred to as juvenile diabetes, autoimmune diabetes, severe diabetes or brittle diabetes.
This is a common representation of Type 1 v. Type 2 diabetes - however even this is an over-simplification. There is so much more to it.
- Type 2: When the body produces insulin, but the cells can't use the insulin efficiently, they are resistant to the insulin. This is usually what people are talking about when they reference diabetes in general. But the diseases are very different, which is why I usually refer to my disease simply as "Type 1" - so that I am not confused as a type 2.
- LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults): this is a very slowly developing form of type 1. Where Type 1 is usually characterized by it's rapid onset, the autoimmune response in LADA can sometimes take decades and is often misdiagnosed as Type 2 in it's early stages.
- Gestational: This is similar to Type 2 diabetes, except it is diagnosed during pregnancy and often disappears after childbirth. Though some women with gestational diabetes are more likely to develop Type 2 later in life.
- Type 3 (casual): In some circles, people refer to Type 3s as the immediate family of people with type 1 - those also affected by the disease, because the whole family has to live with it.
- Type 3 (medical): Some doctors who specialize in Alzheimers Disease are beginning to call it Type 3 diabetes. This is in respect to the insulin resistance specific to brain cells that seems to be connected to the onset of AD.
- Mody: I don't really understand this one very well. But there are like 13 variations of MODY.
Back to Type 1 fun fact: there are over 52 specific genes in the human body associated with Type 1 diabetes. Doing that math (52 x 51 x 50 x 49 x 48......x3 x 2 x 1) there are 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440, 883,277,824,000,000,000,000 possible variations of the disease. That's roughly the same as 8 with 67 zeros after it. (My cousin Tom the mathematician is probably going to let me know if I messed up this math...).
So literally every person with the disease is dealing with something a little different. That's why what works for 1 person, may not work for another - why when I go running my blood sugar tanks, but when my friend Karis goes running her blood sugar spikes.
We have text books, best practices, Certified Diabetes Educators, Endocrinologists, and a whole slew of other resources - but there is no single checklist of how to do things perfect. It's all just a big guessing game.