I’ve lived through some changes in diabetes terminology. I mean, when I was diagnosed 30 years ago it was “Juvenile diabetes” and “Adult diabetes”, somehow ignoring the fact that kids who get diabetes will someday grow up. Then there was “insulin dependent” and “non-insulin dependent” and then “Type 1” and “Type 2” which I finally thought wasn’t too bad.
Now today of course we now that even "Type 1" and "Type 2" aren't good enough to describe everything, and there's "LADA" and "MODY" and others. That's OK.
Today however there seems to be a trend away from "Type 1 diabetes" and towards "Diabetes 1" that I see popping up on the internet. Several posters here on tudiabetes describe themselves as having "diabetes1". There's a website called "diabetes1.org" and newspaper articles, especially in third world countries, often try to distinguish between "Diabetes 1" and "Diabetes 2".
Is this a progression of medical terminology (which I have to accept will change over time) or is this some sort of internet corruption of official medical terminology? e.g. the way people commonly use "PIN Number" and "ATM Machine" to the point where they don't know that they're saying "Personal Identification Number Number" and "Automatic Teller Machine Machine"?
It is an evolution. As you note, first there was Juvenile and Adult reflecting age of onset. Then, when you were young, there was IDDM and NIDDM, which is still reflected in things like diagnostic codes. Then more recently there was Type 1 and Type 2. The latest thought seems to have categorized diabetes into Type 1, Type 2 and other (see http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/suppl_1/s5.full). There still remains conflict between the different authorities, particularly the AACE, WHO and ADA. And as to the diabetes1.org, I would categorize them as just a company. Diabetes.org is the ADA web site, and I would generally discount them as a unbiased and credible authority.
I think there are many on tudiabetes who would argue that autoimmune diabetes leading to insulin deficiency is all the same thing, classic T1 both adult and juvenile as well as LADA. Then there are the 10-15% of T2s who actually test as positive for autoimmune, many of whom will eventually find that their poor pooped out pancreas fail and end up as slow slow onset T1. All the same in my view, just a different onset pattern.
When I was dxd. at age 3, my country Dr. called it Sugar Diabetes. Then later, I was told that I had Juvenile Diabetes, then Type 1. I’m Happy to stick with Type 1 Diabetes.
Actually, I was just explaining the different types to my Friend who unfortunately was told that she has"border-line Diabetes". Border-line my foot. We had a loonng discussion about Diabetes. I was Happy to answer her many questions since she has a computer but no internet yet. Anyways, I wish they’d stop messing with the titles of Diabetes.
