I've been diagnosed with prediabetes LADA type. My doctor told me I have 80% possibilities to end up being insulin-dependent.
My question is:
Does anybody belong to that other 20%?
Was my doctor being optimistic, pessimitic or realistic?
If that 20% is possible, what can I do to belong there?
Writing from Spain
Slightly scared
If you indeed have LADA, then you actually have Type 1 diabetes that progresses slowly. You WILL need insulin, just not necessarily from the beginning. (I don't understand why the doctor would have even given you the hope of the other 20%) You will probably be able to control your blood glucose for a while with diet and exercise. How was the LADA diagnosed? Did you have a test for antibodies?
It's understandable to be scared at this stage. A diagnosis is overwhelming. But don't be scared of insulin. It's a hormone that our bodies aren't able to make like other people so we have to inject it. But that's far better than feeling sick and having complications from high blood sugar. Even if you're actually type 2, many need insulin but find it to be the best tool they have to stay healthy. So just take a deep breath and try to find your best path to health.
Sorry about your diagnosis. But welcome to the website. People are very helpful, so keep reading and learning. I don't know if there's copies written in Spanish, but if your English is good, you may want to read "Think Like a Pancreas" by Gary Scheiner or "Using Insulin" by John Walsh.
Plazapu, you came to the right place. Our President and founder has LADA, and we have a lot of people here who know all about it. One of them is Melitta, who wrote this blog
http://www.tudiabetes.org/profiles/blogs/onset-of-type-1-diabetes-in
there are lots of links there to good information. again, welcome to TuDiabetes, we are here to help if you need us.
No, if you are truly LADA then you should 100% plan to be on insulin, and most of the leading thinkers in the field would tell you that you should start small doses of itright away instead of wait until you can’t survive without it. I was very afraid of having to take insulin when I was newly diagnosed, it i an irrational fear though because its what I needed
The best thing for any diabetes diagnosis is learning all you can about it. The books recommended are excellent and a good place to start. This site is a great resource as well as the digital monthly newsletter, diaTribe.
I'm sorry you got this diagnosis. You can lead a happy and long life providing you adapt to take care of your blood glucose levels. It's not easy but very possible. Good luck to you!
Your Dr. might be right. It depends on which antibody tests were done. An excerpt from an ADA study states:
In the large U.S. study, the Diabetes Prevention Trial (DPT-1), four autoantibodies (ICA, IAA, GAD65Ab, and IA-2Ab) were analyzed to assess the risk for developing diabetes; 98% of first-degree relatives who went on to develop type 1 diabetes had one or more autoantibodies, and 80% had two or more autoantibodies. Individuals with two or more positive biochemical autoantibodies had a 68% 5-year risk for developing type 1 diabetes, and those with all three biochemical antibodies had an estimated 100% 5-year risk (14).
You can find the whole article on http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/54/suppl_2/S52.full
If you notice your levels deteriorating further over time, yes, you will need to be on insulin. If this indeed becomes the case, I would echo what Sam an others have said: get on insulin early. It makes learning how to use it much easier and can help preserve some beta cells over the longer term that your immune system doesn't destroy. This also helps with longer term control.
Personaly I am only IAA antibodies positive, my last doctor diagnosed me with "slow onset type 1", controlled with diet for now, although my 2h OGTT levels are already full-on diabetic. BUT, she also said the same - that I MIGHT not need to go on insulin. I've tried to research/read about it as much as I could, but haven't found anything really useful, except that in some cases it takes years, even decades before you need to go on insulin as LADA.
PLAZAPU:
I learned about a program over the weekend that might be helpful to you depending on your age. The program is called the Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet It is administrated by the JDRF, and the NIH. If you are less than 45 and have a close relative, parent, grandparent, then you can qualify for antibody testing and if those antibodies are present you may qualify for additional experiment treatment to delay or prevent the onset of type 1 / LADA. Here is the site to checkout. It is an incredible opportunity and might(if you qualify) the worry or give you a way to delay the onset.
Here is the trial net web site.
and the telephone number
1-800-425-8361
I plant to write a blog about my understanding of the program on June 3, 2014.
rick
There is actually a large body of evidence that shows that early insulin use in people with slowly progressive Type 1 diabetes protects the remnant beta cells and leads to better health outcomes. For most people that I know with LADA who delayed going on insulin, their one regret was that they didn't start insulin sooner.
Hello plazapu, i am in spain too! i was diagnosed about 2.5 years ago and i was only told that i was t1. though no doctor ever told me i am lada, i think i am, as i am still on pretty low doses of insulin.
like others here have said, if youre lada, youre going to be on insulin at some point. if you havent been tested for antibodies (gad-65, etc), try to have them done. have you been sent to an endocrinologist or a diabetes day unit at your local hospital? you would be able to get some diabetes education, like how to carb count for different types of food. i am in seville and was sent to the diabetes day unit at virgen macarena and learned a lot more than my gp would have been able to tell me. my gp is very nice and i trust her opinions a great deal, but she isnt able to advise me on my diabetes.
sorry that you have had to join tuD, but its a great place to find info and support about anything and everything diabetic.
I’m involved with this. Tricky part is you have to have a first order relative who is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in order to qualify…
So to clarify, as I am diagnosed with type 1 diabetes; I do not qualify for the program, but both of my children did because their father has the diagnosis.
I've heard that many many times. But I have two problems with it - first, I have reactive hypoglycemias still... Second, my doctor would probably wouldn't be up for it. I wish I could start, though. I don't know if they would get someone with pre-diabetes on insulin though? Even I wouldn't qualify for better educated doctors, because my a1c is still low.. probably..
Hey there. I've got LADA too. I am able to maintain "normal" blood sugars with a low carb (50-80g carb) per day. I was not on any insulin for a few months but I began to lose weight and was having trouble getting the weight back on, so now I am on one shot of levemir every day and still not doing the rapid insulin. I've had my autoantibodies checked numerous times and the last time I checked I didn't have them (whereas I used to be positive for GAD65). According to Dr. Bernstein, author of Diabetes Solution, he has patients who have been on low-carb diets for 20 years and have maintained their beta cells. That being said, he does encourage the use of insulin early on in the diagnosis.
I just hesitate to use the rapid insulin because I've noticed that when I use it, my body becomes more dependent on it. In other words, if I use rapid insulin to eat something higher carb than normal, the subsequent meals my blood sugar is much higher than it would have been without the shot. It's like it causes my beta cells to go on vacation or something and it takes a few days to get my blood sugars back to where they were.
what is your a1c
5.9
I was originally misdiagnosed as a Type 2. I had the GAD antibody test done and found out quickly that I have LADA. My ENDO started me on insulin right away because if you get on insulin right away you can preserve the life of some of your beta cells which is a good thing. Also, being on insulin will make your blood sugars more stable and change the way you feel. Prior to insulin....I was tired and moody all the time because my blood sugar was all over the map. Now, I'm on the pump and most days am steady between 80 and 130.
wow mine has been hovering at 5.5 to 5.3 but i got it dowen to 5.1
i hope you find a good doctor that will listion to you 5.9 a1c means your average blood suger has been 133 witch is not very good
I think it's very important,shelly, to keep from judging other people's A1C's. A1C's and D management in general is based on many different factors and we can't know all those variables from a brief post. Even after accounting for the variables, there is something hard to pinpoint I like to call "the luck of the draw" which makes some people's Type 1 more easily controlled and some less so. It's too easy for people to get caught up in a numbers game and compare their A1C's to that of other Type 1's and feel that they don't measure up. Many people would be, for example, extremely pleased with a 5.9. Considering that many medical professionals are satisfied with anything under 7.0, well...Also the OP is diagnosed as pre-diabetic, which is quantified as an a1c between 5.7 and 6.5.
Don't know about the OP, but personally I was actually diagnosed with diabetes due to my OGTT test, although at the time of diagnosis, my a1c was 5,5 (and a bit later even 5,4) and my morning levels were still normal (borderline).
I am NOT yet on insulin but since I've got diagnosed in June 2013 my sugars went up, up, up, my a1c was 5,9 in April, but considering my sugar readings I suspect it might me around 6,5 already.