What is the natural progression of your disease over time?

Type 1 and LADA
#1

Have you noticed any trending over time? Reading about insulin resistance, it seems reasonable to expect that I will require larger insulin dosages over time. (That probably happens to almost everybody, diabetic and non-diabetic, alike, as we get older and heavier and less active). If that is common, then I might think of it as a, sort of, natural progression of our disease. Something that just happens as we age.

It makes me wonder what else could happen.

What is the nature of our illness over time? Sometimes I think that my blood sugar has gotten more difficult to control over the last 20 years, but then I'm not sure. Maybe I just wasn't watching it as closely before continuous sensors were invented. I wasn't as well acquainted with its behavior, then. Do blood sugars become harder to control, decade after decade? What have you noticed?

The more I learn, the more I learn that I don't know anything.

#2

My insulin dose has gone up over the years, but it's because I have gained weight. I'm certain that if I got back to an idea weight it would go right back down to where it used to be. (This is my major goal for 2015, to get more active and lose weight, now that I'm done graduate school.) My blood sugar has remained about the same in terms of control. I've run into difficulties caused by allergies that affect my control, but I don't think my diabetes has gotten easier or harder to control in general.

#3

My insulin needs have gone down over the years. I use way less than I did 30 years ago, but the insulin is way better now and we have excellent tools to measure and inject more exactly. My bg is easier to manage for the same reason, the measure tools are much improved. I may be older but I am not heavier, or less active. Age need not cause weight gain or inactivity. Those are choices. I don't know about my natural progression, I stay well managed so that I don't ever have to experience the complications associated with diabetes.

#4

Like Karen, my insulin needs are going down. First due to going on the pump in 2007, as dosing can be so much tighter, & more recently in the last 2 years, even though I have gained some weight that I am trying to loose. I take very little insulin, so a TDD drop from 20 to 18 is 10% & I don't eat low carb, not high carb about 120 carbs a day. I think it is easier to control my diabetes but I still get too many sudden lows. But better control may be due to better tools since I was diagnosed in 1961.

#5

I've only been t1 for three years and it has gotten significantly more difficult recently. i guess that is to be expected.

#6

I wouldn't assume developing insulin resistance is inevitable for Type 1's. I do think that with many dieticians now saying "you can eat whatever you want and cover it with insulin" people are more likely to gain weight with consequential insulin resistance. Those of us who are aging (either diagnosed in youth or more recently like me) I think are well aware of the tendency to put on weight easily, especially for post-menopausal women, so are more likely to avoid that trap. I wince when I hear younger people who have bought into the "eat whatever and cover it with insulin" and, perhaps tired of the prohibitions of a few years ago, go for it without thinking of the consequences. Type 1 and Type 2 each have their difficulties - both sets of difficulties at once - no thanks.