It can be very frustrating to have chronically elevated blood sugar levels when you have diabetes, especially, if you are doing everything the doctor recommends and still not seeing results. For some, they may even see their glucose levels continue rising in spite of efforts to lower it.
They may think they’ve failed. Or worse, they may end up with several complications due to those uncontrolled blood sugar levels.
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For people who can’t seem to get their levels to respond, the answers may be in an ant-GAD antibody test. This is commonly used to diagnose type 1 diabetes in young people and children, but it is also useful to check for LADA.
What Is Adult-Onset Type I Diabetes?
This condition is exactly what its name implies, type 1 diabetes that develops in adulthood. While relatively uncommon, it does happen. What’s worse, because type 2 diabetes is so common, it’s easy for people with LADA to be misdiagnosed at first.
How Do You Know You Have It?
Well, the primary indicator of LADA is blood sugar levels that continue to rise over the course of weeks or months despite commonly prescribed treatments. Adults who develop type 1 diabetes usually still have some functional beta cells, so they may also be producing a very small amount of insulin, which can give misleading results when taking medications that boost the effectiveness of insulin.
The doctor might prescribe insulin very soon after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis because the patient isn’t responding to traditional oral medication, such as metformin.
Other symptoms are pretty much the same as for all types of diabetes:
- frequent urination
- thirst
- unexplained weight loss
- blurry vision
- increased hunger
- fatigue
Adults in their nineties have been diagnosed with LADA, so it’s possible for anyone to get it. If you find that your blood glucose levels are still rising even though you are following your treatment plan to the letter, you might want to ask your doctor about testing for type 1 diabetes.
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[expand title=”References“]
Diagnosing Type 1 in Adults. URL Link. August 29th, 2017.
Type 1 Diabetes Symptoms. URL Link. August 29th, 2017.
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