Many people are familiar with type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes, but did you know there are a range of other types of diabetes that are just as important? Unfortunately, these rarer types of diabetes are often more difficult to diagnose, leading to misdiagnosis and delays in receiving the best possible care.
Let’s have a closer look at these rarer types of diabetes and their differing characteristics.
Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA) LADA has been described as a slowly progressing version of type 1 diabetes with some of its characteristics similar to type 2 diabetes. Like type 1 diabetes, LADA occurs when the insulinproducing beta cells in the pancreas are damaged by the body’s own immune system, and no longer produce insulin. However, unlike type 1 diabetes, individuals with LADA may not require insulin straight away; insulin requirements only become necessary months or years after diagnosis. Also, individuals diagnosed with LADA are usually over the age of 30, compared to type 1 diabetes where ?85% of cases occur in youth
