Diabetic Living - Fall 2010

Patient Name: Cherise Shockley, 28, PWD

Family History: No diabetes

Diagnosis: Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA)

Cherise was confused when the nurse practitioner on the military base where she was stationed ;ve years ago told her she had iabetes. “I was thin, I was in shape, and I don’t have a family history of diabetes,” Cherise says. “But when I walked through the endocrinologist’s door back home, he said, ‘I know what you have just by looking at you.’” Numerous tests proved her doctor’s uspicion was right: Antibodies in Cherise’s blood indicated an autoimmune response. She had latent autoimmune diabetes in adults, or LADA. “I was thin, I was in shape, and I don’t have a family history of diabetes.” —Cherise Shockley, PWD LADA

1There are more than two types of diabetes.

Trying to ;gure out the differences between type 1 and type 2 diabetes can be confusing enough. Here are some things to help you understand LADA: 6 fast facts about LADA

Could you have LADA? Starting to question your type; 2 diagnosis? Here are some clues that you may actually have latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA):

Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is a term used in the medical community for slow-moving type 1 diabetes diagnosed in adulthood. “In the past, type 1 was associated with kids, which is why we called it juvenile diabetes,” says endocrinologist James McCallum, M.D., of the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. But as type 2 started showing up in children, researchers began to learn it wasn’t limited to adults—and type 1 wasn’t limited to young people. “Now we recognize that there is a small subset of adults [diagnosed] with type 1 diabetes,” McCallum says.