There are several types and types of diabetes mellitus, each with its own characteristics and differences.
Besides the well-known names of the types of diabetes mellitus - types 1 and 2 - you can often find other types of the disease, which are often confusing. For example, it is not known exactly what is gestational diabetes mellitus during pregnancy or diabetes lada. So what other types and types of diabetes are there?
Main Types
Most often in the formulation of the diagnosis, we find the notions of "type 1 diabetes" or "type 2 diabetes". It is this classification that determines the disease based on the body's need for insulin.
Type 1 diabetes is characterized by the destruction of specialized pancreatic beta cells responsible for insulin production. This most often happens when a person is exposed to a viral infection, as a result of which the immune system begins to produce "aggressors" of gland cells, which destroy them. As a result, insulin deficiency occurs in the blood. Since cells cannot absorb glucose from the blood without such an important hormone as insulin, they literally starve to death, while "floating" to glucose.
If insulin is introduced into the body from the outside, the cells "with joy" will begin to consume glucose, while the sugar level will normalize. Therefore, type 1 disease is also called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.
When the term "non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus" is mentioned, it is type 2 diabetes. Its pathogenesis is based on two key points:
- beta cell pathology;
- violation of insulin sensitivity by insulin-dependent cells of the body.
This condition develops more often in obese people, since obesity leads to the formation of resistance cells (immunity) to the action of insulin. In addition to obesity, glucose absorption is affected by smoking, lack of physical activity and taking certain medications.
Type 3 diabetes
There is type 3 diabetes, which combines the signs of types 1 and 2. Namely, the accumulation of fatty tissue in the liver (as in type 2 diabetes) and insulin deficiency (as in diabetes mellitus). type 1). In life, type 2 diabetes that responds positively to insulin therapy is type 3. But this type is not recognized by the health body, so all cases are divided into type 1 and 2.
This disease is not uncommon. The reason is considered to be an increase in the absorption of iodine in the intestine due to its various pathologies. This leads to thyrotoxic type 2 diabetes with a complex pathogenesis. Treatment with it should be fundamentally different from standard therapy.
hidden form
Latent diabetes mellitus is a condition in which glucose from food is slowly absorbed, but insulin production remains at the appropriate or high level. Clinically latent diabetes does not appear. This form precedes type 2 diabetes. It should be said that the hidden variant of diabetes is pre-diabetes, at this stage it is still possible to influence the state of carbohydrate metabolism.
Latent diabetes can occur for a long time (up to several years). In order to recognize it in time, you often need to monitor blood sugar levels, which is especially important for people with predisposing factors (obesity, hypertension and the use of diuretic drugs that reduce potassium levels, polycystic ovary syndrome).
If latent diabetes mellitus is detected in time, then, observing simple rules of prevention, this form will never turn into type 2 diabetes. To avoid this, you need to increase physical activity, follow a diet, control theblood sugar.
Labile and stable
You can also find wording such as "stable and labile diabetes". We therefore speak of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Under these terms understand the clinical course of the disease.
Labile diabetes is characterized by a rather severe and unpredictable course. Significantly changes the level of blood sugar during the day, which does not allow you to choose the optimal dose of insulin. With this form, acute and late complications occur more often - ketoacidosis, disorders of the kidneys, organ of vision. The labile form is characteristic of adolescence.
The stable form is characterized by a uniform course without a sudden drop in sugar, milder symptoms and a low level of hyperglycemia.
Gestational
Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that develops during pregnancy. Gestation, or in lat. gestation is pregnancy. The causes of this type of disease have not been reliably established, but the hormones produced by the placenta and the body of the future mother lead to physiological resistance to insulin. There are certain factors that lead to the development of gestational diabetes. These include:
- end of pregnancy;
- familial diabetes;
- smoking;
- obesity;
- stillbirth in previous pregnancies.
If a woman follows the doctor's instructions, regularly passes tests, such an unpleasant disease can be avoided. If diabetes has developed, adequate insulin therapy and hospitalization are prescribed. The patient is followed by an obstetrician-gynecologist, endocrinologist, internist, ophthalmologist, neurologist. After childbirth, as a rule, carbohydrate metabolism returns to normal.
It is important to note that gestational diabetes can continue to exist after delivery. This diagnosis is valid for 2 months after birth. During this period, a woman should continue treatment, but with an adjustment of insulin doses, which is calculated by the attending physician or endocrinologist. 2 months after childbirth, a woman undergoes a stress test, which will indicate whether there is a violation of carbohydrate metabolism. If hyperglycemia is found, the diagnosis is corrected and appropriate treatment is prescribed.
Diabetes Lada
Latent diabetes mellitus, or diabetes lada, is rarely diagnosed due to its latent course. Lada's diabetes has features compared to other forms.
- Laboratory tests do not reveal this form. The fasting glucose level is most often not elevated.
- The first symptoms of the disease appear after 25 years.
- Pregnancy, stress, infectious diseases, rapid weight gain due to fatty tissue can cause clinical signs.
- Lada diabetes occurs most often in non-obese people.
- The symptoms are similar to those of type 2 diabetes, but in a more subtle form.
- Markers for type 1 diabetes can be detected in the patient's blood.
- Lada's diabetes is controlled by diet and taking blood sugar-lowering medication.
To determine lada diabetes, specific tests are carried out, which will be discussed in an article devoted specifically to this condition.
Moderate diabetes
Diabetes mody mellitus is rarely recognized, it is associated with a mutation of certain genes (there are 8 of them). These genes are responsible for normal insulin structure or optimal beta cell development. Mody's diabetes is characterized as poorly progressive, developing in young people (more often children, adolescents).
Among all diabetic patients, mody diabetes accounts for 2-5% of cases, but the development of the gestational type is precisely associated with genetic mutations. Reliably diagnosing mody diabetes is only possible with the help of molecular genetic research.
Flow features of this form:
- occurs in children
- sometimes there is a rise in glucose up to 8 mmol/l;
- no obesity;
- there is no insulin resistance;
- SD is available in two generations;
- The course is similar to that of type 2 diabetes.
steroid diabetes
Steroid diabetes develops with prolonged use of corticosteroid drugs or with hypercortisolism (Itsenko-Cushing syndrome or disease). Adrenal hormones have a detrimental effect on beta cells in the pancreas, leading to insulin deficiency.
Steroid diabetes mellitus is an insulin-dependent condition. But its clinical course includes some features of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In addition, there is a violation of the work of other organs as a result of the action of corticosteroids. This diabetes is treated as type 2 diabetes.
Pancreatic
Pancreatic diabetes is a secondary disease. It develops in response to the destruction of the pancreas in pancreatitis, stones in the gallbladder and ducts, after operations on the gland. All of these factors lead to a decrease in active beta cells and insulin deficiency. It proceeds like type 1 diabetes.
Other secondary forms
Adrenal, pituitary and thyroid diabetes occurs against the background of an excessive amount of certain hormones in the blood, which leads to the destruction of insulin-producing cells. The clinic is similar to type 1 diabetes with symptoms of damage to other organs and tissues.