When Adults Are Told It Is Type 2
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
Type 1 diabetes occurs most commonly in children and young adults, but it can develop at any age. That single fact is behind a common and consequential mistake.
When an adult presents with high blood glucose, Type 2 is the working assumption, because it accounts for the large majority of adult diabetes. Usually that assumption is right. Sometimes it is not, and the person is treated with tablets while their insulin production quietly fails.
Signs that a Type 2 label deserves questioning:
- You are lean, or lost weight before diagnosis rather than gaining it.
- Symptoms came on over weeks, not gradually over years.
- Tablets worked briefly and then stopped working unusually fast.
- You or close family have other autoimmune conditions, such as thyroid disease.
- You have had ketones in your urine or blood, or an episode of ketoacidosis.
What to ask for is specific: autoantibody testing, and a C-peptide test, which measures how much insulin your own body is still producing. Together they distinguish the types.
There is also a slower-developing form of autoimmune diabetes in adults, sometimes called LADA, which sits between the two pictures and is easily mistaken for Type 2.