There are several types and types of diabetes mellitus, each of which has its own characteristics and differences.
Along with the well-known names of the types of diabetes mellitus - type 1 and 2 - you can often find other types of the disease, which are often puzzling. For example, it is not entirely clear what is gestational diabetes mellitus during pregnancy or lada diabetes. So what other types and types of diabetes are there?
Main types
Most often in the formulation of the diagnosis, one can find the concepts of "type 1 diabetes" or "type 2 diabetes". It is this classification that determines the disease according to the body's need for insulin.
Type 1 diabetes is characterized by the destruction of specialized pancreas beta cells responsible for insulin production. This happens most often when a person is exposed to a viral infection, as a result of which the immune system begins to produce "aggressors" to the 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, while "floating" to glucose.
If insulin is introduced into the body from the outside, then 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 means type 2 diabetes. Its pathogenesis is based on two key points:
- pathology of beta cells;
- violation of insulin susceptibility by insulin-dependent cells of the body.
This condition develops more often in obese people, since obesity leads to the formation of resistance (immunity) cells to the action of insulin. In addition to obesity, the absorption of glucose is affected by smoking, lack of physical activity, and taking certain drugs.
Type 3 diabetes
There is type 3 diabetes, which combines signs from types 1 and 2. Namely, the accumulation of adipose tissue in the liver (as in type 2 diabetes) and insulin deficiency (as in type 1 diabetes). In life, type 2 diabetes that responds positively to insulin therapy is type 3. But this type is not recognized by the health organization, so all cases are divided into types 1 and 2.
This disease is not uncommon. The reason is considered to be an increase in the absorption of iodine in the intestine as a result of 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 when glucose from food is absorbed slowly, but insulin production remains at the proper or elevated 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 should often monitor blood glucose, 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 a timely manner, then, adhering to simple prevention rules, this form will never turn into type 2 diabetes. To prevent this, you should increase physical activity, stick to a diet, control blood glucose.
Labile and stable
You can also find such a wording as "stable and labile diabetes. "So they say both about type 1 diabetes and type 2. Under these terms understand the clinical course of the disease.
Labile diabetes is characterized by a rather severe and unpredictable course. Dramatically changes the level of sugar in the blood 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, the organ of vision. The labile form is characteristic of adolescence.
The stable form is characterized by a uniform course without sudden drops 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. gestatio is pregnancy. The causes of this type of disease have not been reliably established, but the hormones that are produced by the placenta and the body of the expectant mother lead to physiological insulin resistance. There are certain factors that lead to the development of gestational diabetes. These include:
- late pregnancy;
- family diabetes;
- smoking;
- obesity;
- stillbirth in previous pregnancies.
If a woman follows the doctor's instructions, regularly takes tests, then such an unpleasant disease can be avoided. If diabetes has developed, then adequate insulin therapy and hospitalization are prescribed. The patient is monitored 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 childbirth. This diagnosis is valid for 2 months after birth. During this period, a woman needs to continue treatment, but with an adjustment in 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 noted, the diagnosis is corrected and appropriate treatment is prescribed.
Lada diabetes
Latent diabetes mellitus, or lada diabetes, is rarely diagnosed due to its latent course. Lada diabetes has features in relation to other forms.
- Laboratory tests do not reveal this form. The level of glucose on an empty stomach is most often not elevated.
- The first symptoms of the disease appear after 25 years.
- Pregnancy, stress, infectious diseases, rapid weight gain due to adipose tissue can provoke clinical signs.
- Lada diabetes most often occurs in people without obesity.
- The symptoms are similar to those of type 2 diabetes, but in a more subtle form.
- Markers of type 1 diabetes can be detected in the patient's blood.
- Lada diabetes is controlled by diet and intake of hypoglycemic drugs.
To determine lada diabetes, specific tests are carried out, which will be discussed in an article devoted specifically to this condition.
Mody diabetes
Diabetes mody mellitus can rarely be recognized, it is associated with a mutation of certain genes (there are 8 of them). These genes are responsible for the normal structure of insulin or for the optimal development of beta cells. Mody diabetes is characterized as low-progressive, developing in young people (more often children, adolescents).
Among all patients with diabetes, mody diabetes accounts for 2-5% of cases, but the development of the gestational type is associated precisely with genetic mutations. Reliably diagnose mody diabetes is possible only with the help of molecular genetic research.
Features of the flow 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 in type 2 diabetes.
steroid diabetes
Steroid diabetes develops with prolonged use of drugs based on corticosteroids or with hypercortisolism (syndrome, or disease, Itsenko-Cushing). Adrenal hormones have a detrimental effect on the beta cells of the pancreas, resulting in 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 corticoids. This diabetes is treated as type 2 diabetes.
Pancreatic
Pancreatic DM is a secondary disease. It develops as a response to the destruction of the pancreas in pancreatitis, stones in the gallbladder and ducts, after operations on the gland. All these factors lead to a decrease in active beta cells and insulin deficiency. It proceeds like type 1 diabetes.
Other secondary forms
Adrenal, pituitary, thyroid diabetes occur 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.