{"id":44058,"date":"2016-09-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/what-type-of-diabetes-do-i-have\/"},"modified":"2016-10-30T10:54:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T14:54:03","slug":"what-type-of-diabetes-do-i-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058","title":{"rendered":"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

It’s been almost 4 years since my prediabetes diagnosis and I’m still struggling to get my HbA1c down from 6.5%. In layman’s terms, the HbA1c test measures the average of blood sugars over a 3-month period and ideal ranges are high 4s and low 5s. When my GP handed me the UK diabetes guidelines, I immediately doubted the dietary recommendations. This prompted me to question my diet and lifestyle and dive into the \u00a0literature. I thought I was a skinny-fat person and experimented with a vegan diet, inspired by Dr. Neal Barnard’s program for reversing Type 2 diabetes. I started weight training to build more muscle to improve insulin sensitivity and lost a little bit of weight; however, none of this reduced my HbA1c sugar levels from 6.5%. The lowest I’ve been able to get my A1c down is 6.4%, which is when I wrote a post praising veganism, which in hindsight was not a significant improvement at all.<\/p>\n

Last year my cousins put me in touch with a doctor who gave me the best advice. \u00a0He changed my diet from low-fat, high-carb vegan to low-carb, paleo-esque carnivore. He also urged me to buy a glucose monitoring device to get a feel for how certain foods affected my blood sugar, which the NHS told me was not necessary. This was a total game changer for me and as I started measuring my morning fasting blood sugars and my postprandial sugars, I began to notice a few things:<\/p>\n

My blood sugars would go up after I ate, which is normal, but then they stayed elevated all day. In healthy non-diabetics, blood sugars will go up within a healthy range and then return to fasting baseline levels usually 2 hours after eating and with Type 2 diabetics, depending on the severity of insulin resistance, blood sugars should eventually come down at some point after eating. Mine did not and I could never get my blood sugar as low or close to my fasting blood sugar in the mornings.<\/p>\n

My blood sugars would spike when I ate healthy carbs, like beans or sweet potato, even in the recommended portion sizes alongside fat and protein. I noticed the fewer carbs I ate, the better my sugar readings were.\u00a0Sometimes I would eat a low-carb dinner like a large piece of salmon with lots of non-starchy veggies and I would have high blood sugar afterwards and the following morning too.<\/p>\n

I can only hit near normal blood sugar readings by eating a very low-carb diet while keeping my portions small.<\/p>\n

This past May I was introduced to Jessica Apple, founder of the online diabetes magazine A Sweet Life. I started telling her my diabetes story and she asked me, “have you ever been tested for LADA<\/a>?” In all my endless research about Type 2 diabetes, I never came across the phrase LADA or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. LADA is similar to Type 1 in that the pancreas is losing its ability to produce insulin, and overtime will stop altogether, but it’s more gradual. LADAs are often misdiagnosed with Type 2 diabetes because of the age of onset, but LADAs are usually leaner, physically active adults. Hello light bulb!<\/p>\n

I went to NYC in June and immediately paid for Type 1 diabetes testing, which was expensive. I had my C-peptide levels<\/a> measured because this peptide can indicate how much insulin your body is producing. Low levels of C-peptide and insulin paired with high blood sugars usually points to Type 1 diabetes whereas in Type 2 diabetics, you find high blood sugars alongside high C-peptide levels which indicates high insulin levels due to insulin resistance. One exception is someone with advanced Type 2 diabetes which can affect the pancreas’s ability to make insulin. I also tested for GADA and ICA antibodies, which check if the autoimmune system is attacking the pancreas thus killing its ability to make insulin.<\/p>\n

Out of a normal range of 1.1 to 5.0, my fasting C-peptide levels came in at 1.1 and on this day my fasting blood sugar was 104 mg\/dl and my HbA1c was 6.5%. My doctor said that my C-peptide was very low, but my fasting blood sugar was in the prediabetic range and my HbA1c was in the diabetic range. After reviewing my low-carb food diary along with my lab results, my doctor said that my diabetes looked like an autoimmune issue as in Type 1<\/a>. Surprisingly, I tested negative for the antibodies, but according to several diabetic forums this is not uncommon. My doctor thinks I need insulin therapy, but advised me to start working with a diabetes doctor, probably an endocrinologist.<\/p>\n

There’s still more testing to be done and I don’t have all the answers yet, but I finally feel like I have a better grasp on my diabetes. I’ve learned that it’s so important that you do your own homework and research. I would have never gotten to where I am today if I had solely taken my GP’s advice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In all my endless research about Type 2 diabetes, I never came across the phrase LADA or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. LADA is similar to Type 1 in that the pancreas is losing its ability to produce insulin, and overtime will stop altogether, but it’s more gradual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":44059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1587],"tags":[1622,681],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Type of Diabetes Do I Have?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In all my endless research about Type 2 diabetes, I never came across the phrase LADA or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lisa Jordan Hewitt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058\",\"name\":\"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Lisa-Jordan-Hewitt.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-08T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-30T14:54:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/eba6d0d56bb2d858d84b653167cef60d\"},\"description\":\"In all my endless research about Type 2 diabetes, I never came across the phrase LADA or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Lisa-Jordan-Hewitt.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Lisa-Jordan-Hewitt.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\",\"name\":\"ASweetLife\",\"description\":\"The Diabetes Magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/eba6d0d56bb2d858d84b653167cef60d\",\"name\":\"Lisa Jordan Hewitt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1b99de469af1007312c3f28923183d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1b99de469af1007312c3f28923183d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lisa Jordan Hewitt\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=174\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?","description":"In all my endless research about Type 2 diabetes, I never came across the phrase LADA or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lisa Jordan Hewitt","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058","url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058","name":"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Lisa-Jordan-Hewitt.jpg","datePublished":"2016-09-08T04:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-30T14:54:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/eba6d0d56bb2d858d84b653167cef60d"},"description":"In all my endless research about Type 2 diabetes, I never came across the phrase LADA or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Lisa-Jordan-Hewitt.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Lisa-Jordan-Hewitt.jpg","width":1600,"height":1200,"caption":"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44058#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Type of Diabetes Do I Have?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/","name":"ASweetLife","description":"The Diabetes Magazine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/eba6d0d56bb2d858d84b653167cef60d","name":"Lisa Jordan Hewitt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1b99de469af1007312c3f28923183d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1b99de469af1007312c3f28923183d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lisa Jordan Hewitt"},"url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=174"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}