TAGS
The main difference between Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) and Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults (LADA) is that people with LADA usually have various autoimmune antibodies, like GAD antibodies and islet antibodies that are markers for autoimmune disease. People with LADA also have low C-peptide or fasting insulin test results.
People with LADA see their blood sugars deteriorate much more swiftly than people with MODY, too. If your doctor tells you that you are a Type 2 but none of the Type 2 drugs help and your blood sugar deteriorates very swiftly over the next year, you need to be tested for GAD-antibodies and treated as if you were a Type 1 diabetic. If your doctor doesn’t understand this you must find one who does, ideally one who has expertise in treating Type 1 diabetes.
MODY diabetes, in contrast, often shows up in adolescence or during a first pregnancy, it has a much slower progress and there are NO GAD-antibodies present. People with the most common MODY syndrome may also have normal fasting C-peptide results because the flaw in this case is in the secretion of insulin in response to rising glucose and fasting secretion is still near normal.
If you are a thin person diagnosed with diabetes that is not controlled perfectly with diet and exercise you need antibody testing and either a C-peptide or fasting insulin test. Based on these findings you should be able to get a good diagnosis.
As with all forms of diabetes the most important thing you can do is keep your blood sugar as close to the normal range as possible. High blood sugars damage your organs no matter what kind of diabetes you have. So you will still want to strive for healthy blood sugar targets. The more normal your blood sugars, the less likely you are to develop complications.
.
