In treating prediabetes before the disease becomes full-blown, the key to success is early detection. The discovery of diabetic antibodies in the early 1980s was an enormous breakthrough, as it was discovered that early onset type 1 diabetes is actually an autoimmune disorder, with the body attacking its own cells. It was found that the presence of these antibodies (and autoantibodies) can be used to predict the onset of type 1 diabetes. Diabetic antibodies are proteins in the blood that detect and go after bacteria and viruses in the body. Unfortunately, they can sometimes malfunction and attack the body’s systems, and are then called autoantibodies. In the case of type 1 diabetes, islet beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin can be attacked and destroyed by these autoantibodies. This is helpful for seeing very early signs of diabetes, as these diabetic antibodies and autoantibodies have been discovered in 95% of children that had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. They are found even before any symptoms of prediabetes appear, making early treatment possible. A blood test is used to identify these autoantibodies. This can also be used to manage type 2 diabetes, as the presence of these autoantibodies makes it far more likely that the person will require insulin in the future for proper blood glucose management.
LADA Diabetes – What Is It?
Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood (LADA), is also known as the “in between” diabetes, sometimes labeled as type 1.5 diabetes. While it starts out to appear as type 2 (responding to oral diabetes drugs), eventually those drugs stop working, and patients must start to use insulin. Their condition changes from type 2 to type 1 diabetes. People who have LADA have higher levels of the diabetic antibodies, as well as the self-attacking autoantibodies. Eventually, the autoantibodies overpower the antibodies, and they destroy the cells that help produce insulin. This is when the disease changes from type 2 to type 1 diabetes. Monitoring these antibodies and autoantibodies can predict the course of the disease, enabling more precise treatment. It is not a perfect predictive tool, as diet and weight are the most important risk factors for type 2 diabetes, but it’s one more indicator that can be used.
Risk Factors and Diabetes Treatments
While diabetic antibodies (and autoantibodies) help make early diabetes detection possible, some people may have them and never develop the disease. Poor diet and obesity, the major risk factors, have nothing to do with the immune system, and these can be addressed with sensible lifestyle changes – eating healthier foods, drinking plenty of water, cutting unhealthy fats and sugars from your diet, stopping smoking and limiting alcohol consumption, and daily exercise.
