Adult Onset Diabetes: A Former Name for Type 2 Diabetes
Over
the past two decades or so, you may have noticed that diabetes
has gained a lot more attention from the medical community,
the media, and the public. The reasons for this are two-fold:
first, scientists have made excellent progress in understanding
diabetes, and second, there have been more cases of type
2, or adult onset diabetes, than ever before. As knowledge
about diabetes has become modernized, so have the terms
used to describe diabetes.
Some
prime examples of these are the terms used to name each
type of diabetes. What was once known as adult onset diabetes
is now known as type 2 diabetes.
Juvenile diabetes is now called type 1 diabetes. Renaming
the different types of diabetes became necessary because
the former names gave a false impression about the illness.
More specifically, a person can get juvenile or adult onset
diabetes at any time during their lives. You don’t
have to be a child to get juvenile diabetes; likewise, children
can get adult onset diabetes. For reference, here are the
main types of diabetes, their former names, and the main
condition of each:
Type
1 Diabetes (formerly known as childhood-onset diabetes,
juvenile diabetes, and insulin dependent diabetes): an autoimmune
disease in which the body’s immune system attacks
the body’s method of producing insulin. Once the body
can no longer make insulin, injections of insulin are needed
daily to live.
Type
2 Diabetes (formerly known as adult onset diabetes, obesity
related diabetes, and non-insulin dependent diabetes): the
body does not produce enough insulin or the body’s
cells ignore the insulin in the bloodstream. Type 2 diabetes
accounts for at least 90 percent of all diabetes cases and
is usually accompanied by risk factors such as obesity,
family history, and a sedentary lifestyle.
Type
3 Diabetes: this is not an official medical term, but other
forms of diabetes have been variously described as “type
3 diabetes” including gestational
diabetes (being diabetic while pregnant), insulin dependent
type 2 diabetes, latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA),
double diabetes (having both type 1 and type 2), and even
Alzheimer’s disease.
Type
2 diabetes, or adult onset diabetes, shows the most potential
in being controlled or prevented through changes in lifestyle,
diet, and diabetes weight
loss. Unfortunately, what was once called “adult
onset diabetes” is now being diagnosed more frequently
in adolescents and children, likely because of weight gain
and lack of exercise in younger generations.
|