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.