Thursday, March 1, 2018

Scientists say diabetes is five separate diseases, and treatment could be tailored to each form

Diabetes is actually five separate diseases, research suggests
By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent
BBC News

The results, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, showed the patients could be separated into five distinct clusters.

Cluster 1 - severe autoimmune diabetes is broadly the same as the classical type 1 - it hit people when they were young, seemingly healthy and an immune disease left them unable to produce insulin

Cluster 2 - severe insulin-deficient diabetes patients initially looked very similar to those in cluster 1 - they were young, had a healthy weight and struggled to make insulin, but the immune system was not at fault

Cluster 3 - severe insulin-resistant diabetes patients were generally overweight and making insulin but their body was no longer responding to it

Cluster 4 - mild obesity-related diabetes was mainly seen in people who were very overweight but metabolically much closer to normal than those in cluster 3

Cluster 5 - mild age-related diabetes patients developed symptoms when they were significantly older than in other groups and their disease tended to be milder

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