Tag Archives: LADA

February 21, 2018 · 11:39 AM

Soft Drinks Linked to Doubled Risk of T2 Diabetes and LADA

I enjoy an aspartame-flavored Fresca now and then

I enjoy an aspartame-flavored Fresca now and then

LADA is latent autoimmune diabetes in adults.

This new study is out of Sweden. The potential disease-inducing soft drink dose was 400 ml or 13.5 fl oz per day. In the U.S., a typical soda can is 10 fl oz or 355 ml. Surprisingly, artificially-sweetened soft drinks were just as guilty as regular beverages.

From MNT:

“The study included 2,874 Swedish adults, of whom 1,136 had type 2 diabetes, 357 had LADA, and 1,137 were healthy controls.

The team analyzed the self-reported dietary data of each adult, looking specifically at the number of soft drinks consumed up to 1 year before a diabetes diagnosis. Participants’ insulin resistance levels, beta cell function, and autoimmune response were also measured.

The researchers found that adults who reported drinking at least two 200-milliliter servings of soft drinks a day – whether they contained sugar or artificial sweetener – were twice as likely to develop LADA and 2.4 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, compared with those who consumed fewer than two soft drinks daily.

What is more, adults who consumed five 200-milliliter servings of soft drinks daily were found to be at 3.5 times greater risk of LADA and 10.5 times greater risk of type 2 diabetes, regardless of whether the drinks were sugary or artificially sweetened.”

Source: Diabetes risk doubles with more than two soft drinks daily – Medical News Today

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October 18, 2011 · 1:42 AM

LADA Awareness Week

"Who can tell us about LADA?"

This is the first ever LADA Awareness Week, organized by Diabetes Hands Foundation and dLife.  LADA stands for Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults.  I think of it as type 1 diabetes that starts in adulthood, although there are some differences from typical juvenile-onset type 1 diabetes.

Seven-and-a-half to 10% of apparent type 2 adult diabetics have LADA.  It’s caused by the body attacking its own pancreas beta cells and thereby impairing insulin production; in other words, it’s an autoimmune thing.

Here are some generalities (with exceptions, of course) about LADA, compared to typical type 2 diabetes:

  • lower body mass index, often under 25
  • age at onset under 50
  • poorer response to dietary management
  • poorer response to oral diabetic medications
  • acute symptoms at time of diagnosis (e.g., weight loss, thirst, frequent urination, ketoacidosis, malaise, etc.)
  • higher risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis
  • much more likely to need insulin

How Is LADA Diagnosed?

First of all, the doctor has to consider the possibility, based on the clinical factors above.  The autoimmune nature of the disease is reflected in islet-cell antiobodies (ICA) and antibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (anti-GAD).  These are testable in the blood.  One of the two may be enough.  If the disease is far enough along, blood levels of C-peptide will be low.  C-peptide reflects the body’s production of insulin.

For more information on LADA, talk to your doctor or visit this page at dLife.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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