PM’s false diabetes diagnosis ‘is common’
MANY CASES of Type 1 diabetes diagnosed after the age of 30 are being misdiagnosed as Type 2, leading to delays in receiving appropriate treatment, research has suggested.
Scientists at the University of Exeter said Prime Minister Theresa May is a high-profile example of someone who was initially diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, only to later return to her doctors when her treatment did not work and find she had Type 1.
Type 1 diabetes is characterised by the rapid and severe loss of insulin production due to the cells in the pancreas which produce the hormone being attacked and destroyed by the body’s own immune system.
Individuals with the disease lose the ability to make their own insulin and therefore require regular doses of insulin to control their blood glucose, and, unlike many people with Type 2 diabetes, cannot manage their condition through diet, exercise and blood sugar monitoring alone.
Type 2 diabetes is more common than Type 1, with around 90 per cent of all adults with diabetes in the UK having Type 2.
For their study, researchers characterised Type 1 diabetes as being the rapid onset of insulin dependence within three years of initial diagnosis, together with a severe deficiency of insulin production by the pancreas.
They analysed a population cohort of 583 individuals who had insulin-treated diabetes that had been diagnosed after the age of 30.