What's Type 4 Diabetes?

From health.usnews.com

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention defines diabetes as a chronic (long-lasting) health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy. We are most familiar with prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes, Type 1 diabetes and gestational diabetes. 

But there have been more variations of diabetes discovered. Two newer diabetes diagnosis are MODY (maturity onset diabetes of the young) and LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults). In fact, they are so new that they are often misdiagnosed.

The Most Common Types of Diabetes

As a review, here’s a brief summary of the most common types of diabetes:

• Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition. People diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin because their immune system has attacked the insulin producing cells in the pancreas blocking production of insulin.
  
• Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which the body becomes resistant to using insulin properly and efficiently. Over time people with Type 2 diabetes may stop making enough insulin, becoming insulin deficient. Type 2 diabetes is associated with genetic and lifestyle factors.
  
• Gestational diabetes is a temporary condition where higher levels of hormones during pregnancy lower the body’s sensitivity to insulin leading to blood sugar levels that are out of target range.
• • Maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is yet another type of diabetes that is directly attributable to a genetic condition. MODY occurs before 25 years of age.
    
  • Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is considered an “other type of diabetes” because it doesn’t follow the same metabolic path as Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes but has characteristics of bot. People who are diagnosed with LADA tend to be over age 35 and have a family history of autoimmunity, but they continue to produce some insulin naturally in contrast to Type 1 diabetes.
    
  • Type 3 diabetes is an anomaly, often linked with Alzheimer’s disease. This type is not an official diabetes diagnosis, nor is it currently used in the health care system. The theory is that insulin resistance in the brain is part of the progression with Alzheimer’s disease.

  But could there be more types of diabetes on this growing list?

• Type 4 Diabetes

  Sit back and read on because there is yet another new diabetes to add to this list, referred to as “Type 4” Diabetes. Type 4 diabetes is not diabetes as we know, and it isn’t an official diagnosis yet. But there are some findings in mice that have revealed an interesting twist to a potentially new diabetes diagnosis.

  Unlike Type 2 diabetes or Type 1 diabetes, “Type 4” diabetes is not associated with excess body weight or a deficiency of insulin. Rather, the condition is connected to age related insulin resistance in lean, older mice which appears to be caused by a variation in the accumulation of certain immune system cells.

• By comparing the immune systems of healthy mice, obese mice with Type 2 diabetes and certain lean, older mice with “age-related diabetes,” researchers at the Salk Institute discovered the older, lean mice had abnormally high levels of T-regulatory immune cells accumulating in fat tissue. This condition was leading to unnatural accumulations of internal fat in areas such as the liver causing insulin resistance similar to Type 2 diabetes. Importantly, blocking the accumulation of T-regulatory cells in older mice prevented the development of this “Type 4” diabetes.

  The concern is that if this same insulin resistance pathway is occurring in older, lean humans, their diabetes may go undiagnosed because they don’t have the “standard” obesity risk factor for Type 2 diabetes even while the researchers have already identified an effective treatment. The work to survey older people who may experience this variation of diabetes is underway.

  At this moment in time, we aren’t able to make any solid recommendations on how to prevent changes in T-regulatory cells that are associated with Type 4 diabetes. Even though this potential Type 4 diabetes is unrelated to an increase in body weight, we continue to recommend following a healthy lifestyle, no matter what age. With all the more common types of diabetes, a healthy lifestyle is part of the equation of diabetes management.

  Healthy lifestyle includes:
  

  • Engaging in physically active.
  • Following a healthy, balanced eating plan.
  • Maintaining a healthy weight.

  https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/whats-type-4-diabetes