Type 5 Diabetes

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https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/09/29/g-s1-90669/neglected-form-of-diabetes-with-unusual-symptoms-finally-gets-its-own-name

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I found it interesting that they determined there were five different types of diabetes. Had to look them all up! It was interesting that most sites don’t list the actual numbers just the various types.

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There are actually 159 types now!

I figured everyone was getting their own version, so I decided I should have my own too!

This has been in my FUD profile since 2020.

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From the article:

It chose the name Type 5 as uncontested territory, since there are ongoing efforts to label other forms of diabetes as Types 3 and 4.

So there isn’t an agreed definition for Type 3 or Type 4 diabetes.

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Wow- I know it’s not LADA and is caused by malnutrition but this paragraph in the article basically summed up my entire experience with the first few years of LADA.

That leaves people with Type 5 diabetes in a weird spot. They can produce some insulin and their cells respond to it (unlike people with Type 2 diabetes, whose cells are often resistant to insulin), but they can’t make quite enough to normally regulate their blood sugar.

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It’s generally accepted that some people in the “T2” grabbag have a detectably impaired "first stage post-prandial insulin response”. This means that they don’t produce enough insulin when they eat to zap the BG down. This results in a temporary high followed by eventual return to 80mg/dL.

It’s clearly a “type” but what number it is who knows?

So the rest of this is about @CatLady’s original NPR quote and the underlying misassumptions:

I think the problem starts with the word “diabetes”. It’s semantically the same as “headache”. It’s a symptom. So the dudes start with everyone having a headache and try to come up with numbers:

  1. Type 1 headache: Hit on the head in a Peaky Blinders episode with a stilson.
  2. Type 2 headache: Drank too many pints in Birmingham.
  3. Type 3 headache: Played politics in 1939 and lost.

Etc. Start at the wrong end, get the wrong answer.

TANSTAD: They’r Aint No Such Thing As Diabetes

Oh [NPR], never use the word “malnourished” when you don’t want to insult people. It just cancels an otherwise valid argument because it is inherently judgmental.