Posted by 
In childhood, almost all diabetes is as a result of type 1 diabetes. After 30 years of age there’s a dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes and type 1 represents less than 5 percent of all cases of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age. Doctors need to be alert to the possibility of type 1 diabetes in situations where patients rapidly fail oral therapies.
According to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that leads the immune system to attack the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, Insulin plays a key role in metabolism by ushering sugars into the body’s cells to be used as fuel.
But the autoimmune attack leaves people unable to produce enough insulin. Without insulin injections- using shots or an insulin pump type 1 diabetics couldn’t survive. The exact cause of type 2 diabetes is unknown, but excess weight and genetics are known to play a role.
People with type 2 diabetes don’t use insulin properly. This makes the body produce more and more insulin. Eventually, the pancreas is unable to keep up, and people with type 2 may need insulin injections. However, type 2 can often be managed with lifestyle changes and oral medications.
The current study looked at almost 600 people diagnosed with diabetes after age 30 who needed to take insulin. They were diagnosed between 2007 and 2017. The researchers also looked at a group of 220 people diagnosed before 30.
Twenty-one percent of those diagnosed after age 30 were found to have severe insulin deficiency, which researchers said confirmed a diagnosis of type 1. In this group, nearly 40 percent weren’t given insulin when they were first diagnosed. Almost half of the type 1 group said they had type 2 diabetes.
Managing type 1 diabetes as type 2 diabetes can result in rapid deterioration of a patient’s health and development of a potentially life-threatening condition called diabetic ketoacidosis.