What Is Double Diabetes?
When a person has elements of both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, they have what we call "double diabetes" (or hybrid diabetes). This is a relatively new phenomenon that can occur when:
- A child with type 1 diabetes becomes overweight and develops the basic feature of type 2 diabetes and obesity namely, the body becoming resistant to insulin.
- A child with type 2 diabetes has one of the key features of type 1 – namely, the presence of antibodies in the blood caused by the destruction of the beta cells of the pancreas that produce insulin.
Double diabetes is caused by the apparent overlap of the features of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Double diabetes can be present at the time of diabetes diagnosis, making it difficult to diagnose which type of diabetes a person has. Some children with type 1 diabetes develop some of the features of type 2 several years after they are diagnosed.
More and more, people with type 1 diabetes are developing features of type 2 diabetes. Most often this occurs when a person with type 1 diabetes becomes overweight and inactive and when they have a family history of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Last Updated: Wednesday February 01, 2017 18:53:09
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