Question from Orange County, California, USA:

Four years ago, at age 32, I had an elevated fasting blood sugar reading, 132 mg/dl [7.3 mmol/L] on a life insurance exam. My A1c came back on subsequent testing at 10.2. I am male, Caucasian, 5 feet, 10 inches, 150 pounds. All further tests (antibodies, GAD, etc.) for type 1 came back negative.

I adjusted my diet and began an exercise plan. Since that time, I have had A1cs every three months which have always come back under 6.0. My fasting blood sugar, which I test every morning, remains elevated, between 115 mg/dl [6.4 mmol/L] and 155 mg/dl [8.6 mmol/L], consistently. In terms of different times throughout the day, if I eat low carbohydrate meals, my two hour postprandial blood sugar is below 120 mg/dl [6.7 mmol/L]. Alternatively, if I eat a excessively high carbohydrate meal, I will have a reading of over 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L].

I tested the fasting blood sugar of my 60-year-old mother and 23-year-old sister. Both are thin and exercise regularly as well. Their blood sugars were 133 mg/dl [7.4 mmol/L] and 148 mg/dl [8.2 mmol/L], respectively. But, their A1c tests came back less than 6.0, also. On an oral glucose tolerance test, my blood sugar hit 320 mg/dl [17.8 mmol/L] at the two hour mark.

What in the world type of diabetes do I have? Could it be MODY? I have read all of the profiles for every type and it just doesn’t seem that I fit within any of them.