Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

We May Have Been Treating and Diagnosing Diabetes Wrong This Whole Time

We May Have Been Treating and Diagnosing Diabetes Wrong This Whole Time
Endocrinology unit of a hospital, Savoie, France. Diabetic patients are hospitalized for a week to undergo an assessment, evolution of the diabetes, dietary habits and therapeutic education. A nurse teaches a patient who had type 1 diabetes how to use an Omnipo, an insulin pump without tubing, managed with an electronic control unit. (Photo by: BSIP/UIG via Getty Images)

Instead of two types of diabetes, there could actually be five — or even more, which will forever change the way America’s most common metabolic disorder is treated.

For most of medical history, diabetes has been divided into two subgroups—Type 1 and Type 2—but according to new research, that may have been incorrect all along.

A new Scandinavianstudy, recently published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, suggests diabetes could actually be five different, genetically distinct diseases, with potentially different treatments for each.


Diabetes is the most common metabolic disorder in the world, affecting 9.4 percent of Americans and costing the country an estimated $245 billion per year in medical costs and reduced productivity.

Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in childhood and stems from the body’s inability to produce insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that helps move blood sugar into cells rather than allow it to build up in the blood. Type 2 diabetes, which is by far more frequently diagnosed, emerges later in life and is typically related to obesity, inactivity and poor diet leading to insulin resistance over time.

The new potential subtypes uncovered by the researchers include three severe and two mild forms of the disease, with possible causes ranging from autoimmune problems to obesity and age.

Type 1 and 2 diabetes are typically managed with diet, blood sugar monitoring and insulin injections, but identifying potential degrees and causes could lead to more targeted and efficient therapies.

"Evidence suggests that early treatment for diabetes is crucial to prevent life-shortening complications," said researcher Leif Groop of the Lund University Diabetes Centre (LUDC) in Sweden. “More accurately diagnosing diabetes could give us valuable insights into how it will develop over time, allowing us to predict and treat complications before they develop."

For instance, one of the three severe types of diabetes could lead to an increased risk of kidney disease, and another could to retinopathy, or blindness—knowledge of a more specialized diabetes type could allow doctors to take preventative measures on behalf of patients.

“This is definitely the future of how we think about diabetes as a disease,” Dr. Victoria Salem of Imperial College London told the BBC, indicating that there could even be more subgroups than the five identified in the study.

"There is still a massively unknown quantity—it may well be that worldwide there are 500 subgroups depending on genetic and local environment effects. Their analysis has five clusters, but that may grow."

In the meantime, further research is needed, as the study only included 14,775 patients in Sweden and Finland, the possible causes could not be confirmed, and it wasn’t evident whether the diseases changed over time.

"Existing treatment guidelines are limited by the fact they respond to poor metabolic control when it has developed, but do not have the means to predict which patients will need intensified treatment," Groop said. "This study moves us towards a more clinically useful diagnosis, and represents an important step towards precision medicine in diabetes."

Nearly 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes each year. Symptoms of diabetes can be vague, so experts urge anyone to see their doctor if they’re experiencing thirst, increased urination, blurred vision and fatigue, as diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

More from News

Kim Kardashian
Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic

Kim Kardashian Slammed After Participating In Tone-Deaf Tesla Photoshoot For Magazine

Kim Kardashian is in hot water online after appearing in a controversial photo shoot for the Tesla Cybertruck amid Elon Musk's unconstitutional takeover of key functions of the U.S. government.

There has perhaps never been a poorer reading of the room. Despite what most Republicans appear to think (Kardashian included it would seem), the Tesla CEO is broadly disliked by the majority of Americans according to recent polling.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dropkick Murphys in concert
Debbie Hickey/Getty Images

Dropkick Murphys Singer Rips Trump And Musk's 'Cult' Followers In Epic Rant In Boston

If you're a Dropkick Murphys fan wearing MAGA apparel and you're spotted by frontman Ken Casey at one of their shows, it won't end well for you.

The pro-union, anti-Trump punk band is notorious for singling out MAGA fans attending their shows and calling them out for being devotees of Republican President Donald Trump.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump and Navajo code talkers
Brendan Simalowski/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Blasted After Military Scrubs WWII Navajo Code Talkers From Websites Due To 'DEI'

The Department of Defense and the U.S. Army have been widely criticized after they removed materials from their websites about the World War II Navajo Code Talkers, who from 1942 to 1945 played a crucial role in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific, using their unbreakable code to secure communications.

News outlets found that at least 10 articles about the Code Talkers had vanished from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites as of Monday. The Defense Department’s URLs had been modified to include the letters "DEI," indicating they may have been removed following President Trump’s executive order dismantling federal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jasmine Mooney
Global News

Canadian 'American Pie' Star Speaks Out After She Was Detained By ICE For 12 Days

Canadian actor and businesswoman Jasmine Mooney returned to Vancouver on March 15 after she was detained and transferred three times to different detention centers for roughly two weeks by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mooney, who is known for American Pie Presents: The Book of Love and iZombie was detained on March 3 after she tried to reapply for a work visa at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego where her lawyer was.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dr. Timothy Snyder; Marjorie Taylor Greene
@edkrassen/X

MTG Gets Schooled By Holocaust Historian After Unfounded Claim About 'Nazis In Ukraine' In Resurfaced Clip

A resurfaced video from 2024 reminded social media users of the time Yale historian and best-selling author Dr. Timothy Snyder gave Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene a blunt fact-check after she touted the rise of "Nazis in Ukraine" during a recent congressional hearing.

The video is more relevant than ever following a contentious White House meeting last month between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Vice President J.D. Vance. The meeting turned heated when Vance berated Zelenskyy, leading the Ukrainian president to leave without signing an agreement for U.S. security guarantees in exchange for access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.

Keep ReadingShow less