Normally it was believed that diabetes has two types – type 1 and type 2. However in a new change of events, research shows that the disease is actually of five types rather than two.
Diabetes occurs when there are extremely high levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood. Researchers from Finland and Sweden conducted a study published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. They examined 14,775 patients along with a detailed analysis of their blood and concluded that diabetic patients could be separated in five different clusters.
According to BBC, Cluster 1 of diabetes, the severe autoimmune diabetes, is same as type 1 that happens to young people making them unable to produce insulin. The Cluster 2, also the type 2 of diabetes, severe insulin-deficient diabetes, is a bit similar to the first cluster and hits young people with normal weight and struggled to make insulin, but the immune system was not the cause of the disease. The third cluster, severe insulin-resistant diabetes, hits overweight people that do make insulin but the body stops responding to it.
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Mild obesity-related diabetes, Cluster 4 is the milder form and was found in obese people but metabolically much closer to normal than those in cluster 3. In the last, Cluster 5, mild age-related diabetes, patients developed symptoms when they were considerably older than in other groups and their disease tended to be milder.
The first cluster was similar to type 1 diabetes, while the other four were the ‘subtypes’ to type 2. The first three clusters are considered to be severe forms of the disease, while the rest two and milder ones, according to Live Science.
One of the researchers, Prof Leif Groop informed, “This is extremely important, we’re taking a real step towards precision medicine. The three severe forms could be treated more aggressively than the two milder ones.”
Moreover, the researchers believe that in future, these clusters might grow. Different researchers suggest that understanding the disease could lead to personalize treatments, reducing the risk of diabetes-related complications.