What Is LADA?

LADA: Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults

Here are 10 facts and quick tips to help you understand latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA):

1. There are more than two types of diabetes.

LADA is a term used in the medical community for slow-moving type 1 diabetes diagnosed in adulthood. "In the past, type 1 was associated with kids, which is why we called it juvenile diabetes," says endocrinologist James McCallum, M.D., of the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. But as type 2 started showing up in children, researchers began to learn it wasn't limited to adults--and type 1 wasn't limited to young people. "Now we recognize that there is a small subset of adults [diagnosed] with type 1 diabetes," McCallum says.