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Maturity Onset Diabetes Of The Young (MODY) is a rare,
inherited kind of diabetes mellitus, which occurs from a mutation in a single
gene in one’s DNA that helps regulate the production of insulin. Insulin is a
hormone that is needed to help glucose get from your blood into your body’s cells
to produce energy. Glucose is sugar that your body gets from the food you eat.
Maturity Onset Diabetes Of The Young is a dominant genetic,
lifelong condition. If any of the parents has this specific gene mutation, their
children have a 50% chance of inheriting it from them and if that happens, the
children most likely will develop MODY regardless of their lifestyle, ethnic
group, or weight. In many cases, the disease reaches across more than one
generation, affecting adolescents and young adults before they reach 25 years
of age.
The symptoms of MODY usually appear slowly and resemble those
of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Sometimes, the symptoms do not show at all,
depending on what gene is affected. Among the signs of MODY are high blood
sugar, excessive hunger and thirst, frequent urination, weight loss, blurry
vision, recurring skin and yeast infections, and fatigue.
Because of MODY’s similarities in clinical appearance with
other types of diabetes, up to 95% of Maturity Onset Diabetes Of The Young get
misdiagnosed as type 1 and type 2 diabetes. As the first step in diagnosing
MODY, your doctor may take a blood sugar test. If the result indicates
diabetes, the doctor has to determine what type of diabetes you have by taking
into consideration your family history, a combination of symptoms and additional
tests, including a genetic test, by which MODY can be diagnosed. The genetic
test will help to find out if there is a mutation in one of the genes and
therefore, determine if you have MODY, as well as the exact type of MODY that
you have, all of which can be accomplished even before you develop any symptoms.
Getting the right diagnosis is very important because treatments for type 1 and
type 2 diabetes as well as for different types of MODY can vary significantly.
The effective treatment for MODY 1, 3, and 4 is sulfonylureas
– a diabetic drug that boosts insulin production in pancreas. MODY 3 can be
initially controlled with diet and later treated with sulfonylureas and then
eventuallywith insulin. In some cases,
insulin injections can be a better treatment for people diagnosed with MODY 1
and 4 as well.
MODY 2 is the mildest form Maturity Onset Diabetes Of The
Young. It can be successfully treated with exercise and diet and no medications
are usually needed.
The treatment for MODY 5 and 6 is insulin. MODY 5 is one of
the rarest and most dangerous forms Maturity Onset Diabetes Of The Young. It
may damage internal organs, such as kidneys, and a proper treatment for
complications like kidney failure and kidney cysts might be necessary. MODY 6
is also very rare, but it mostly develops at about 40 years of age.
Other types of MODY have been discovered
relatively recently and require more studies to be conducted to determine the
most possible outcomes as well as the best treatment options.
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