MODY: Is it as rare as we think?

Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young or, MODY, for short. 

Have you ever heard of it? Neither had I until my type 1 diabetes diagnosis. You see, at my diagnosis, I wasn’t in DKA and required very little insulin for a very long time. This led to some more in depth lab work, including very expensive genetic testing, to rule out a form of diabetes called ‘MODY.’ Spoiler alert, I did have type 1 diabetes after all and just caught it super early, but this period of time waiting for lab results led to lots of research. 

MODY is a genetic form of diabetes. It’s far too complicated to explain completely here, so I’ve linked a good resource below for your reference. In short, MODY is caused by a mutation on one of eleven different genes. These mutations impact many different organs in the body and ultimately lead to elevated glucose levels, thus, diabetes. 

MODY, unlike T1D, can sometimes be treated with medications besides insulin but I’m many cases, the patient requires insulin to maintain normal blood sugars. MODY is a “rare” form of diabetes, but some data is showing that many people with a diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes may be misdiagnosed as MODY is under tested for. If your diabetes has never fit into the normal box and you have a heavy family history of diabetes, it’s worth checking into! 

Meet Kylie (@mylifewithmody). Kylie is a sweet customer of ours who is living with a form of MODY. Kylie has documented her journey with MODY on Instagram, helping raise awareness for this lesser known form of diabetes. We love Kylie’s posts and, of course, we love to see her rocking her Peelz apparel and stickers for her Dexcom G6 CGM. 

Have you ever heard of MODY? 

https://diatribe.org/mody-genetic-diabetes-affects-people-young-age