Lance Bass Talks Of How His Type 1.5 Diabetes Was Misdiagnosed

You could say that Lance Bass’s doctors for a while were not completely in sync with what was affecting the *NSYNC star. Five years ago, Bass—the singer, dancer, actor, podcaster and film and television producer who first rose to fame around 2000 as the bass singer for the legendary boy band—received a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and began taking prescribed medications. But the medications didn’t seem to adequately control his blood sugar levels or symptoms. It wasn’t until six months ago that Bass was able to say bye, bye, bye to the original diagnosis and plan. He instead had Type 1.5 diabetes, which would require a different treatment approach.

“I was originally misdiagnosed,” Bass, who is now 45 years old, told me during a recent interview. “None of the meds were working. I had to do extensive research and go to three different docs.” Now that he is on the right treatment track, he has partnered with Dexcom—which manufactures continuous glucose monitors—to raise awareness for not just Type 1.5 diabetes but also diabetes in general and checking your blood sugar levels more frequently.

Type 1.5 diabetes is another name for latent autoimmune diabetes in adults or LADA. It’s dubbed 1.5 because LADA has characteristics of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. In Type 1 diabetes, your body produces antibodies that then destroy the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin. Although Type 1 diabetes can emerge at any age, it most often manifests during one of two age windows: 4 to 7 or 10 to 14 years of age.

If you somehow think that insulin is a no strings attached thing, you’d be wrong. Think of insulin as a concert ticket that allows glucose—an important source of energy for your cells—to move from your bloodstream into your cells. Without adequate levels of insulin, glucose instead hangs out in your bloodstream, pushing up your blood sugar levels. High blood sugar levels can end up damaging blood vessels throughout your body that can lead to major issues like kidney problems, retinopathy, stroke, and coronary artery disease, which could be tearing up your heart for real. Plus, without an adequate sugar supply to your body’s cells, your body can go into a life-threatening state called diabetes-related ketoacidosis (DKA). Therefore, those with Type 1 diabetes need to get insulin via another means such as from injections.

Type 2 diabetes can emerge at any age, as well, but typically is diagnosed at age 45 or older. Unlike Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes is not considered to be an autoimmune disorder. Instead Type 2 diabetes results when your pancreas’s ability to produce insulin begins to wane and the cells in your liver, muscles and fat become less responsive to insulin. So, it’s more like your pancreas is producing fewer concert tickets and your cells are no longer accepting those tickets as readily. Type 2 diabetes tends to progress more gradually and those with Type 2 diabetes may not need insulin for a while, if ever. Nonetheless, Type 2 diabetes can lead to debilitating and life-threatening problems as well, especially when not properly managed.

LADA is like Type 1 diabetes in that it’s an autoimmune disorder with antibodies attacking the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. But all the bad stuff in Type 1.5—the damage to the insulin-producing cells, the symptoms, and the need for insulin—tends to occur more gradually over a more delayed timeline compared to Type 1 diabetes. occurs and the symptoms emerge more gradually. Typically, Type 1.5 diabetes isn’t diagnosed until sometime after age 30. Therefore, it’s progression can mimic that of Type 2 diabetes, hence the possibility of a Type 2 misdiagnosis. In fact, this may happen in 4 to 12% of those originally classified as Type 2, according to Stat Pearls.

A challenge is that traditional methods of diagnosing diabetes may not readily distinguish what’s happening. Bass recalled that he was first told that he was “pre-diabetic” after he has seen his doctor, who had ordered routine lab tests, and his hemoglobin A1C came back in “the 7.5 to 8 range.” Bass didn’t expect such a diagnosis—or perhaps pre-diagnosis—since he had spent much of his career staying in shape as a dancer and trying to eat well. So, he didn’t take much action on that until he began “feeling very lethargic. I couldn’t out of bed at times.” His husband then reminded Bass of the “pre-diabetic” concerns and six months later his hemoglobin A1C was elevated even more around 10. That’s when he got the Type 2 diabetes diagnosis, which several years later got re-classified.

Bass did point out that not everyone agrees with the Type 1.5 designation in general and that some will even get upset when he mentions “Type 1.5.” The argument is that Type 1.5 is simply Type 1 diabetes emerging later in life so that there may not be a need to make any distinction between the two. But the extra 0.5 in the 1.5 name is a reminder that the course and thus management of LADA is different. “I will be fully Type 1 soon,” Bass explained.

Bass now regularly uses the Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system to track his blood sugar levels continuously. The CGM allows him to see what happens to these levels after he’s eaten different food items and then tailor his diet accordingly. For example, he said, “I love my bread,” but has seen how his blood sugar levels spike after eating bread and how spikes are less after brown rice rather then white rice.

There are certainly more than 1.5 reasons to keep track of what your blood sugar may do throughout the day after different foods and under different circumstances. Dexcom Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jake Leach explained how CGM allows you to follow your blood sugars without finger sticks, which makes it easier and more accessible. He added, “We’re actually seeing use of CGM beyond diabetes because a continuous glucose sensor is a ‘perfect window’ into your metabolic health.” You could say that Bass is in a better place with his more proper diagnosis and greater ability to manage his diabetes on a day to day basis.