The Hidden Diabetes Epidemic – Meet Type 5 - AI Podcast
Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health
Briana Mercola
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Story at-a-glance
- Type 5 diabetes is a newly recognized form of diabetes caused by lifelong malnutrition that damages the pancreas and prevents it from making enough insulin
- This condition affects lean individuals, typically young men with a BMI under 19, who have no excess fat, no autoimmune markers and no signs of insulin resistance, but still have dangerously high blood sugar
- Because it doesn’t fit the standard profiles for Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, Type 5 is often misdiagnosed and mistreated, leading to severe complications or death
- Metabolic studies show these patients absorb sugar efficiently and respond to insulin well, but their pancreas cannot produce enough of it due to early protein deficiency
- Addressing the root causes, like poor mitochondrial health, toxin exposure, and low carb tolerance, helps improve insulin production and blood sugar regulation, especially for the more common Type 2 diabetes
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you were lean, undernourished for most of your life, and told you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, |
| 0:07.0 | how certain are you the treatment fits? |
| 0:10.0 | Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries |
| 0:15.0 | of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. No reading required. |
| 0:19.0 | Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights. Hello and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular |
| 0:26.1 | wisdom. Today we examine Type 5 diabetes, a malnutrition-related form now formally recognized. I'm Ethan |
| 0:34.5 | Foster, joined by Alara Sky, who brings a natural health focus. We'll outline what |
| 0:39.2 | defines type 5, why it's different, and what practical steps you can take whether you face it |
| 0:44.4 | directly or work with affected communities. Type 5 has been missed for decades, yet mistreatment can be |
| 0:51.1 | deadly. Lifelong malnutrition impairs your pancreas, |
| 0:54.8 | leaving you without enough insulin even though the usual causes of diabetes aren't present. |
| 0:59.8 | Blood sugar climbs and stays high. You see type 5 mainly in young, chronically undernourished men |
| 1:05.5 | in low and middle income countries. They're lean, often with a body mass index under 19, yet carry dangerously high blood |
| 1:13.5 | sugar that often persists despite limited medical care. Key absences matter. No autoimmune markers, |
| 1:20.3 | no insulin resistance pattern typical of type 2, and despite severe hyperglycemia, little or no |
| 1:27.3 | ketosis or ketonuria. |
| 1:30.0 | Because it defies the common templates, many are misdiagnosed. |
| 1:33.8 | High-dose insulin given for presumed type 1 can provoke severe hypoglycemia where food is scarce, |
| 1:39.6 | and the cost of unnecessary insulin can drain family resources. |
| 1:44.0 | The International Diabetes Federation now classifies this condition as |
| 1:48.0 | Type 5 after discussion at its World Diabetes Congress in Bangkok |
| 1:53.0 | and years of supporting data from clinics and metabolic studies. |
... |
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