Aug 11 2008
Understanding Diabetes
Understanding diabetes means knowing how the hormone insulin usually controls your blood glucose level and what happens inside your body when this control breaks down. There are different types of diabetes, but in each type glucose accumulates in your blood to a level that could be harmful to your health. Whether you develop diabetes, and which type you develop, is the result of a combination of inherited and environmental factors.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition in which your body cannot control the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood because your pancreas does not produce insulin, does not produce enough insulin, or your body cells. Therefore, when your blood glucose level rises, the glucose cannot get deprived of their usual source of energy. Your body responds by trying to eliminate excess glucose from your blood and by using fat and protein of energy. This disrupts your bodily processes and can cause some of the diabetes symptoms.
How the healthy body uses glucose
When you eat carbohydrate foods or sugar, they are broken down into glucose during digestion. Glucose moves from the intestines into the bloodstream and then enters the body’s cells where it is burned as fuel – it powers your entire body, from the muscles to the brain, and is the body’s primary source of energy. Glucose is also scored in the liver and muscles in the form of glycogen.
Two of the main hormones that control blood glucose are insulin and glucagon. Both are produced in the pancreas, a gland that lies behind the stomach. There are clusters of cells in the pancreas called the islets of Langerhans; within these are two types of hormone-producing cells, alpha and beta cells: alpha cells produce glucagon; beta cells produce insulin.
There is a constant background level of insulin in your body but when your blood glucose level rises – after eating, for example – extra insulin is released by your beta cells. Insulin acts like a key, unlocking body cells so that glucose can enter. When your blood glucose level falls – after a period without food, for example – your alpha cells release more glucagon, which converts glycogen in your liver back to glucose.
This enters your bloodstream and your blood glucose level rises again. Insulin and glucagon work together constantly in this way to ensure that your blood glucose level stays within a close range of 4-6 millimoles of glucose per liter of blood. As a result, whether you have eaten a lot of carbohydrate or a little, your body has the constant supply of energy it needs to work properly.
What goes wrong in diabetes?
When you have diabetes, the finely tuned system that regulates blood glucose fails because you don’t produce insulin, or you don’t produce enough of it, or your body is resistant to insulin. As a result, glucose cannot pass into your cells to be burned for energy, so it builds up in the blood. This leads to an abnormally high blood glucose level.
A high blood glucose level
When you have a raised blood glucose level you may experience diabetes symptoms such as passing large amounts of urine and excessive thirst. This is because your body removes excess glucose by filtering it through your kidneys and into your urine (the thirst is a result of dehydration).
Also, because your body cannot use glucose properly for energy, it obtains energy by breaking down your muscle and fat stores. This can cause weight loss and, in the case of rapid fat breakdown, toxic chemicals building up in your blood. Unfortunately a raised blood glucose level does not always produce diabetic symptoms, and only a blood glucose test can tell you that it is high.
A blood glucose level that is consistently high over a period of years can damage the body’s tissues, leading to complications involving your eyes, kidneys, feet, heart, blood vessels, and nerves.
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