How Come Diabetes Is Considered As Undersecretion Of Insulin?
Posted in Definition on 23. Feb, 2010
so yeah, can someone give me a not so confusing answer for it? What i was thinking was since Insulin stimulates glucose uptake by cells & diabetes is high blood sugar, wouldn’t it be oversecretion? i don’t understand why it’s the other way around. Im not great when it comes to science, but i try to put effort into the stuff i do.
A simple answer – Because that what it is!
Insulin helps the body metabolize sugar. When it is under produced, the sugar is not metabolized and its levels remain high in the body.
Great description JS. But I’d like to make a small correction: uptake isn’t really getting “rid” of glucose, it’s when the muscles and liver take in glucose and convert it into glucogen for safe storage. Insulin “instructs” your liver and muscles to pull glucose out of your blood and store it as glycogen. That’s what causes the reduction of glucose- it’s been converted to glycogen. At the same time, insulin also causes your body’s fat cells to pull lipids (blood fats) out of your blood and store them as triglycerides, but that’s the story of blood fats, not blood sugars.
So in the case of Type 1 diabetes, you don’t produce enough insulin so your muscles and liver don’t get stimulated to uptake, or don’t get enough stimulation to uptake enough. In the case of Type 2 diabetes, you produce enough insulin, but your body has become immune to it so it can’t signal your muscles and liver like it’s supposed to.
Your body has a surprisingly narrow acceptable level for glucose in the blood. During the hours between meals, and in the aftermath of the dietary rollercoaster ride that meals are, your body works constantly to maintain that narrow allowable level of glucose. You need SOME glucose in your blood to fuel your nerve cells, which can’t use glycogen or tryglicerides for fuel. Nerves have to have glucose. Your body uses glucose catalysts to increase glucose levels when they’re too low, and insulin as a glucose antagonist to reduce glucose levels when they’re too high. It’s a truly remarkable system.
Does that make sense?
And here is your answer:Type I diabetes:little or no insulin produced. Ususally found in children as result of an autoimmune disorder that attacked the pancreas. .
Type II diabetes: some insulin produced. Ususally found in adults, as a result of obesity and other medical conditions.
Diabetes is not all high blood sugar, sometimes the blood sugar is very low, due to taking too much medicine, or not eating enough. It is the regulation of food, exercise, and medication that gives the diabetic the best blood sugar results.
Then there is the liver, that stores glucose. When we need extra sugar, when the liver senses that that there is no food intake, like being NPO before surgery, it starts dumping glucose into the body. It will also do so during a fight or flight moment, say you are faced with a situation that is life threatening. Your body responds by dumping glucose into circulation. You’ve heard of people lifting cars off of accident victims, superhuman strength in emergencies. That is the glucose coming out of the liver, ready to use. [among other body processes]
Here”s another one to confuse you more. When a diabetic is sick, spending lots of calories trying to get well, one would think the blood sugar would be very low. Wrong, it is usually high.
For good info, go to the American Diabetes Assoc., or to NIH.gov, both good resources.
glucose uptake by definition is getting rid of glucose. Therefore, if you have high blood sugar, you don’t have a good way of getting rid of the glucose (low secresion of insulin). Basically, the insulin (natural or otherwise) reduces the blood glucose. If the body can’t produce enough insulin (diabetes), the insulin isn’t sufficient to get rid of the blood glucose and you have high blood sugar. . .