Health Care Pharmacy: What is Diabetes
Canadian Health Care Mall: WHAT HAPPENS IN DIABETES?
Why does the body need insulin?
The liver plays a dual role in processing food. It converts simple chemicals into complex substances which are then stored for future use and it also allows breakdown of these stores when they are needed for fuel. This process is controlled by insulin. For example, in the absence of insulin, glycogen (starch) is broken down into glucose, which pours out of the liver into the bloodstream (and then into the urine). Insulin switches off this outpouring of glucose and causes the glucose to be stored as glycogen. Thus insulin ensures that a perfect balance is kept between the production of glucose and its storage, and in this way it maintains the blood glucose at a normal level. Insulin plays other important roles, such as allowing glucose to get into other parts of the body to be used as a fuel, and regulating the processing of amino acids and fatty acids, which are the breakdown products of protein and fat. 
What happens to insulin production in diabetes?
In people who do not have diabetes, insulin is produced in the pancreas and released into the blood as soon as the blood glucose level starts to rise after eating. Insulin travels straight from the pancreas to the liver where it has the important role of regulating glucose production and the storage of glucose as glycogen. The level of glucose in the blood then falls and, as it does so, insulin production is switched off, allowing glucose to be released from stores in the liver. In people who do not have diabetes this sensitive system keeps the amount of glucose in the blood at a steady level.
In diabetes this process is faulty. People with Type 2 diabetes can still produce some insulin but not in adequate amounts to keep the blood glucose level normal. This is because their insulin does not work properly (a condition called ‘insulin resistance’). People with Type 1 diabetes have little or no insulin of their own and need injections of insulin to try to keep the blood glucose level normal. Even if given four or five times a day, injected insulin is not as efficient at regulating blood glucose as the pancreas, which responds instantly to small changes in blood glucose by switching the insulin supply on or off.
There are three main factors affecting the level of glucose in the blood:
- food (which puts it up);
- insulin (which brings it down);
- exercise (which also brings it down).
Any form of stress, such as an illness like flu, increases blood glucose. Learning how to balance your blood glucose level in diabetes is a matter of trial and error. This involves taking a lot of blood glucose measurements and discovering how various foods and forms of exercise affect the levels.
Latest news about diabetes and other diseases, see daily on our Health Care site: http://www.canadianhealthcaremalll.com.
