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Understanding Diabetes (Part I)
Thursday, June 14, 2007
What is type 2 diabetes, what causes it, and why does it affect many individuals nowadays? Everywhere we go, it's very common and the number is increasing everyday.
Normally, insulin which is produced by the beta cells of the pancreas, bind to insulin receptors located on the cells of the body. This causes the opening of portals to allow glucose to enter the cell. It is inside the cell where glucose is converted to energy.
Where does glucose come from? It came from carbohydrates, the food that we eat. After a meal, sugars and starches are converted to glucose and is brought in the blood stream, others stored in the liver. This is the reason why our level of blood sugar increase after a meal.
What happens in diabetes? In diabetes, the pancreas produces little or no insulin at all. It also causes the body to lose its ability to respond normally to insulin. We call this insulin resistance. When insulin resistance takes over, glucose will have difficulty entering the cell thereby decreasing the production of energy. This results in accumulation of glucose in the blood vessels which can destroy the different body organs.
What can we do? This will be tackled in the next post of Understanding Diabetes.
Name: Amelyn R. Rafael,MD Home: San Fabian, Pangasinan, Philippines About Me: Family Physician, and Associate Professor (Clinical Anatomy and Medical Physiology) See my complete profile
