Importance Of Insulin In Diabetes

 In the upper abdomen, in the bend of the small intestine rests the pancreas, which produces insulin. 

How Does Insulin work

When you eat a plate of oatmeal or a couple of bread slices for breakfast, they contain carbohydrates, a sugary energy nutrient. As the porridge progresses into the stomach and intestines, the carbohydrate it contains is gradually broken down into smaller and smaller sugars.

Sugars are absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, from where they're taken to the body’s energy production. It calls for insulin produced with the aid of the pancreas. 

It requires insulin produced by the pancreas. Some talk about the insulin key, or insulin as if it opens the door for sugar from the blood vessel inside the cell. Energy is produced by using sugar within the cell. It is one of the most effective insulin.

Insulin is produced in the pancreas located in the islets of Langerhans by beta cells. Beta cells continuously secrete small amounts of insulin in pulses. This is called basal insulin. 

In addition, beta cells have, as it were, a blood glucose meter that responds to a rise in blood sugar caused by food, and thus insulin secretion is triggered during a meal.

Initial secretion prepares the liver and body to receive absorbed food. A sufficient amount of insulin is then produced for a couple of hours to compensate for the rise in blood sugar caused by the sugar absorbed from the gut. 

Insulin levels in the blood rise to the highest just when blood sugar peaks. 4 and 8 mmol / are the common blood sugar levels in healthy people.

The onset of secretion is also affected by intestinal hormones, which are secreted into the bloodstream as the digestive tract progresses from the stomach to the small intestine. The most important intestinal or incretin hormone is the glucagon-like peptide, GLP-1.

Insulin is the first to act on the liver after excretion. The liver is located in the right upper abdomen, right next to the pancreas and intestines. When sugar is absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream,

 it first travels through the portal vein to the liver. At the same time, insulin secreted by the pancreas enters.

With insulin, some of the sugar is stored in the liver “in case of a bad day”. The storage sugar in the liver is called glycogen. It can be used to raise blood sugar when a person is fasting or a person with diabetes has low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. The liver also produces novel sugar, and insulin inhibits this production. With both of these effects, insulin lowers blood sugar.

Insulin helps sugar reach the muscle cell

 which uses sugar for energy. When the entry of sugar into a cell exceeds consumption, the remaining sugar is stored in the muscle cell’s own store for later use. Thus, muscle cells have their own small stores of sugar or glycogen.

Fat cells also store extra energy through insulin. When you eat more sugar or fat than your energy needs, the excess is stored in fat. Thus, a variety of backup systems have been built into the human body for both short fasts and longer years of famine.

Insulin has a constructive effect on muscles. Insulin increases the production of proteins, which are the building blocks of the body and prevents them from breaking down. Insulin is also said to be an anabolic hormone.

The same islets of Langerhans with insulin-producing beta cells also have glucagon-producing alpha cells. Glucagon is a hormone that counteracts insulin. So it does the opposite of insulin. 

It seeks to raise blood sugar, for example, by releasing stock sugar from the liver. Insulin, in turn, reduces the secretion of glucagon.

Many hormones thus regulate each other's effects in the body.

When autoimmune inflammation in type 1 diabetes destroys pancreatic beta cells, there is no longer enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels normal. Therefore, insulin should be replaced by external injections.

Finding suitable insulin preparations to replace basal insulin secretion and meal-induced excretion in the body is often challenging. The human insulin molecule has been taught to modify over the last 20 years.

 Insulin preparations available today from a pharmacy have very different properties in terms of potency and duration of action. Some aim to compensate for basal insulin secretion and some to provide the immediate effect required by a meal.

Insulin replacement therapy

often considers what is an appropriate or sufficient amount of insulin per day. There is no one absolute amount. People of the same age, size, and mobility can have very different needs.

 So you can't compare your insulin dose to that of a friend or neighbor. You have to find your own individual doses of the meal and basal insulins which is important.

On the other hand, it is known that human insulin requirements can also vary widely from day to day. It is good to know your average doses and how to change them if, for example, you move more than normal during the day or are ill. Regular daily blood glucose monitoring helps to reflect this.

The cessation of insulin secretion 

is not an issue with type 2 diabetics. It is excreted too much at the beginning. Insulin just can't handle the export of sugar to the cell enough. There is talk of insulin resistance. 

And over time, when the pancreas becomes hard to produce insulin for a long time, it can be exhausted. In this case, the insulin secretion of the second type of diabetic can also slow down according to the need. 

Insufficient insulin secretion can be enhanced by various drugs. Sometimes missing insulin secretion has to be replaced by injections.