Role Of Insulin In Body

Can I Prevent Diabetes

With your doctors help, you can take steps to lower your risk of diabetes and stop prediabetes in its tracks. Its important to do everything in your power to avoid diabetes, because the condition is associated with other serious health problems, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, nerve damage, vision problems, and stroke.

Another less talked about malady, insulin resistance, is another condition we treat. Its a result of your pancreas needing to work more intensely than normal to balance your blood sugar, and a primary indicator of the problem is weight gain. Fortunately, were able to discover whether you have insulin resistance prior to your blood sugar moving into the realm of diabetes.

The provider team at Nations Best Family Health Care wants nothing more than to help you on your journey to health. To prevent diabetes, they may recommend that you shed pounds through our customized medically supervised weight loss program, as well as adopt other lifestyle changes, including upping your daily exercise, quitting smoking, and taking medication.

If youre already living with diabetes, we help you manage it by educating you about scrupulously monitoring your blood sugar, checking your feet daily for any small cuts, and again, eating a nutritious diet and staying physically active.

You Might Also Enjoy…

What Would Happen If You Had No Insulin

The photo below shows an extreme example of what happens when people with Type-1 Diabetes cant produce enough insulin they lose weight quickly and waste away . However, they can quickly regain weight once they get enough insulin. The photo on the right is the same child after taking insulin.

In another example, a bit closer to home, my fifteen-year-old son was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. The photo on the left shows him in hospital with a blood sugar of 23 mmol/L and an HbA1c of 14.5%. The photo on the right shows him five weeks later doing some father-son axe throwing.

Fortunately, we caught it early and knew what to do when we randomly tested his blood sugars and found them sky-high. At the time, he was eating a LOT of food but still very lean. We thought it was because he was doing a lot of sport and spending a ton of time in the gym.

However, after five weeks on about 50 units of long-acting insulin per day, he has gained about 5 kg and increased his deadlift by 40 kg, pulling 195kg or 430 lbs in his first powerlifting competition! The extra exogenous insulin helped him stop wasting all the energy and stopped his muscles from breaking down. Thankfully for our food budget, hes also eating a lot less!

How Insulin Is Made

Insulin is produced by the pancreas, a gland-like organ nestled in the curve of the duodenum , just behind the stomach. The pancreas functions both as an exocrine gland and an endocrine gland.

The exocrine function of the pancreas is to help with digestion. The endocrine function of the pancreas is to produce insulin and another hormone called glucagon that helps regulate blood sugar. The pancreatic cells that produce glucagon are called alpha cells.

Insulin is produced by specialized beta cells in the pancreas, which are clustered into groups called islets of Langerhans, or islets for short. A healthy adult pancreas has approximately one million islets, composing about 5% of the entire organ.

You May Like: What Is The Quickest Way To Lower Blood Sugar

Functions Of Insulin In The Body: Good Guy Or Bad Guy

Insulin is perhaps the most important compound circulating in our bodies. It is involved in more than 60 key biological processes. Impairments in insulin function affect many facets of health and well-being and, if left uncorrected, are ultimately fatal. Despite its paramount importance, the functions of insulin in the body are widely misunderstood.

Insulin is an anabolic hormone, meaning it acts to promote synthesis and building, as opposed to catabolic hormones that break down and deconstruct bodily tissues and compounds. Given its vital importance, it is curious that insulin is sometimes portrayed as the bad guy. Consider, for instance, how we cast insulin as the villain responsible for the development of adverse health conditions: type 1 and type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome, and even certain types of cancer.

In this article, we will explore the basic functions of insulin in the body to gain a better appreciation for all it does as well as a clearer understanding of how to keep this hormone functioning in balance and at its optimal capacity.

Insulin And Fatty Acids

Insulin helps synthesize fatty acids in the liver cells. If the glycogen levels make up at least 5 percent of the mass of the liver, the glycogen synthesis is suppressed and fatty acids are instead made by the liver to be used to make the lipid layer of the cells of the body. The fatty acids are then taken out of the liver and are transferred to lipoproteins, which allow for the transportation of the fatty acids to make cells or to be stored inside fat cells as fat.

You May Like: Why Do I Get Low Blood Sugar

How Do You Choose The Right Syringe For Injecting Insulin

If your highest dose is near the syringe’s maximum capacity, consider buying the next size up in case your dosage increases

Just as there are different sizes of syringes for administering insulin, there are also varying sizes of insulin needles. Shorter needles usually mean less sting when injecting. The downside is that the shallower the injection is, the longer it takes for the insulin to work. Your doctor will help you find the balance thats best for you.

Insulin And Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is characterised by the body not responding effectively to insulin. This is termed insulin resistance. As a result the body is less able to take up glucose from the blood. In the earlier stages of type 2 diabetes, the body responds by producing more insulin than it would normally need to.

If type 2 diabetes develops over a number of years, the extra demands on the pancreas to produce insulin can lead to a loss of insulin producing cells as they wear out.

Depending on their level of insulin resistance, people with type 2 diabetes may also need to take insulin injections to manage their blood sugar levels.

Recommended Reading: Signs Of Type 1 Diabetes In Women

Insulin And Type 1 Diabetes

In type 1 diabetes, the body produces insufficient insulin to regulate blood glucose levels.

Without the presence of insulin, many of the bodys cells cannot take glucose from the blood and therefore the body uses other sources of energy.

Ketones are produced by the liver as an alternative source of energy, however, high levels of the ketones can lead to a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis.

People with type 1 diabetes will need to inject insulin to compensate for their bodys lack of insulin.

What Are The Different Types Of Insulin

The American Diabetes Association characterizes insulin by how fast it works. But everyones body is different. If you have diabetes, you should expect deviations in the amount of time any medication takes to reach your bloodstream. Here are a few useful terms related to how fast and how long insulin acts in your body:

• Onset is defined as the length of time before insulin hits your bloodstream and begins to lower blood glucose.

• Peak is the time during which insulin is at its maximum effectiveness at lowering your blood glucose levels.

• Duration is the length of time insulin continues to lower your blood glucose levels.

These are the five main types of insulin that doctors prescribe:

You May Like: What Can Diabetic Dogs Eat

Whats The Role Of Insulin

To understand how insulin impacts your health, we need to first learn what it is. Insulin is a hormone thats produced by your pancreas, and its purpose is to aid in metabolizing what you eat and drink so that your body can use the nutrients you ingest for energy.

Without insulin, your body couldnt utilize protein, carbohydrates, and fat as necessary, or store them for future use, primarily in the form of fat.

In short, insulin and having proper levels of it in your body is truly vital. Without adequate insulin, your organs cant do the work they need to do to keep your systems functioning.

What Happens To Insulin When You Eat Fat

The reason we dont see such an abrupt insulin response to fat is two-fold.

• On the one hand, fat takes longer to digest and metabolise. You will still see an insulin response to pure fat, although it will be over a much more extended period.
• On the other hand, your body doesnt respond heavy-handedly with insulin to fat because, unlike glucose, there is simply plenty of room to store it! Your body doesnt need to halt the release of stored energy to burn it off. Dietary fat simply gets welcomed aboard with open arms and added to your fat stores to be used later.

A recent study in people with Type 1 Diabetes who didnt take insulin showed that, while dietary glucose raises blood sugar in the first three hours or so, dietary fat causes a significant rise after three hours.

Also Check: Insulin Pills For Type 2 Diabetes

Can I Have A Negative Reaction To Insulin

One complication facing people with diabetes who use insulin is the potential for severe hypoglycemia, also known as insulin shock, which involves using too much insulin and causing your blood sugar to drop extremely low. This can cause coma, seizures, and heart attacks, says Dr. Powers. It requires treatment in a hospital but thankfully is highly treatable once you are there.

Insulin Action On Digestive System

When we eat something it goes straight into the stomach and then goes through various digestion processes. The food is converted into small particles and absorbed by the blood. If the food contains carbohydrates then the pancreas secretes the insulin to make use of them for cellular metabolism.

The excess glucose is stored in different parts of the body like muscles, liver and is used by the body when needed.

In this way when we eat, insulin keeps our glucose level in a normal range.

Also Check: How Much Fast Acting Insulin To Take

What Is The Rolew Of Insulin In Stabilizing Blood Glucose Degrees

Its easy. Think about the adhering to factors:

• It assists in regulating blood sugar degrees by signifying the liver to absorb glucose from the blood.
• It movements the liver to occupy glucose mean the body has actually sufficient kept power. For this component, the glucose is saved as glycogen.
• Other than the liver, insulin likewise signifies the muscular tissues as well as fats to hold the glucose.

Maintains Amino Acid Uptake

Another function or role of insulin is that it compels cells the absorb of circulating amino acids. A decrease in insulin levels inhibits this absorption. Individuals with low insulin levels have high blood amino acids. Introducing insulin in their systems brings down amino acid levels in the blood to normal values. In other words, insulin promotes the synthesis or metabolism of protein from circulating amino acids.

Also Check: What Does It Mean When Glucose Is High

The Release Of Insulin In Response To A Meal

The neat and tidy insulin responses described above only occur in laboratory settings. In the real world, the secretion of insulin stimulated by food intake proves far more difficult to predict due to the multitude of variables involved, such as:

• Presence of specific nutrients, including amino acids
• Physical makeup of the foods
• Rate of gastric emptying
• Speed of gastrointestinal motility

Furthermore, neural input as well as other digestive hormones such as incretin affect insulin response.

Specific nutrients produce distinct insulin responses. For instance, non-esterified fatty acids , which may come directly from high-fat foods or from the synthesis of excess carbohydrates, lead to increased output of glucose and reduce insulin sensitivity. There’s some indication, too, that they alter glucose-stimulated insulin secretionin the short-term, elevated levels of NEFA in the blood have been linked to increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, but chronically high levels of NEFA result in decreased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion as well as decreased insulin synthesis.

When Insulin Production Goes Awry

Insulin, along with another hormone glucagon balance your blood glucose levels . The food you eat is the source of glucose, which is your body’s fuel. Insulin and glucagon partner to ensure that your blood sugar levels are properly regulated.

When you digest your food, carbohydrates convert to glucose. The glucose is directed into your bloodstream, which causes your blood glucose levels to rise. This is what sends the message to your pancreas to produce insulin, which instructs your cells to absorb the glucose traveling through your bloodstream.

Certain cells use glucose as energy, while others, like those within your muscles and liver, put away surplus glucose after it becomes glycogen, a substance that serves as your bodys fuel in between meals.

Yet another player, glucagon, offsets the effects of insulin. Between four and six hours after a meal, your blood glucose levels go down, and this signals to your pancreas to manufacture glucagon.

The hormone glucagon instructs your liver and muscle cells to convert the glycogen your body has stored back into glucose. The cells send the glucose into your bloodstream, furnishing your other cells with energy.

This exquisitely balanced dynamic between insulin and glucagon is never-ending, ensuring that your blood sugar never gets dangerously low and that you have the energy you need to live.

Don’t Miss: Type 2 Diabetes Diet Plan

Insulin And Blood Glucose Levels

Insulin helps control blood glucose levels by signaling the liver and muscle and fat cells to take in glucose from the blood. Insulin therefore helps cells to take in glucose to be used for energy.

If the body has sufficient energy, insulin signals the liver to take up glucose and store it as glycogen.

The liver can store up to around 5% of its mass as glycogen.

Some cells in the body can take glucose from the blood without insulin, but most cells do require insulin to be present.

How Is Insulin Used In The Human Body

Three main groups of insulin are available. The body absorbs this type into the bloodstream from the subcutaneous tissue extremely quickly. People use fast-acting insulin to correct hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, as well as control blood sugar spikes after eating.

How is insulin made in the pancreas and how does it work?

Insulin is a protein-based hormone that is made by the beta cells of the pancreas. Most people know that insulin is the hormone that helps the bodys cells put glucose into the cells for use as cellular fuel. In the absence of insulin, the cells do not have enough biochemical energy so they must use other nutrients in order to function.

Also Check: Diabetic Smoothies With Almond Milk

The Primary Role Of Insulin: To Hold Your Fat And Glucose In Storage

Rather than seeing insulin as a pusher, its much more helpful to see insulin as an anti-catabolic hormone that stops your body from breaking itself down .

Without insulin, the fat and glycogen in your liver and muscles would flow freely into your bloodstream. Once your stored glucose was used up, your body would then resort to using other more valuable tissues for fuel, like your muscles and organs!

Insulin is the signal sent from your pancreas to your liver to regulate the flow of just enough energy into your bloodstream to meet your current energy needs.

You can think of the stored fuel in your body like a water tank: the more fat and glucose you have in storage, the higher the pressure is to push the stored energy out of the liver. You can think of insulin as the signal that regulates the tap. With no insulin to turn off the tap, all your stored energy would gush out. Conversely, if you have a lot of energy in storage, you need to go to greater lengths to turn off the tap to ensure it doesnt leak.

Structural Analysis And Synthesis

Purified animal-sourced insulin was initially the only type of insulin available for experiments and diabetics. John Jacob Abel was the first to produce the crystallised form in 1926. Evidence of the protein nature was first given by Michael Somogyi, Edward A. Doisy, and Philip A. Shaffer in 1924. It was fully proven when Hans Jensen and Earl A. Evans Jr. isolated the amino acids phenylalanine and proline in 1935.

The amino acid structure of insulin was first characterized in 1951 by Frederick Sanger, and the first synthetic insulin was produced simultaneously in the labs of Panayotis Katsoyannis at the University of Pittsburgh and Helmut Zahn at RWTH Aachen University in the mid-1960s.Synthetic crystalline bovine insulin was achieved by Chinese researchers in 1965. The complete 3-dimensional structure of insulin was determined by X-ray crystallography in Dorothy Hodgkin‘s laboratory in 1969.

Two other Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work on insulin. British molecular biologist Frederick Sanger, who determined the primary structure of insulin in 1955, was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Rosalyn Sussman Yalow received the 1977 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the development of the radioimmunoassay for insulin.

Don’t Miss: How Is Blood Glucose Measured