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Saturday, September 13, 2008

How Cells That Secrete Insulin Keep Sensitivity to Glucose

There's good news from Karolinska Institutet, the leading Swedish Medical University, about the insulin-secreting cells. It appears they have resolved the question as to how these cells keep their sensitivity to insulin. This is important news as we will learn how the body can maintain blood glucose absorption within the normal targets to avoid diabetes.

We know that insulin controls the transport of glucose to muscles and tissues by releasing hormones. It was a mystery how these insulin-secreting cells keep the correct amount that is necessary for the glucose transport. But now the scientists at Rolf Luft Research Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new traffic way where the sugar helps the insulin secretion controller do its job.

Professor Berggren said this discovery is important as it gives the insulin-secreting cells an effective way to keep up with the correct amount to maintain blood concentration within normal target thus avoiding the development of diabetes.

Let's have some more information about insulin. It is fascinating yet exasperating to know how the body uses insulin. Why? It is because its use is inconsistent. No matter how consistent one is in injecting the same amount of insulin, one can find there is more than adequate amount to do its job on the blood glucose.

There are many factors that can affect how much insulin the body needs:


  • how much one eats

  • what foods one eats

  • how much exercise one does

  • when the exercise occurs in relation to the schedule of medication

  • one's overall health

  • injection site

  • the stress one has to handle



As one can see, it is not easy to manage all the above. No matter how much one tries, the insulin could still be stubborn and work on the blood glucose although the level has fallen too low to the point that hypoglycemia may occur.

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