About Blood Glucose

Answer 1

Blood glucose is a type of sugar that the body uses for energy The cells of the body, including the nervous system, can only use glucose for fuel. That's why the body has to break down the food that's ingested, whether they're sugars or starches, into glucose. The blood then transports the glucose to cells. Insulin When the glucose reaches the cells, a hormone called insulin changes it into energy that the cells can use right away or store for the future. It is crucial that this be done in the right way, because the body needs energy for every single function that it performs. The Process of Digestion The process begins in the mouth where saliva breaks down simple carbohydrates into glucose. More complex carbohydrates need to pass through more of the digestive system to be broken down into blood glucose. The food passes down the esophagus, which adds more secretions to it, then reaches the stomach where it's bathed in hydrochloric acid till it becomes a slurry called chyme. The chyme then passes into the small intestine, which will absorb most of the nutrients within the chyme. This can take over nine hours before what's left in the small intestine passes into the large intestine or the colon. The colon then absorbs water and other fluids. The digestive process can take about a day to the better part of a week. What Can Go Wrong Usually, converting food to glucose works well, but many people have problems with their blood sugar. Sometimes, the blood glucose is too high. Though food is broken down into glucose, there's not enough insulin to change it into the energy the body needs. This is called Diabetes. The two main types of diabetes are non-insulin dependent and insulin dependent. The insulin dependent type of diabetes is now considered an autoimmune disease because the body destroys the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. In non-insulin type diabetes, the pancreas can still make insulin, but it's not used correctly. Another problem with blood glucose is a condition called hypoglycemia. This is where the blood glucose is too low. Interestingly, this can be a symptom of diabetes. Sometimes, people who are insulin dependent take too much insulin or take it at the wrong time. This causes their blood glucose to crash. The remedy for this condition is to quickly eat some sugar.