In Depth: Insulin
When we eat, our bodies break food down into organic compounds, one of which is glucose.
The cells of our bodies use glucose as a source of energy for movement, growth, repair, and other functions. But before the cells can use glucose, it must move from the bloodstream into the individual cells. This process requires insulin.
Insulin is produced by the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. When glucose enters our blood, the pancreas should automatically produce the right amount of insulin to move glucose into our cells. People with type 1 diabetes produce no insulin. People with type 2 diabetes do not always produce enough insulin. Delivery Devices:
Unlike many medicines, insulin cannot be taken orally. Like nearly all other proteins introduced into the gastrointestinal tract, it is reduced to fragments (even single amino acid components), whereupon all 'insulin activity' is lost. There has been some research into ways to protect insulin from the digestive tract, so that it can be administered in a pill. So far this is entirely experimental.
All insulin delivery devices inject insulin through the skin and into the fatty tissue below.
Most people inject the insulin with a syringe that delivers insulin just under the skin. Others use insulin pens, jet injectors, or insulin pumps. Several new approaches for taking insulin are under development.
Here are several conditions in which insulin disturbance is pathologic:
* Diabetes mellitus – general term referring to all states characterized by hyperglycemia.
* Insulinoma - a tumor of pancreatic beta cells producing excess of insulin or reactive hypoglycemia
* Metabolic syndrome – a poorly understood condition first called Syndrome X by Gerald Reaven, Reaven's Syndrome after Reaven, CHAOS in Australia (from the signs which seem to travel together), and sometimes prediabetes. It is currently not clear whether these signs have a single, treatable cause, or are the result of body changes leading to type 2 diabetes. It is characterized by elevated blood pressure, dyslipidemia (disturbances in blood cholesterol forms and other blood lipids), and increased waist circumference (at least in populations in much of the developed world). The basic underlying cause may be the insulin resistance of type 2 diabetes which is a diminished capacity for insulin response in some tissues (e.g., muscle, fat) to respond to insulin. Commonly, morbidities such as essential hypertension, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) develop.
* Polycystic ovary syndrome – a complex syndrome in women in the reproductive years where there is anovulation and androgen excess commonly displayed as hirsutism. In many cases of PCOS insulin resistance is present.
The cells of our bodies use glucose as a source of energy for movement, growth, repair, and other functions. But before the cells can use glucose, it must move from the bloodstream into the individual cells. This process requires insulin.
Insulin is produced by the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. When glucose enters our blood, the pancreas should automatically produce the right amount of insulin to move glucose into our cells. People with type 1 diabetes produce no insulin. People with type 2 diabetes do not always produce enough insulin. Delivery Devices:
Unlike many medicines, insulin cannot be taken orally. Like nearly all other proteins introduced into the gastrointestinal tract, it is reduced to fragments (even single amino acid components), whereupon all 'insulin activity' is lost. There has been some research into ways to protect insulin from the digestive tract, so that it can be administered in a pill. So far this is entirely experimental.
All insulin delivery devices inject insulin through the skin and into the fatty tissue below.
Most people inject the insulin with a syringe that delivers insulin just under the skin. Others use insulin pens, jet injectors, or insulin pumps. Several new approaches for taking insulin are under development.
Here are several conditions in which insulin disturbance is pathologic:
* Diabetes mellitus – general term referring to all states characterized by hyperglycemia.
* Insulinoma - a tumor of pancreatic beta cells producing excess of insulin or reactive hypoglycemia
* Metabolic syndrome – a poorly understood condition first called Syndrome X by Gerald Reaven, Reaven's Syndrome after Reaven, CHAOS in Australia (from the signs which seem to travel together), and sometimes prediabetes. It is currently not clear whether these signs have a single, treatable cause, or are the result of body changes leading to type 2 diabetes. It is characterized by elevated blood pressure, dyslipidemia (disturbances in blood cholesterol forms and other blood lipids), and increased waist circumference (at least in populations in much of the developed world). The basic underlying cause may be the insulin resistance of type 2 diabetes which is a diminished capacity for insulin response in some tissues (e.g., muscle, fat) to respond to insulin. Commonly, morbidities such as essential hypertension, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) develop.
* Polycystic ovary syndrome – a complex syndrome in women in the reproductive years where there is anovulation and androgen excess commonly displayed as hirsutism. In many cases of PCOS insulin resistance is present.
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