A few questions about Insulin and Glucagon

Bong Aceron 4/09/2018 04:17:00 AM

Hi, I have a few open detail questions:

  1. Increased physical activity also increases insulin sensitivity. This means that the rate by which insulin itself is consumed remains the same, but the rate of glucose consumption is higher. In other words, it is more like, for example, before, 1 unit of insulin facilitated the consumption of 10 units of glucose, and after the physical activity, 1 unit of insulin enables the consumption of 40 units of glucose. Is this correct? EDIT: The reason for this question is that I was wondering if insulin itself is consumed faster after exercise, but now I don't think this is the case.

  2. If I have a fasting blood sugar of, say, 80 mg/dL, and then decide to go out and take a fast walk, I can risk a hypo because the basal insulin I injected doesn't adapt to the changing sensitivity, right? So, in such a situation, I better eat a snack before going out? (And this is one example when a pump is better than MDI?)

  3. After eating, my BG level eventually reaches low 80s, high 70s (in mg/dL). There, it stabilizes. This is the fasting BG. Why is it stable? I mean, where does the fasting blood sugar come from? Is it always gluconeogenesis? Do the alpha cells react here to the slowly lowering BG? I mean, if no new blood sugar entered the blood stream after the person ate and the bolus insulin did its job, whatever little blood sugar is left would slowly be consumed, so a slowly but steadily decreasing fasting BG graph would be the result, not a stable one ... so, what is the explanation?

  4. Following up on #3, I've read that in some people, alpha cells also eventually malfunction. So how would such people stabilize their basal BG?


Bong Aceron

Posted by Bong Aceron