Glucagon & insulin are hormones, which help in managing sugar or blood glucose level in our body. Glucose is usually ingested from our food, which contains carbohydrates. It goes through the bloodstream of our body and boosts our energy levels. To provide a level of stability of blood sugar levels in human body glucagon & insulin work in tandem. For maintaining the level of blood sugar, these two hormones work as brothers in arms.
The Insulin and Glucagon Tag Team:
The way glucagon and insulin works is via a loop based on negative feedback. By triggering one another throughout this process they control the blood sugar level. It’s a domino effect of triggering events that help in maintaining a proper balance in the blood sugar levels.
The Insulin Mechanism:
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Carbohydrate-containing foods takes the form of glucose through the process of digestion. When the maximum amount of glucose goes into the human bloodstream which causes an increase in the blood sugar levels, your body immediately sends signals to the pancreas, which in turn manufactures insulin. This insulin informs the cells all over your body to capture glucose from the bloodstream. Blood glucose level starts to go down, as soon as glucose gets absorbed into the cells of your body.
Body parts like muscles, liver etc. usually keep the extra glucose as glycogen, which our body uses to boost up energy levels. However other cells utilize it as energy.
The Glucagon Mechanism:
To balance out insulin’s activities, glucagon usually puts up some useful efforts. Almost 4-6 hours after the consumption of food, the glucose portion in our blood started coming down, which initiates the production of glucagon by the pancreas. This, in turn, sends signals to muscles and liver to convert the trapped glycogen into glucose. To provide other cells with some energy these cells start to produce glucose. This whole process initiated by insulin & glucagon is a continuous process, which helps your body to avoid sugar level free fall.
Guidelines For Blood Sugar Level:
Usually, milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) is used to measure blood sugar levels. Following are some ideal ranges:
Before breakfast, it should be lower than 100mg/dl for a person if he/she doesn’t have diabetes& for people with diabetes, it somewhere between 70-130 mg/dl
After 2 hours from the time you finish your meal it should be lower than 140mg/dl for a non-diabetic individual, however for a diabetic person, it should be somewhere lower than 180mg/dl.
Latest Breakthroughs in Treatment of Diabetes:
Some Indian scientist claim that they have discovered a chemical compound ( DMP ) which is effective for both type one and type two diabetes. They also published it in a renowned journal (Plos One) for Endocrinology and claims it would be a substitute for the painful insulin injection in future. There are currently eight organizations engaged in this research project. Some of the organizations are the endocrinology department of the institute of postgraduate medicine and research, SSKM hospital and cellular and molecular endocrinology section of the zoology department, Viswa Bharati University etc. Now how does the DMP work on diabetes patients? People suffer from type one diabetes due to lack beta cells of the pancreas and for that reason, they are unable to produce insulin and hence need insulin from external sources. People suffer from type two diabetes due to insufficient production of insulin in their body.Researchers firmly believe that this DMP will work as insulin for type one diabetes and activate the stored insulin in the body by diminishing the fat for type two diabetes. Production of energy stops due to non-break down of accumulated and added fat to glucose during diabetes. It causes accumulation of fat in the body. A few days ago there were two drugs in the market which helped to eliminate accumulated fat from the body. But those drugs are currently banned by USA and Europe due to their side effects. In comparison DMP is safer as claimed by there searchers in their article. DMP enhances the process of production of energy from fat and also works as insulin. Side by side it activates the process of production of insulin the body if it is in an inactive state.DMP is equally active for both type one and type two diabetes.
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