Pretty simple quesrion, but undoubtably has a pretty conplex answer…
What actually happens to the body when we go into hypo or hyperglycemic shock?
I understand that diabetics have to watch their food consumption, and more accurately, their sugar consumption, because too much or too little causes us to go into hypo/hyperglycemic shock, but what happens?
In: Biology
Insulin acts kind of like a key that opens up the cell walls so that the glucose in your blood can get into the cells that they need to be in.
When there’s too much insulin in your body, your cells suck up every last bit of it and then there’s nothing left for the rest of your body (especially your brain) and you start getting weak and disoriented. That’s hypoglycaemia
When there’s not enough insulin in your body, then there aren’t enough keys to go around so the glucose stays in your blood and doesn’t get where it needs to be. As your blood flows through your body with all the extra sugar, it causes damage to areas with really tiny capillaries. When the blood gets to your kidneys, the kidneys see all the extra stuff and try to filter it out, which causes stress on the kidneys. That’s hyperglycaemia.
If you stay in hyperglycaemia too long, your cells still aren’t getting enough energy despite the excessive sugar. Then your body starts decomposing fat cells, which makes your blood acidic, and that’s called diabetic ketoacidosis
Hyperglycaemia is why diabetes tend to have lots of sugar in the urine. Before modern chemistry diabetes was diagnosed by “sweet urine”, for which the test was seeing if ants would be attracted to it.
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