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 in the body works differently than in the brain. Insulin can become saturated while crossing the blood brain barrier (bbb) meaning the cells can’t transfer it from the body’s blood through the bbb and into the brain fast enough and it sits there.
Endocitosis saturation is like if you went to a shuttle bus to go to a concert and there were too many people for the bus and you had to wait longer for another bus. The insulin saturates these cells and over time, your brain begins to down regulate or make less of these busses because too many people (or insulin) is getting into the brain. So, over time the brain begins to stop making as many busses for the insulin because if it doesn’t make less, the bus drivers (endocytosis) will just keep making trip after trip as long as insulin er uh, people go to the bust stop.
Now after a long time the insulin has trouble getting into the brain when you eat a normal amount of sugar because you got rid of all the busses OR their eating habits are still bad and there’s still too much generally because sugar doesn’t need to take the bus. It has a vip pass and can directly cross the bbb, it never has to take the bus. This means the sugar/insulin balance in the brain is off balance
What does insulin do in the brain!? I’m glad you asked.
It regulates smells and tastes in the olfactory bulb and mouth.
It can indirectly stimulate the cranial nerves like the vagus or the trigeminal
It regulates feeding reward behaviors in the basal ganglia.
It regulates memories and plasticity in the hippocampus by changing the energy needed for brain cells to fire.
It does something different in almost every brain region and there’s only one or two regions in the brain that can make small amounts of insulin and it isn’t enough to properly regulate the entire brain.
Moral of the story, don’t eat 6 servings of grain a day.
Latest Answers