This is how I have come to understand the workings of blood sugar. Please point out where I’m going wrong.
Glucose (sugar) comes from food. Insulin is a hormone that turns glucose into glycogen (fat) in the liver. The hormone glucagon turns glycogen back into glucose. Diabetics produce too little insulin, so their body can’t properly turn glucose into glycogen. So, if they don’t take their insulin with a meal, their blood sugar becomes too high. So far so good.
But how does this lead to low blood sugar? Their glucagon is working fine, so they should be able to turn glycogen into glucose when they need it. Right? Does this only occur when a diabetic accidentally takes too much insulin?
There are tons of different sources on this topic, but they’re either too confusing or they contradict each other. It doesn’t help that there are two types of diabetes. If anyone can explain, I’d appreciate it a lot!
In: Biology
It’s almost always because of the diabetes medication, not the diabetes itself.
Insulin, and lots of (but not all) oral diabetes drugs will cause hypoglycaemia if one doesn’t eat enough carbohydrates.
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