While I can grasp the idea that low blood sugar means “low immediate energy supply”, how come that too much sugar in the blood can cause harm?
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To much glucose in the blood can cause long term issues in an organism and in humans causes things such as neuropathy and retinopathy and is usually caused but the pancreas not producing enough insulin or any insulin at all and can generally harm the cells causing them to break down and get killed by the white blood cells
If you mean in diabetics, the more imminent problem is that the Glucose stays in the blood because it isn’t being taken up by cells. Without insulin, they can’t take in the sugar and starve.
Glucose links to proteins, lipids, and DNA, which makes them stop working. That’s a big part of why hyperglycemia causes people to go blind, have other problems associated with nerves, have vascular problems, and have kidney problems.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycation
In addition, high blood sugar is more energy for bacteria, so they are at higher risk of infection.
Also, hyperglycemia is often caused by diabetes. In diabetes, the low amount of insulin or low sensibility to insulin makes that your liver believes you are in hypoglycemia while you’re in hyperglycemia, and your liver is going to break down your glycogen, proteins, and fat into glucose. So you’ll also get the problem of losing proteins.
You’re asking why high sugar is bad for diabetic patients.
This is a complicated question, with a lot of complex biochemical pathways involved. To be honest, the state of current medical understanding is evolving as scientists discover new processes by which the body is damaged by high sugar. I won’t get into the details of the chemistry here, partly because I don’t fully understand the most up to date science. The final common pathway, though, is that prolonged exposure to high sugar damages blood vessels.
Hyperglycemia accelerates atherosclerosis, a process by which cholesterol-rich plaques build up in the lining of blood vessels and gradually obstruct the flow of blood. This can happen in small microscopic vessels (micro vascular complications), such as those in the kidney and retina. The dysfunction of these vessels can lead to blindness and renal failure.
When larger vessels get affected, that’s called macro vascular complications. In diabetics, commonly involves blood vessels are those that supply the heart (coronary arteries), leading to heart attacks and heart failure. Vessels that supply the leg can be affected, leading to painful ulcers on feet/toes, bad infections (without blood supply, immune system can’t reach the wounds), and loss of limbs. Gangrene and amputations are a known complication of diabetes. If blood vessels supplying the brain are affected, that can cause strokes, which can be permanently disabling or life threatening.
High sugar also damages small nerve fibers. This is why diabetics must take such meticulous care of their feet. The nerve fibers are damaged, so they can’t feel their feet well, and they can’t tell when their feet have minor scrapes or wounds. Then, because of the blood supply issues above, those wounds get infected and spiral out of control, leading to amputations.
Honestly, an exhaustive answer to this question really requires a degree in medicine or physiology. I hope this helps at least a little.
Super basic explanation ( note not exactly how it works but sorta) : It’s kinda sort of like sand paper to blood vessels and kidneys. It can narrow the vessels and clog things up, especially in the much smaller vessels, which can damage them over time. Think of it like If you make sweet tea or another sugary drink with too much sugar and it gets thicker and syrupy and can clog up small straws over time.
Glucose when present in high concentrations can react with cell signalling molecules on the surface of cells. This prevents the cell from receiving the correct signals and becomes desynchronised from the rest of the body. It can also cause membrane stiffening preventing substances from passing into the cell or the cell moving to let other cells past.
These are called rAGES (reactive advanced glycosylation end-products), these are also produced when you fry meat. So in effect having high blood sugar slowly fries the inside of the veins arteries and capilaries, leading to nutrients and immune cells being trapped inside their bloodstream and toxins being trapped outside.
I learnt this when someone Eli5ed to me.
Think off sugar as small granules. Even smaller than what we buy from stores. And they have jagged edges. In the blood vessels they flow.
The scratch the inside of the walls of blood vessels. And make the joints near organs weak.
Thus they can kill the filter – kidneys
Less sugar in blood, more healthy blood vessels, organs and inner body.
Many reasons, but if we are going to ELI5 it then I will go with this.
Body likes blood to have a very specific amount of stuff dissolved in it for optimal performance. Add too much stuff, sugar in this case, and everything goes crazy. Water gets pulled from cells to try to dilute blood.
Or
Since you are 5, you probably like apple juice. It is pretty sweet and tasty. If I dumped a whole bunch of sugar in your apple juice, it would be gross.
Thanks to everyone for your answers!
TIL that oddly enough, one of the most important nutrient for life is also quite dangerous at the cellular and molecular scale if not handled properly.
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