ADVANCED FOOT AND ANKLE SPECIALISTS, PA
Jay S. Weingarten, DPM, FACFAS, FACFAOM
Podiatric Physician and Surgeon
Board Certified Physician – Treating Pediatrics to Geriatrics
How Diabetes Affects The Body’s Power Plant
Diabetes is an illness that stems from damage to the pancreas, a large
organ lying behind the stomach. The pancreas comprises a number of different
types of cells, some of which are grouped in clusters known as islets of
Langerhans.
Within in the islets are found both beta cells, which produce insulin, and
alpha cells, which produce glucagon. Both insulin and glucagon are instrumental
in he body’s conversion of food into energy that the body can burn and proteins
that the body can use to build tissue.
Juvenile diabetes, which normally develops early in life, results from neartotal destruction of the eta cells in the pancreas. Adult-onset diabetes, which
develops later, involves damage to some of the cells. In the case of juvenile
diabetes, the body is without any insulin and dependent on injections of insulin
for survival; for that reason, juvenile diabetes is often called “insulin-dependent”
diabetes. Victims of adult-onset diabetes normally produce enough insulin to get
by, and do not need injections.
Normally, the pancreas produces insulin when food is
consumed
The body uses three types of food fuels: carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
These are broken down by the stomach and intestines into glucose, amino acids
and fatty acids respectively. Arrival of these substances in the bloodstream
triggers release of insulin from the pancreas.
Insulin helps produce food
Normally, insulin enables the body’s tissues and organs to use he food
substances in the bloodstream. Insulin helps turn glucose into glucogen, for
storage in the liver; fats into fatty acids, for energy of storage in adipose cells
throughout the body; and amino acids into building blocks of tissue in muscles
and other organs.
Without insulin, boy tissues starve
When insulin is absent, the foods in the blood are not converted normally
into energy and new tissue. The body is deprived of nourishment. The condition
can be fatal or cause critical damage to individual organs.
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