A big part of my day is explaining diabetes to patients. It's easy to get lost in the medical jargon. When you keep it simple, it's easier to understand what you can and cannot control (video below!) Whenever you eat foods that have the chemistry of carbohydrate, that becomes blood sugar (aka, blood glucose). Not just sugar becomes blood sugar - "sugar" is just 1 type of carbohydrate. Blood sugar is not evil - it's what the body uses for energy! Our muscles, brain, and organs all use it for energy. Once the body converts the carbohydrate to blood sugar, it travels throughout our body via the blood stream. The blood stream is like a highway that deliver nutrients and fuel to our muscles. On the muscle, there is a door that controls whether or not (and how much) blood sugar gets inside. That door is the problem in pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes - it's not opening as well as it used to. People with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes have the key to the door (insulin) but the door itself isn't working well. So the more carbohydrate you eat, the more blood sugar you have trying to through the door, inside the muscle. Because the door isn't working well, it spends more time in the blood stream, waiting to go where it belongs. (You can also think about the blood stream like a highway with exit ramps delivering to various neighborhoods. Blood sugar are the cars. When you close an exit ramp, traffic still moves, but far slower than when the ramp was 100% open. If you put a LOT of cars on the highway (such as rush hour) it takes even longer to get where you want to go). Our goal is to
There's a lot we do and do not know about type 2 diabetes. We do not have any hard and fast answers about why the door closes, but we have some information about what makes it more likely that the door will close. What most commonly affects the door...
So what creates blood sugar?
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DISCLAIMER: The writing here is for informational and educational purposes only. It is NOT a substitute for individual care. Your needs may vary. or individual support, please contact a provider.
Please note it's been a number of years since I have updated these posts. The content and philosophies may have changed as I've grown as a provider. Please reach out with questions or concerns. AuthorDietitian, personal trainer, mother, wife, runner, and endurance athlete supporting well-being, one bit and bite at a time Archives
December 2020
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