Upload
joanna-bridges
View
227
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Diabetes Edutool: Tutorial 2
Low blood glucose and the liver
When we eat, the foods containing starches are broken down into glucose
The glucose is first absorbed into the blood stream
Excess glucose from the blood is stored in the liver
This glucose is then gradually released when needed for energy
Sometimes your blood glucose can fall too low. This might be due to:
• Too much insulin, relative to food eaten
Insulin
Sometimes your blood glucose can fall too low. This might be due to:
• Too much insulin, relative to food eaten
• Too much exercise, relative to food eaten
Insulin
Sometimes your blood glucose can fall too low. This might be due to:
• Too much insulin, relative to food eaten
• Too much exercise, relative to food eaten
• Not eating for a while,with active insulin stillavailable
Insulin
Let’s use Edutool to investigate. Initially, the blood glucose is normal, therefore the
oval is green
Let’s use Edutool to investigate. Initially, the blood glucose is normal, therefore the
oval is greenNormal blood
glucose is close to 5 mmol/l
Now let’s add 5 U of insulin
Insulin stores , causing the blood glucose to drop
As insulin increases, more
is stored
The liver prevents low blood glucose
To prevent low blood glucose, the liver
releases
There is a limit to how much the liver can release
This is shown by the blue line
Let’s add more insulin to see what will happen
The liver has reached its maximum output level
Notice the Energy from liver arrow
The liver cannot release more
The blood glucose starts to
drop
The liver cannot release more
Hypoglycaemia occurs
Let’s add 2 more units of insulin
The blood glucose is now dangerously low
Hypoglycaemic coma is a risk at
this stage
Let’s recap…
Look what happens to the liver arrow and the blood glucose level
To counteract the hypo, we must eat
6 was needed to raise the blood
glucose to a normal level
To counteract the hypo, we must eat
Lessons:
- Relative to food eaten, too much insulin causes low blood glucose
- The liver helps to counteract low blood glucose
- There is a limit to the liver’s counteracting ability
- After exceeding this limit, low blood glucose will occur
-- End of Tutorial 2 --