Diabetes and Pancreas - The Connection Between the Two

When it comes to digestion, the pancreas is one of the most important organs in the body. One of its functions is to produce digestive enzymes to help your body digest the foods you eat as it enters the upper part of the bowels. Its second function is to produce insulin. It is the second function that is of main concern to those with diabetes.

Insulin is a hormone. One of the most important hormones in the body. The pancreas is located deep in the abdomen, between the stomach and the spine. In people of normal health, beta cells or B cells in the pancreas generate the insulin hormone. There's also another group of cells called A cells which produce the hormone glucagen which will raise the blood glucose level when the glucose level gets too low. In essence, the pancreas regulates the the amount of sugar in the blood.

The body can't directly convert food into energy. When you eat, the body's digestive system breaks down the food into a substance that the body can use - glucose. When the level of glucose reaches a certain limit, a call is made to the pancreas.

This is where insulin comes in. The cells of the body need energy. The cells of the body are surrounded by membranes to protect them. It's like a door. In order for the cells to use the glucose in the blood, however, their door must be unlocked. It is the insulin that does the unlocking. If the cell doors aren't unlocked, you could have all the potential energy in the world, in the form of glucose, and it would not matter. It is unusable by the cells without insulin.

In other words, insulin is important to your body because it opens up the cells so your body can utilize the glucose that is produced from the foods that we eat. Without insulin, the body would essentially starve as the surplus glucose builds up in the body which is unable to use it.

If you have ever wondered why many diabetics seem to be always so tired, it is due exactly to the fact that their body cannot convert the foods that they have eaten into energy - leaving the person listless and tired.

The body being unable to produce enough insulin is one of the causes of diabetes. The lack of insulin causes the blood sugar to escalate outside of normal ranges. In diabetics, as the person's body is unable to use the glucose in the blood for energy, it turns to another source for food - the fat and muscle tissue.

The pancreas is important because it is the one organ that is responsible for maintaining the delicate balance between having too much glucose in the bloodstream and too little.

In an instance where something goes wrong with the pancreas and it is unable to produce enough insulin, the blood glucose will begin to raise until it reaches dangerous levels. If something is then, not done, the excess glucose in the bloodstream will start to damage the major organs in the body.

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