Learning as I go
January 17, 2025
I've been slowly learning more about Type II Diabetes the last several months. There was something I had to run by the doctor the other day, just because it seemed so dumb, but it turns out it's true.
It turns out that insulin isn't just a command to your liver to sock away excess glucose. If that was the case then diabetes wouldn't really be a problem -- the average glucose content of the blood is 100 mg/dL, which for an adult winds up being 6-8 grams of sugar. Or about 24-32 Calories (kcal for everyone else) of energy.
Which means that if the body's cells were just eating whatever floated by in the bloodstream everything would be fine and you'd only need insulin for right after a meal when your blood sugar spikes. But your cells aren't just eating whatever floats by -- at least, not without being told. The rest of the body also uses insulin as an "use that glucose if you need it" signal, which is why diabetics' blood sugar stays high: Their body has free food just wafting by and their cells ignore it. Kinda like a koala with eucalyptus leaves on a plate.
(So, if anyone ever tries to argue for Intelligent Design in your presence, and you don't want to just call them a fucking idiot right to their face, go ahead and hit them with that one. Your body will try to starve itself to death if it's not given permission to consume the plentiful fuel you're circulating around just for that purpose.)
Which is why my blood can get acidic when my sugar count is high. Not because the sugar is present (I think that would be roughly neutral pH) but because my body thinks it's got nothing to use for fuel and starts burning fat into ketones. And guess what hormone regulates ketone production... yep, it's insulin again! Basically, every direction you turn with this, you're fucked. Ain't that grand?
To sum up: Don't take enough metformin and/or Trulicity: undergo diabetic ketoacidosis. Don't eat enough starch at any given time? Same deal, with the added bonus of low blood sugar possibly making me a bit mentally fuzzy.
I'm not suicidal, but I'm starting to think my body is.
