glucose

Sugar for Brains [Show Notes]

 in Brain / Podcasts  tagged ATP / G6P / glucose / Hypoglycemia / krebs cycle / sugar / sugar high by

Sugar Basics

Sugar in your blood = glucose
Your body prefers glucose over any other sugar out there.

-ose = sugar suffix

GlucOSE
FructOSE – fruit sugar
SucrOSE – table sugar
SucralOSE – Splenda

Your body can turn any of these other sugars in to glucose.  It can actually turn other carbohydrates, and even non-sugar molecules into glucose if it really needs to.  This all happens in your liver…

If you were in a long-term starvation or malnutrition situation, your body would circulate non-glucose energy sources to try to get energy, since the process of making glucose can be relatively slow.  This is because your body would prefer to live than die.

Brain Food

The brain is a picky eater, and refuses to utilize non-glucose sources of energy.  This is because your brain works A LOT!  And it doesn’t have time to use inefficient sources of energy.  Therefore, it will hog the glucose from the rest of your body.

Your skeletal muscles use glucose to do work.  This is why people with diabetes have to be extra cautious when they exercise.

Extra glucose gets saved for those times when you’re not eating.  It gets put in a really long chain called glycogen.  But getting the glucose back from the glycogen can be relatively slow.

Recovering from an episode of low blood sugar takes time and requires rest (so you’re not burning through the fuel as fast as you replenish it).  But it can also be emotionally stressful because you may be required to eat “unhealthy” amounts of sugary or carb-heavy foods to get back to normal.

Energy Production

Glucose has a very complex metabolism cycle – the Krebs cycle.
One intermediate is glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) – there is a genetic mutation where a protein for this step doesn’t do it’s job very well.  If this step gets delayed or clogged up, then there is a detour metabolism step that leads to triglyceride production, when then leads to fat storage.  *womp womp*  (note: triglycerides are useful in the right amounts for cell repair)  This is also why eating large amounts of sugary plus fatty foods can lead to quick weight gain.

The end result of this cycle is Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP).  It is super energetic when a phosphate piece is removed.  It’s like the body’s dynamite.  This is how a sugar high works – all the sugar leads to all the dynamite exploding at once, but then it takes a while for it to get replenished, and that’s why you crash after a sugar-high.

Low Blood Sugar is Bad

To immediately recover from low blood sugar, you need simple sugar (orange juice, regular soda, sugar-full hard candy, glucose tabs or paste or gel).  To continue to recover, you need carbs plus something that will help it not absorb so fast (i.e. protein, healthy fats).

If you ever look at the underside of your tongue, you can see the blood vessels really clearly because they’re really close to the surface.  So if someone is unconscious due to low blood sugar, you can use a glucose tablet or gel under their tongue and it will absorb into the blood stream.  This is also how you can absorb sugar quickly from sugar-full gum.

Low blood sugar can lead to emotional fluctuations (aka crabby and grouchy) and short-term memory loss (and not just because you passed out).

Connect with me

Support us on Patreon

*NEW* Join the Pharmacist Answers Podcast Community on Facebook

Subscribe: iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, TuneIn Radio

Like the Facebook page

Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Special Episode #4: Life & Blood Sugar [Show Notes]

 in Diabetes / Podcasts / Special Edition  tagged allergies / blood sugar / Diabetes / exercise / glucose / glycogen / hormones / insulin / sickness / Sleep / smoking / stress / T1D by

For someone with diabetes, everything they do in life affects their blood sugar.  They could be eating 100% right and taking their medicine 100% right, and something would cause the blood sugar to be off.

Exercise

It is well-accepted that exercise is good for you.  Your body will store extra sugar as a large molecule called Glycogen.  Imagine a line of kindergarteners hold hands trying to make it through the museum, Glycogen is just a bunch of glucoses holding hands.  When you’re not eating, your body will snip off a glucose at a time as it needs it.  The liver stores and directs the glycogen most of the time.  Your skeletal muscles also store some glycogen, because when they do work (i.e. exercise), it takes too long for the liver to snip off glucose from glycogen and send it to them.  

After exercise, the body replenishes the muscles’ glycogen stores.  This can cause the blood sugar level to drop, for someone with diabetes, this can be dangerous because they can’t “untake” medicine.  When protein and carbohydrates are eaten together, before or after exercise, the blood sugar changes can happen more slowly – the nutrient absorption in the gut causes a “traffic jam” of sorts.

Sleep

Certain metabolism processes happen only when you sleep.    Some people with diabetes wake up with really high blood sugar, others wake up with really low blood sugar.  Sleep is not restful and restorative if the blood sugar is out of balance, but also if sleep is not restful, then blood sugar levels can be jacked up – not just in the morning, but for the rest of the day.

Stress

The hormones that are triggered by stress – even something as basic as adrenaline, can cause the body to respond to insulin and glucose differently.  

Sickness

Your body is going to responds things differently when the immune system is in high gear – that includes insulin, glucose, the food you eat.  An infection requires an antibiotic because you are infected with a bacteria.  Bacteria are living organisms.  Living organisms consume energy sources and produce waste.  This can affect the sugar levels in your bloodstream.  You’re immune system doing work also burns sugar.

Allergies

Works about the same as sickness.  Your immune system is actively trying to protect you from something (allergens) and so it responds differently.

Smoking

If you smoke, STOP!  The nicotine and other chemicals make you more resistant to insulin.  This is most troublesome in Type 2 Diabetes.

Hormones

Especially for women, hormone cycles can affect sensitivity to insulin differently during different times of the month.  Adrenaline can override almost any response to any previous hormone response.

Life is hard

Life with diabetes is super hard.  Diabetes and other chronic diseases are silent and it doesn’t show on the outside at first sight.  Extend grace, extend compassion.

The Nashville chapter of JDRF is having their annual One Walk on September 24th. Friend of the show and previous guest, Rachel Mayo has been #T1D for over 10 years and she is passionate about the cutting edge research and support JDRF provides for people and their families. Her goal is for her team to raise $5000, you can contribute!

Connect with me

Support us on Patreon

*NEW* Join the Pharmacist Answers Podcast Community on Facebook

Subscribe: iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, TuneIn Radio

Like the Facebook page

Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Insulin is not bad [Show Notes]

 in Diabetes / Podcasts  tagged Diabetes / diets / fat / glucose / insulin by

An image of a hand underling the word "DIABETES" in red marker. All Type 1 diabetics and many Type 2 diabetics depend on insulin to stay alive.

The Bottom Line

Without insulin, you would die!

Some Basics

Sugar scrub = sugar + water (+/- essential oils)
– a good exfoliant to remove dead skin

Your tiniest capillaries are so small that red blood cells can barely squeeze through one at a time.  So, if the fluid around the red blood cell is full of sugar, it’s like that sugar scrub on your skin.

And that extra sugar can damage the capillaries in your eyes, finger tips, toes, and organs.

The cells in your body require glucose to do their jobs.  

Insulin

Insulin is the only key that will let the glucose in.  No key means no glucose.  No glucose means no energy.  And no energy eventually means death.

Insulin is also responsible for fat storage.

If you don’t eat the sugars, the body will use the fat stores on your body for energy.  But if you don’t consume energy sources (by being on a specific diet) AND your energy stores are depleted, your body will break down the proteins (aka muscles of your body) to make energy.  Your brain (and other organs in your body don’t want you to die).

Sugars and fats you eat gets turned into glucose.  Insulin opens the doors to allow the cells to use the glucose.  If there’s extra glucose around, insulin tells the liver to link it together to form glycogen and store it for later.  If the glycogen storage is full, insulin tells the liver to turn the glucose into triglycerides (think clogged arteries and growing fat deposits).

Free glucose is the easiest and fastest to use.  But during times that you’re not actively consuming sugars (like when you’re sleeping), your body is still working and that’s when glycogen can be used to provide glucose.

How much sugar in a day?  

It’s always different for different people.  The goal is having a level blood sugar as much of the day as possible.  The rule of complex carbs being better than simple carbs is true, because it takes your body longer to break down and use complex carbs.  While simple carbs usually dump a whole log of glucose in your blood stream at one time.  And natural sugars are better than processed sugars because processed sugars tend to be more concentrated.

Your body has an easier time utilizing nutrients and supplements that look more like itself over ones that are synthesized in lab.

Holla!

Rachel Mayo is my diabetes hero!

Find her at:

Callback

T1D vs T2D

Connect with me

Support us on Patreon

*NEW* Join the Pharmacist Answers Podcast Community on Facebook

Subscribe: iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, TuneIn Radio

Like the Facebook page

Liver Lesson #3: Storage [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged eating / glucose / intestines / Liver / sleeping / storage / Vitamins by

Recap

Digestion – bile breaks down fat to be absorbed by intestines

Metabolism – breaking down food into useful pieces

Your liver helps you store those energy sources until you need them – like times when you’re not eating.

Your body does lots of processes for you while you’re sleeping.

Storage

Glucose is a main source of energy for your body.

Insulin tells your cells to let glucose in the door so it can be used immediately.  It also tells the liver to put extra glucose in long chains called Glycogen to store for future use.

Another energy source is fat or fatty acids.  When the liver doesn’t have enough space for fat, it sends it to other areas of the body.

Certain vitamins (A, D, E, K) like to hang out in fat more than water, so it goes with the fat wherever it goes.

The liver stores Vitamin B12.  B12 is usually promoted for energy boosting.  A vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to a certain type of anemia (pernicious anemia). This means not enough red blood cells are being made, thus not enough oxygen is being delivered to all the parts of your body.  Therefore your body doesn’t have the resources to utilize and create energy.  End result: you feel tired.

Iron and copper are also stored by your liver until you need them.  Low iron is another culprit of anemia.

Interesting fact:  This is why liver tastes more metallic than other red meats.

Connect with me

Support us on Patreon

*NEW* Join the Pharmacist Answers Podcast Community on Facebook

Subscribe: iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, TuneIn Radio

Like the Facebook page

Liver Lesson #2: Metabolism [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged athletes / Cholesterol / Diabetes / fat / gallbladder / glucose / intestines / Liver / metabolism / protein / sugar by

Review

Liver – have one.

Lobule – yep!

A colored sketch of a liver lobule with labeled parts.

Liver makes bile, helps digest fat in the intestines. Gallbladder? Holds bile until your intestines need bile.

3 main energy sources:  Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins

Intestines absorb them into the blood and send them to the liver.

Basics of Metabolism

Metabolism = change

This type of change happens for 2 reasons:

  1. To make something useful
  2. To make something safe

What’s water got to do with it?

  • Your blood is made of water
  • Liver preforms hydrolysis on carbohydrates (using water to dissolve it into tiny bits of sugar = glucose)

Carbohydrate Metabolism

Glucose is the main form of sugar that your body uses for energy.

Sugars are the easiest to turn into energy so that gets used first.  So low carb diets force the body to go after fats, which are the next easiest.  If you’re eating low fat as well, then the body will burn the fat deposits on the body.  Weight loss!

Fat Metabolism

The liver breaks down the fatty acids to make cholesterol (which is not always bad).  Cholesterol is used in your cells walls to keep them fluid and slippery.  Cholesterol is also used to make bile (think “like dissolves like”).  If there’s any extra fatty acids the liver performs gluconeogenesis (gluco = glucose, neo = new, genesis = creation). It basically creating glucose out of anything that contains Carbon.

This is why fats are bad for Type 2 Diabetics as well as sugar.

Protein Metabolism

Protein is the hardest, but can still provide energy.  Proteins are made up of amino acids.  Amino = Nitrogen, acid = carbon.  The nitrogen is relatively useless, so the liver turns it into urea, that gets sent out and filtered by the kidneys.  The part with the carbon can be turned into glucose (gluconeogenesis again).

One of the intermediate steps of the urea production is ammonia.  There is actually a blood test that can be done to test the ammonia-urea balance (BUN = Blood Urea Nitrogen), and if this is out of balance, it indicates a problem.  This test may indicate that your body is metabolizing your own muscles.  This can also be a sign of starvation or other nutritional imbalance.  You need your muscles, you don’t want to metabolize your muscles.

Your body generally needs fully intact amino acids to build, rebuild, and heal muscles.  Proteins and amino acids have a life span, so your body is constantly rebuilding and replacing with fresh supply.  Athletes require higher protein diets than most because of this process.

Take Away

Glucose and fats aren’t inherently bad, it’s more about the amounts of each that get consumed and float around your body.

Your liver can be very efficient and metabolizing the foods you eat.

Your body gets fat deposits because the body is saturated with enough fatty acids that it needs, so any extra gets packed up and shipped around the body to be stored until later.

Connect with me

Support us on Patreon

*NEW* Join the Pharmacist Answers Podcast Community on Facebook

Subscribe: iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, TuneIn Radio

Like the Facebook page