What is the role of insulin?
Insulin is a
hormone which works as a chemical messenger that helps your body use the
glucose in your blood to give you energy. You can think of it as the key that
unlocks the door to the body’s cells.
Once the door is unlocked, glucose can
enter the cells where it is used as fuel. In Type 1 diabetes the body is unable
to produce any insulin so there is no key to unlock the door, and the glucose
builds up in the blood.
The body
can't use glucose to provide energy and tries to get it from elsewhere and
starts to break down stores of fat and protein instead. This can cause weight
loss. Because the body doesn’t use the glucose it ends up passing into the
urine.
Nobody knows
for sure why these insulin-producing cells have been destroyed, but the most
likely cause is the body having an abnormal reaction to the cells. This may be
triggered by a virus or other infection.
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