Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 37

Let's Talk Insulin

Do you know what it is, where it comes from, what it does for you? I knew the basics from nursing school but didn't have a full appreciation for it until Caitlin's life became dependent on an outside source for it.

Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that regulates the amount of glucose in your blood. Type 1 Diabetes occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.  When we eat, glucose levels rise, and insulin is released into the blood stream. Insulin is the "key" that unlocks the cell that allows glucose to move from the blood into the cell to make energy. 

From the 1920s to the 1980s, insulin from animals was used for treatment. In the 1980s, the first generation of man-made insulin, called "human insulin", was created. This man-made insulin was genetically identical to the body's naturally produced insulin. By the late 1990s, man-made insulin analogs were being developed. Insulin analogs are similar to regular human insulin, but they are changed slightly to allow them to act more quickly or slowly than regular human insulin.

But in the end, however it's made or wherever it comes from, a person with T1D is completely dependent on it and will not survive for very long without it. There is no amount of diet, exercise, okra water, or snake oil that will change that fact. Insulin is not a cure for diabetes, it just keeps people alive until we find one.