12/02/2025
🔑Let's unlock the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes! Insulin is the key.
Glucose is our body's primary energy source, powering everything from your muscles to your brain. Insulin helps unlock our cells' ability to move glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream and into cells for use as energy.
When your system is working normally, the process is smooth and efficient:
🍏Glucose: Food is broken down into glucose that enters the bloodstream.
🔑Insulin: The pancreas produces insulin, which acts as the key that opens the glucose channel in your body's cells.
🔋Energy: This allows the glucose to leave the bloodstream and enter your cells to be used as fuel.
💪Storage: Insulin also helps store excess glucose as glycogen in your liver and muscles for when you need energy later.
Here's how the system works and what happens when the key doesn't fit!
🪫Type 1: The body's immune system attacks the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. As a result, the body has no key (insulin) to open the cells. Our muscles and other cells cannot get enough glucose and function properly, leading to high blood sugar and low cell energy.
⛔Type 2: The pancreas makes insulin, but the cells become resistant to it. The key is there, but the lock is rusty and won't turn easily. Glucose can't enter the cells effectively, leading to high blood sugar.
High glucose levels in the blood stream are toxic and can damage the kidney, eyes, gums, nerves, and other organs.
