glucagon basic question

Matt1212 said:

Hello All,

What causes the body to release glucagon ?
Is it low BG or very small amounts of insulin in the blood ?

Alpha cells in the pancreas, but can't be relied upon as they do take a very long time to send the signal to the liver, and they may not be present so may not work

if a type 1 diabetic has a BG of 2.0 but just injected novaparid would glucagon be released or would the high level of insulin stop the glucagon release

You would likely kill your self, 2mmol/ml is very near the line where the body is in serious trouble indeed, most diabetics are unconsiouse (sp)

equally if BG 20 but no insulin in blood would glucagon be released and push BG even higher ?

the liver dribbles glucagon into the blood stream 24/7 a varying amounts, the body does have the ability to dump the whole store into the system if it recgonises that blood glucose is dangerously low, so yes the blood glucose would continual to raise with out insulin, your background insulin is what keeps it at bay, in theory if you are injecting the right amount of background insulin to tackle whats being put into the blood stream from the liver, then you should be able to fast with you BG maintain a steady level

thanks
Matt

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Glucagon responses to hypoglycemia have been known to be blunted in type 1 diabetes of long duration, and this may be a result of a loss of alpha- and beta-cell communication secondary to insulin deficiency

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