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Information On Type 2's and Hypo's.

S

simply_h

Well-Known Member
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Location
The north
Hello All,

I have more Questions. (sorry)

I have been reading around like a mad man, and one thing that I don’t understand is ‘Hypos’.

I understand what these are, when your blood sugars fall below 4.0mmol.

Ok if you control your Blood sugars by low carbing and check your blood sugar via a blood meter.

How can you go Hypo, as does the body not try and regulate blood sugar via the pancreas, it still try’s to do this even if is not working at its best, like in type 2’s.

What I mean is Beta cells collect sugar in the blood by making insulin and Alpha cells make glucagons to get the liver to release sugar into the blood stream.

So if you are diabetic type 2, can the doctors not tell us which bit has failed, as this would help type 2’s a great deal.

Also another question, if you are type 2, what bit is broken, are you insulin resistant, where the muscle cells will not accept sugar as energy from the blood, so therefore the sugar in the blood has no were to go OR is the pancreas, not making enough insulin via the beta cells to collect up the sugar from the blood.

See I am well confused, as I do honestly believe that the human body has alternative way to deal with things that break down in the human body, but for these to work, the body needs a little help from time to time, so this is why I need to fully understand how the body controls blood sugars.

I have asked my nurse and doctors and they have not helped, there advise is keep taking you tablets and come back every 3 months, this is what makes me very un-happy as its my body, and I need to help it, but I am not getting the information I need, so that I can help my body deal with broken bits.

Anyway, if anybody has any advice it would be really good.

Thank you in advance.

Simply_h.
 
Type2's - What type are we: Alpha or Beta.

Hello All
Another question.. :-)
If you are type 2, then your Pancreas is not working as it should.

So if we say that the pancreas has Beta cells to collect sugar in the blood by making insulin and Alpha cells make glucagons to get the liver to release sugar into the blood stream.

So how do you know which part of the pancreas is not working correctly..?

As if we are type 2's, would it not be really good to know which part Alpha,Beta or Both are not working as they should???

Would it not in turn help us deal with / manage it better.?

As you always hear about insulin resistant where the muscle cells will not accept sugar as energy from the blood, so therefore the sugar in the blood has no were to go
AND
that the pancreas is not making enough insulin via the beta cells to collect up the sugar from the blood..

Any ideas or am I looking into this too deeply.
Cheers
Simply_h
 
Re: Type2's - What type are we: Alpha or Beta.

In Type 2's the Beta cells may be either burning out because of over production of Insulin in Insulin resistance or failing for another reason.

You were talking about Hypos earlier. If you ' liver dump' then your Alpha cells are working OK !

Another link for you to read.

http://www.isletsofhope.com/diabetes/sy ... _pg_1.html
 
Hi, simply_h

I can relate to your second question! On diagnosis I asked my GP - 'am I insulin resistant or am I not making enough insulin?' Answer - 'it doesn't matter, the symptoms are the same' :shock:

It does matter to me - I would like to know if it's a purely metabolic problem or if the pancreas is actually failing. It won't make any difference to the way I control my disease (low-carbing, with metformin at present), but it will make a difference to me in my approach to the eventual progression of the disease.

If it's insulin resistance, I (personally) believe that I can limit if not stop the progression by tight control of my blood sugars. If it's a failing pancreas, I may be able to delay the inevitable by good control and resting my pancreas, but eventually I'll be on insulin.

I understand that a basal insulin test can answer this question, but as far as I can tell this is not available in the UK - at least, not on the NHS.

So I'm as confused as you on this one, and frustrated! My best advice is - get a meter and keep testing - it's the only way to get control of your blood glucose levels.

Best of luck

Viv 8)
 
Re: Type2's - What type are we: Alpha or Beta.

Thanks for that link, Sue. It's helped me too, re my reply to Simply_h's second question in the other post.

Viv 8)
 
If you are overweight then you are probably Insulin resistant. Therefore reducing carbs will have a two-fold effect. You will rest the Pancreas so that it does not need to produce so much Insulin and, in reducing the carbs , you will probably lose weight.

Losing weight then reduces Insulin resistance and your Pancreas can work more efficiently, it will never be the same as it was but you can reverse some of the effects.
 
Hi Simply_h

I share some of your concerns with regard to knowing the cause of your own diabetes. The problems as I see it include the relative lack of wide-ranging tests that can be done at a sensible cost to the NHS. Even the few tests that can be done e.g. c-peptide, GAD etc seem to be avoided by GPs on the basis that the treatment for T2s is 'the same' i.e. follow the NICE flow-chart. Actually in my experience the GPs don't always even follow the NICE chart but guess. My GP guessed that I was a standard T2 but all the indications are that I'm one of the small percentage of exceptions and not insulin resistant. If more testing was done the categorisation of patients would be more accurately made which would help research. I learned a long time ago in business that 'you can't manage what you can't measure'. In my case I've just gone on to Januvia which has had a dramatic effect for me on BS whereas Gliclazide wasn't helping much. The two drugs have completley different mechanisms for managing insulin. To me this indicates that what triggers my pancreas to produce the goods is different from another T2 who goes hypo on Gliclazide. If this knowledge was collected with more testing it might help separate out the different failure mechanisms in the body and aid research. The March 2011 report by the RCGP 'Coding, Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes' makes excellent reading with the link to it somewhere on the Forum.
 
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