The best analogy that I have read is comparing high blood glucose to a solution of sugar and water.
If you were to dip cells into a sugar-water bath of varying concentrations, it would, over time kill them.
The stronger the concentration, the quicker the death.
And the effects are cumulative.
So if you dip the cells into a sugar-water bath for 1 hour at a low concentration, there is less damage than for a 10 hour soak.
But 1 hour x 10 will add together to do the same damage as a single 10 hour soak.
Plus of course, the stronger the concentration, the more damage.
So a series of high spikes will equate to a longer spike. And the higher the spike, the more damage.
The cells that are being harmed are the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas, and though there is some evidence that beta cells can regenerate (in young rats) there is very limited evidence that they regenerate in adult humans, especially the kind of mature human who usually gets T2. Other cells are also affected (including the brain, because there is a link between T2 and Alzheimers).
So basically every time your bg rises enough to create the sugar-bath effect, you are killing or damaging beta cells, and once they are gone, they are gone. Without them, we move inexorably towards injecting insulin.
I have heard a figure banded about (no idea how accurate) that by the time you get T2 symptoms, you have already lost half your beta cells.
And, as Indy51 has already linked, there is evidence that this beta cell damage starts when blood glucose rises above 7.8mmol/l
ed. (Belatedly) for a confusing typo
If you were to dip cells into a sugar-water bath of varying concentrations, it would, over time kill them.
The stronger the concentration, the quicker the death.
And the effects are cumulative.
So if you dip the cells into a sugar-water bath for 1 hour at a low concentration, there is less damage than for a 10 hour soak.
But 1 hour x 10 will add together to do the same damage as a single 10 hour soak.
Plus of course, the stronger the concentration, the more damage.
So a series of high spikes will equate to a longer spike. And the higher the spike, the more damage.
The cells that are being harmed are the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas, and though there is some evidence that beta cells can regenerate (in young rats) there is very limited evidence that they regenerate in adult humans, especially the kind of mature human who usually gets T2. Other cells are also affected (including the brain, because there is a link between T2 and Alzheimers).
So basically every time your bg rises enough to create the sugar-bath effect, you are killing or damaging beta cells, and once they are gone, they are gone. Without them, we move inexorably towards injecting insulin.
I have heard a figure banded about (no idea how accurate) that by the time you get T2 symptoms, you have already lost half your beta cells.
And, as Indy51 has already linked, there is evidence that this beta cell damage starts when blood glucose rises above 7.8mmol/l
ed. (Belatedly) for a confusing typo
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