Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about blood glucose regulation.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash blood glucose or in the endocrinology section

of the second edition of the zero to finals medicine book. And you can find flashcards and

questions to train your knowledge on this content and help you remember the information for longer

at members.0.0.0.com.

So let's get straight into it.

Glucose is the primary energy source for the cells, muscles and brain.

Glucose is transported around the body in the blood.

The blood glucose concentration is ideally kept between 4.4 and 6.1 millimoles per liter.

Insulin and glucogon are hormones that control the blood glucose concentration.

This section covers carbohydrate absorption, insulin, glucagon, storage of excess glucose,

ketosis, type 1 diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis, type 2 diabetes, glucose testing and diabetes medications.

Let's start with carbohydrate absorption.

Carbohydrates are consumed in food.

Carbohydrate molecules range in complexity from polysaccharides, which are the most complex,

long chains of many monosaccharide units, which are individual sugar molecules, all the way

to individual monosaccharides, for example, glucose,

galactose and fructose, which are single carbohydrate molecules.

It's worth noting that dextrose and glucose refer to the same molecule.

Carbohydrates are broken down into monosaccharides or single sugar molecules with the help

of enzymes, specifically amylase from the saliva, amylase from the pancreas, and lactase, maltase, and sucrease from the surface of the

small intestine wall.

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