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 Type 1 diabetes in children. And if you want to follow along with written notes on this

topic, you can follow along at 0.0.5.com in the pediatric endocrinology section or in the

endocrinology section of the zero-definals pediatric's book.

So let's get straight into it.

Type 1, diabetes melitus is a disease where the pancreas stops being able to produce insulin.

What causes the pancreas to stop producing insulin is unclear

and there may be a genetic component,

or it may be triggered by certain viruses, such as the Coxsaki B virus and entrovirus.

When the pancreas is not producing insulin, the cells of the body cannot take glucose from

the blood and use it as fuel. An incident acts like a key that lets

glucose into the cell. Therefore, when there's no insulin, the cells think there is no

glucose in the blood and the body is being fasted. The cells cannot use glucose so the level

of glucose in the blood keeps rising,

and this causes hyperglycemia or high glucose level in the blood.

Let's go through some basic physiology so that you know about blood glucose regulation.

Eating carbohydrates causes a rise in blood glucose or blood sugar levels.

As the body uses carbohydrates for energy, there is a fall in blood glucose levels.

The body ideally wants to keep the blood glucose concentration between 4.4 and 6.1 millimoles per litre.

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that reduces

blood sugar levels and insulin is produced by the beta cells in the islets of Langehans in the

pancreas and it's an anabolic hormone meaning a building hormone. And it's always present

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