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.

If you want to follow along with written notes on this subject, you can go to 0.0.com slash type 1 diabetes with the number 1.

Or you can check out the endocrinology section of the zero to finals medicine book let's get straight into it to go through type 1 diabetes first we need to

start with some basic physiology eating carbohydrates causes a rise in blood glucose levels

as the body uses these carbohydrates for energy there's a fall in blood glucose levels. As the body uses these carbohydrates for energy, there's a fall in blood glucose levels,

and 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. It is produced by

the beta cells in the islets of Langehans in the pancreas and it's an anabolic hormone which means

it's a building hormone. It's always present in small amounts in the blood, but it increases when

the blood sugar levels rise and the job of but it increases when the blood sugar levels rise,

and the job of insulin is to reduce the blood sugar level. It does this in two ways. Firstly, it causes

cells in the body to absorb glucose from the blood and use that glucose as fuel, and secondly,

it causes the muscles and the liver cells to absorb

glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen. Insulin is essential in letting cells take

glucose out of the blood and use it as fuel. So without insulin, cells can't take that glucose

out of the blood.

Think of insulin as a specialist piece of equipment that lets the cells see the glucose and use it.

Glucagon is a hormone that's also produced in the pancreas, and the job of glucagon is to increase blood sugar levels.

It's produced by the alpha cells in the islets of Langerh in the pancreas and it's a catabolic hormone, meaning a breakdown hormone. It's released in

response to low blood sugar levels and stress and it tells the liver to break down glycogen into glucose.

This process is called glycogenolysis. It also tells the liver

to convert proteins and fats into glucose, and this process is called gluconeogenesis. So by doing

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