Hyperglycemia - Metabolisms Gone Wild Vol. 1

No, this is not where I'll show you a scantily clad or partially naked pancreas. Heck, a fully clothed pancreas wouldn't be all that appealing. It's an internal organ, after all.

Now that I've explained what diabetes IS, I think I need to take a deeper dive into some of the things that make it an illness; what it initially does internally. "INITIALLY!" I want to make this very clear that this is the beginning of a debilitating path. The crippling aspects of diabetes can sneak in much later. Sorry, there's no funny way to say that. I can't cheerfully say, "Hey, everyone! Let's look at how a lack of insulin destroys your body!"

I'll take this symptom by symptom. Keep in mind that there's going to be more medical technobabble. I've used some of the words in previous posts; I'm kind of hoping repetition will hammer some of the information into those gray databanks in people's heads. 😉

Fatigue - I've said this before: our bodies need sugar for everything. Walking, talking, breathing... We need energy all the way down to the cellular level to function. We even need sugar to think, as the mind will fail to function without fuel, just as it would fail if the oxygen supply were cut off. Without insulin, cells throughout the body won’t open up and get their sugar fix. With the fuel being withheld, things don't function. The body literally becomes exhausted.

Frequent urination - Polyuria, AKA peeing  a lot, contributes to fatigue. To be more accurate, it’s actually glycosuria, the passing of sugar into the urine. Y'see, the kidneys are wonderful organs that that absorb all kinds of waste, and this filtration includes the reclamation of certain nutrients, such as sugar. But like a filter that you'd find in a mechanical device, the kidneys can only handle so much. When that limit is reached in terms of sugar, the renal threshold is crossed and sugar starts spilling into the urine. The body knows it has too much sugar and neither wants it nor needs it. Thus, a kind of cry for help goes out from the kidneys. “Help us get rid of all this extra garbage!”  The body responds by trying to dilute the glycosuria with an increase in fluids. And that leads to...

Extreme thirst - Have you ever become so thirsty that you might consider drinking motor oil? Okay, no one has, not even a thirsty diabetic. But when polydipsia occurs, a person will consider drinking just about any fluid that has been ingested by humans in the past. Water, juice, coffee, tea, soft drinks, milk... "Quench the thirst!" That's the only goal. The problem is that some of a diabetic's desperate choices to end the unshakeable thirst can be deadly. Coffee, tea, and soft drinks might have sugar. But juice and milk definitely have sugar in them! Fructose and lactose respectively. (Glucose. Seeing a pattern there? That O-S-E at the end tends to indicate a form of sugar.)

Hunger - Extreme hunger, AKA polyphagia, is often associated more with low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), but can occur when blood sugar also climbs. That's because the body can't use the existing sugar thanks to a lack of insulin, so it demands something else. When all of the above is occurring and a diabetic starts eating whatever they can get their hands on, it will compound the problems. Any carbohydrates will be broken down into sugar that the body still can't use! 

Allow me to summarize: No insulin 🠞🠞🠞 No energy to function and buildup of sugar in the blood 🠞🠞🠞 Kidneys go into overdrive to get rid of the sugar 🠞🠞🠞 Extreme thirst kicks in to provide the kidneys with fluid to flush out the sugar 🠞🠞🠞 Body becomes exhausted from all of this extra work 🠞🠞🠞 Hunger makes the diabetic eat in a desperate quest for energy  🠞🠞🠞 But there's no insulin 🠞🠞🠞 No energy to function and buildup of sugar in the blood...

What a fun little circle of destruction! This is the process of hyperglycemia, high blood sugar. It's the beginning of a metabolic disaster. THE BEGINNING! Tune in next time when things get much worse!