Carbohydrate metabolism...how does it know?

[kmortis]

But there is still hope. After 30 years of being type II, enough exercise and a low carb diet did enable me to go without insulin for several months. Until my tendinopathy got too bad for me to work that hard.

Kmortis, did you confuse 'glucophage' with 'glucagon'? One is a treatment that lowers sugar, the other a hormone/signal that raises sugar.

I think furctose is left-handed glucose. Needs to be turned by enzymes in the liver before being used as glucose.

It appears that I did get my diabetes med and pancreatic hormone mixed up. Good catch.

Fructose is not L-Glucose, it is very similar, to the point of being an isomer of glucose, but it's not as simple as L- & D-glucose. In fact, both fructose and glucose as used by the body are both right handed.

Congrats on the control, m'man. Keep up the good work. I really need to add exercise into my daily routine, not just because I'm diabetic. I'm just a fat-ass.

 

[kmortis]

"So, does incretin work like insulin, or does it just tell the pancreas that there's too much sugar in the intestines and something should be done about it?"

Incretins just tell the pancreas to make more insulin in response to a given amount of glucose. Incretins also act on the alpa cells of the pancreas to suppress the secretion of glucagon. Incretins have a lot of other functions, such as on appetite.

Here is a good review article on incretins by one of the leading guys in that area. If you search it on PubMed, you can download it for free.
Nauck MA, Baller B, Meier JJ. Gastric inhibitory polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes. 2004 Dec;53 Suppl 3:S190-6.

To your question about fructose, I don't know. But you got me thinking, so I'm going to look into that.

"I assume since you said that chronically elevated levels of glucose are toxic to it, that means to me that glucose is damaging to beta cells, but that at normal levels (or transient spikes) the cells can be repaired quick enough where the damage is not harmful to the organism as a whole. Is that a correct assumption?"

Exactly. Only chronically elevated glucose causes the damage, which may be through increased oxidative stress.

Here is a good review of the effects of chronic glucose on the beta cells. If you search it on PubMed, you can download it for free.
Robertson RP. Chronic oxidative stress as a central mechanism for glucose toxicity in pancreatic islet beta cells in diabetes.J Biol Chem. 2004 Oct 8;279(41):42351-4.

There is also evidence that chronically elevated glucose worsens insulin resistance. This may be the reason for the progressive nature of diabetes: High glucose begets high glucose.

When I get home from work, I'll look those up. Hopfully, they won't make my brain melt.

 

[kmortis]

"So, does incretin work like insulin, or does it just tell the pancreas that there's too much sugar in the intestines and something should be done about it?"

Incretins just tell the pancreas to make more insulin in response to a given amount of glucose. Incretins also act on the alpa cells of the pancreas to suppress the secretion of glucagon. Incretins have a lot of other functions, such as on appetite.

Here is a good review article on incretins by one of the leading guys in that area. If you search it on PubMed, you can download it for free.
Nauck MA, Baller B, Meier JJ. Gastric inhibitory polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes. 2004 Dec;53 Suppl 3:S190-6.

To your question about fructose, I don't know. But you got me thinking, so I'm going to look into that.

"I assume since you said that chronically elevated levels of glucose are toxic to it, that means to me that glucose is damaging to beta cells, but that at normal levels (or transient spikes) the cells can be repaired quick enough where the damage is not harmful to the organism as a whole. Is that a correct assumption?"

Exactly. Only chronically elevated glucose causes the damage, which may be through increased oxidative stress.

Here is a good review of the effects of chronic glucose on the beta cells. If you search it on PubMed, you can download it for free.
Robertson RP. Chronic oxidative stress as a central mechanism for glucose toxicity in pancreatic islet beta cells in diabetes.J Biol Chem. 2004 Oct 8;279(41):42351-4.

There is also evidence that chronically elevated glucose worsens insulin resistance. This may be the reason for the progressive nature of diabetes: High glucose begets high glucose.

I added the linkies to the abstracts for you.

 

[John Jones]

"So, does incretin work like insulin, or does it just tell the pancreas that there's too much sugar in the intestines and something should be done about it?"

Incretins just tell the pancreas to make more insulin in response to a given amount of glucose. Incretins also act on the alpa cells of the pancreas to suppress the secretion of glucagon. Incretins have a lot of other functions, such as on appetite.

Here is a good review article on incretins by one of the leading guys in that area. If you search it on PubMed, you can download it for free.
Nauck MA, Baller B, Meier JJ. Gastric inhibitory polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes. 2004 Dec;53 Suppl 3:S190-6.

To your question about fructose, I don't know. But you got me thinking, so I'm going to look into that.

I'm type 2 as well. The role of fructose in the diet has me confused also. i'm a chemist, and actually test for mono and disaccharides. The library at the lab offers research papers reaching contradictory conclusions about fructose.

I'm interested in what you find out.

John Jones.

 

[plumjam]

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