Type 2 Diabetes Essay

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Doctors have been wary in reminding their patients with type 2 diabetes to limit their daily intake of sugar. Like the healthy ones, diabetics still need to include sugars in their menu but only in reasonable amounts. They are advised to follow a low-sugar diet and are asked to take drugs that help their body become more sensitive to insulin.

Insulin is an enzyme that regulates sugar in the blood. Experts are aware that sugars are not limited to just the ‘table sugar’ that ordinary people know. The forms of sugar extend its forms to all kinds of carbohydrates – including rice, bread, pasta and pastries. When carbohydrates are broken down into glucose units during digestion, the insulin makes sure that these molecules do not float in the blood in excessive amounts. The enzyme delivers them to the liver and stores them in the form of glycogen. Whenever …show more content…

As a result, too much of glucose are present in the blood especially right after eating. The blood sugar level is kept high, and the liver continues to break down glycogen despite the glucose already saturating the blood.

In a study published Thursday in the journal Cell Metabolism, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis proposed a new drug that has the potential to treat patients with type 2 diabetes. The research team believes that making the body more sensitive to insulin is not the only way to cure the disease. One may also limit the production of glucose from the liver to minimize the concentration of sugar in the blood.

Brian N. Finck, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science, is the lead researcher of the study. He said in a press release that their strategy could lead to more efficient treatments for type 2 diabetes. Potential drugs just have to target a key protein involved in the glucose reaction

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