When we talk about people having diabetes, that's really saying that their blood sugars are higher than normal. It's all. Next. Some of the terms that you will hear often when we're talking about blood sugars, our glucose. Glucose is a chemical that is basically a sugar that gets broken down from carbohydrates that we eat. So when we eat fruits, or vegetables, or grains of any type, they get broken down in the body into small molecules called glucose.
That glucose is really important because we need it for energy for all of the cells in our body. Insulin is a hormone. hormones are messengers that take a signal from one part of the body and deliver it to another part of the body. Insulin is one of those hormones you Basically what it does is it signals the cell to open up and to allow glucose to come into the cell so the cell can use it as fuel body. So we'll start out with when we eat food. Food is fuel for our bodies, and we use what we eat to energize ourselves so that they can do their jobs.
So when we eat food, particularly things that are carbohydrates, they go into our small intestine, and then the glucose gets broken down into its individual molecules, and it gets released into the bloodstream. Once the pancreas senses that there is glucose in the bloodstream, then it actually begins to release a hormone called insulin. Insulin is a key to yourself. So insulin then goes to yourself It acts like a key inside the lock to open up yourself. And once the cells are open to glucose, glucose can go through. Now insulin only allows glucose to go through into the cells.
But it has to be there for glucose to get into the cells. That's what happens under normal circumstances. And then your blood sugar levels or your blood glucose levels, go back down to normal. Now, how does someone get diagnosed with diabetes? What happens is you still eat the same food. It goes into your small intestine, it gets broken down into glucose and it gets released into your bloodstream.
It's in your bloodstream, and then you release your hormone from your pancreas, insulin, and instead of insulin going and opening up the south, it's almost like it Having a problem getting into the lock, like a rusty lock or rusty key, it can't really get in there. And it's not opening up the cells as Easy, easy Lee as it used to. As a result, glucose doesn't get into the cells, it stays in your bloodstream, and it creates high blood glucose levels. When you actually go and have your blood drawn, you then see these high levels on those tests. And that is how they make the diagnosis that you have pre diabetes or diabetes based on how much glucose is being found in your blood. Now