You might not get the job…

This post is my August entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival.  If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/august-dsma-blog-carnival-2/.

Your pancreas is in a job interview and totally bombed the question about its role in type 2 diabetes. It wants to take the blame for something that has roots of unknown origins.

Let’s face it – everyone associates diabetes with the pancreas or blood glucose levels. In type 2 diabetes, that is not where the disease process begins. It starts with insulin resistance, which means the pancreas is indeed producing enough insulin. However, the body cannot use it effectively to move glucose out of the bloodstream and into various cells for fuel. How insulin resistance develops is unknown – some would say lifestyle and/or genetics, but it might even be an autoimmune reaction.

Over time, the pancreas MAY begin to slow down insulin production. Come on, it is hard work producing higher and higher amounts of insulin to compensate for that insulin resistance. No wonder that some people with type 2 diabetes must supplement with or even depend on insulin.

So while you still can, pancreas, why don’t you play up what still works? You’re still producing digestive enzymes, that other function of the pancreas that is often overshadowed. You do what you can when it comes to producing insulin, and you want to work well with the body’s cells as a team player, but the glucose receptors just won’t cooperate.

It’s okay, you’re still a valued and important organ to me. (Unlike that friend of yours, the thyroid, who is totally lazy and incompetent.)