Nurse Teaching on Mechanism of Insulin Action

Nurse educated the patient and caregiver on mechanism of insulin action as follows:

  1. Insulin is a hormone naturally produced by the pancreas in your body. Insulin helps with shifting the glucose from the blood into the cells of body tissues. This helps with regulating the blood sugar levels. Also, glucose transported into the cells provides nutrition to the cells and thus is utilized for the metabolism and normal function of body cells.
  2. Type-1 diabetes is a condition in which your immune system destroys the insulin producing cells in pancreas. This results in reduced or no insulin production by the body. Reduced or lack of insulin hormone leads to poor shifting of glucose from the blood into the cells of body tissues.
  3. Type-2 diabetes is a condition in which your body becomes resistant to the action insulin. Resistance to action of insulin hormone leads to poor shifting of glucose from the blood into the cells of body tissues.
  4. Either Type-1 or Type-2 diabetes, poor shifting of glucose from the blood into the cells of body tissues from compromised insulin action results in poor control and regulation blood sugars. This leads to increased sugar levels in the blood and reduced availability of sugar for the cells and tissues.
  5. Sugar (glucose) is the primary source of nutrition and energy for all the vital organs and tissues like kidneys, heart, and skeletal muscle in the body. As glucose is poorly available for nutrition of these cells in diabetic individuals, function of vital organs and tissues can suffer. This leads to diabetes symptoms, such as, feeling very tired, confusion, fatigue, and feeling increasingly hungry.
  6. Glucose is initially easily filtered into the urine by kidneys and later is almost completely reabsorbed back into the body from the renal tubules. High glucose in the blood in poorly managed diabetics, initially leads to more glucose filtered into the urine by kidneys. Despite some glucose being reabsorbed into the body later from the renal tubules, still significant amounts of glucose is eliminated in the urine. Glucose, while getting eliminated, carries water along with it. Increased amounts of glucose eliminated in the urine of poorly controlled diabetics carry high volumes of water along. This results in poorly controlled diabetics urinating frequently contributing to increased fluid loss from the body. As more fluid is lost from the body, unless timely replenished, these individuals lose weight quickly, become increasingly thirsty, hypotensive, confused, and develop dry skin.
  7. Insulin administered in diabetic individuals helps to promote shifting of glucose from the blood into the cells of body tissues. This helps with reducing/regulating the blood sugar levels and contributes towards improved blood sugar control. Increased glucose availability within the cells help support their metabolism and nourish body tissues better. This contributes to improve/relieve symptoms of diabetes.
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