How Your Hormones Control Your Glucose Levels
Your body hormones work together as a team to keep your glucose—the main sugar in your blood—stable. If these hormones do their work properly, you feel energized and your body operates normally. When one or more of them become unbalanced, though, your glucose becomes too high or too low, and that leads to disease. Let's take a look at the main players in glucose control and how they work together as a team.
Why Is Glucose Balance Important?
Your body prefers to maintain glucose in a healthy range, not too high (hyperglycemia) and not too low (hypoglycemia). This is called glucose homeostasis. Imagine your body on a bicycle: you make small courses to stay upright. If your glucose gets too high or too low, your body does not work well. High glucose levels over time can damage blood vessels and nerves. Low glucose makes you trembly, dizzy, or confused.
Key Hormones That Control Glucose
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The Pancreas: Your Glucose Manager
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Insulin is produced by beta cells in the pancreas. It instructs your muscle, liver, and fat cells to take in glucose from the blood. This reduces your glucose after a meal.
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Glucagon is made by alpha cells in your pancreas. It instructs your liver to release stored-up glucose (glycogen) when your glucose level is low, say between meals or during exercise.
Insulin and glucagon are on a seesaw: one goes up, the other does too. They balance each other to keep your glucose in range.
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The Intestines: Hormone Helpers
Your digestive system does more than digest food. It also secretes hormones that control glucose:
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GLP-1 (Glucagon-like Peptide-1) is released from small and large intestine cells. During a meal, GLP-1 increases insulin secretion and decreases glucagon secretion, blocking the large spikes of glucose.
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GIP (Glucose-Dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide) is made by cells in your small intestine. It also causes your pancreas to let out insulin when you consume carbohydrates.
GLP-1 and GIP collaborate to get your body to respond to food by sending insulin only when it is necessary.
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The Adrenal Glands: Stress Responders
Your adrenal glands sit atop your kidneys. They release hormones that prepare your body for stress, but they also affect your fasting glucose:
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Cortisol is also known as the stress hormone. Cortisol makes your glucose go up by making the liver secrete more stored glucose. If you have too much cortisol in the long run—because of long-term stress or certain medications—your body gets resistant to insulin, and it gets harder to control glucose.
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Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, acts during "fight or flight" episodes, like intense fright or intense exercise. It tells your liver to release glycogen, flooding your body with a burst of glucose. This quick energy might just rescue you in an emergency, but too much adrenaline can lead to high glucose levels.
When Hormones Go Out of Balance
A proper system keeps these hormones balanced. But few things do disrupt it:
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Illness or Infection will spike stress hormones and raise glucose.
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Drugs such as steroids make cortisol high, and hence glucose is also high.
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Hormonal Disorders such as Cushing's disease or Addison's disease directly affect the amount of cortisol.
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Type 1 Diabetes results when the pancreas cannot make insulin anymore.
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Type 2 Diabetes results from insulin resistance and decreased insulin production over time.
If any of these problems occur, glucose homeostasis fails and your levels may stay too high or fall too low.
Tracking Your Glucose with SIBIONICS GS1
Understanding how your hormones affect your glucose allows you to make better choices about food, exercise, and stress. But to keep your glucose in check, you need reliable information. That's where SIBIONICS GS1 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) enters the picture.
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Real-Time Readings: The GS1 sensor lies just beneath your skin and takes readings of glucose in the fluid surrounding your cells every few minutes. You see your current glucose on your phone app—no finger sticks needed.
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Trend Arrows: The application shows arrows going up, down, or straight. The arrows tell you if your glucose is going up quickly (maybe because you just ate or were stressed) or coming down (maybe because you exercised or took insulin).
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Custom Alerts: You set your high and low glucose ranges. When your level passes those, GS1 will alert you. That warning earlier in the episode allows you to react—grabbing a snack, adjusting your insulin dose, or contacting your physician—before it gets bad.
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Daily and Weekly Reports: The GS1 app gives you summary charts of your average glucose, time in range, and how often you experienced highs and lows. You can print out or forward these reports to your healthcare provider so that you can tailor your care plan.
By combining your hormone knowledge with GS1 data, you can link glucose patterns to real events. For example, if you see a spike in glucose on stressful days, you can add a brief walk or relaxation exercise to your routine. If your glucose stays low after a hard workout, you will know to adjust your carbohydrate intake before working out.
Taking Charge of Your Health
Hormones and glucose regulation are complicated, but you don't have to figure it all out on your own. Use these steps to stay in control:
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Learn the Basics: Know which hormones affect glucose and how they work.
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Track Your Patterns: Use the SIBIONICS GS1 to gather real-time data about your glucose levels.
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Link Data to Actions: Notice how meals, exercise, stress, and sleep affect your glucose.
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Modify Lifestyle Choices: Plan balanced meals, manage stress, and time your exercise for easier glucose control.
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Collaborate with Your Healthcare Team: Bring your GS1 reports to your doctor or diabetes educator to optimize your treatment plan.
