Imagine a hotel with 100 rooms with hungry people trapped inside each room. Unfortunately, only 20 of the 100 room keys function properly. Despite this, the kitchen continuously pumps out more and more food carts that are delivered to each floor and start blocking the hallways. How can we solve this issue?

We can make more keys, even if only 20% of the keys function properly. We can make some skeleton keys that work for multiple rooms. We can stop the kitchen from releasing excess food carts. We can eliminate part of the kitchen food storage to slow down production. We can stop food truck deliveries to the kitchen. We can dispose of excess food carts that are clogging the hallways. 

Diabetes consists of having too much sugar in the blood which cannot get into the cells, which need it for energy. Excess sugar in the blood starts to cause damage to blood vessels. Because you have blood vessels in your whole body, diabetes affects the whole body. Insulin is the literal key to getting sugar from the blood vessels to cells. It binds to cell receptors and transports sugar into the tissue cells. Unfortunately, some people cannot make insulin (type I) and simply need to be treated with insulin. Others have insulin insensitivity, where their insulin only partially works correctly with cell receptors. 

We can treat this by simply supplementing with more insulin, giving medications that boost insulin production, increase release of stored insulin, increase insulin sensitivity, or using other methods. These include decreasing sugar storage, decreasing liver sugar production, decreasing amount of sugar absorption from what we eat, or increasing sugar elimination through urine. 

There are many treatment options that don’t involve injections for type 2 diabetes, so don’t be afraid to talk to your doctor about screening. 

Dr. Noble graduated summa cum laude with a medical laboratory science degree from Weber State University, and then earned his medical degree at Des Moines University. He completed his family medicine residency at Promedica Monroe Regional Hospital, where he served as chief resident. Dr. Noble also served two medical missions to Ghana while a student and a mission to Honduras as a physician. λ