controlling blood glucose

Why do we need a good amount of sugar in our blood

So our cells have a constant supply of glucose that they can use for respiration

What happens if the blood glucose concentration gets too high or too low

Tissues start to get damaged

How is the rise of glucose levels in blood regulated

The rise in glucose levels will be detected by the pancreas

In response it will release a hormone called insulin into your blood stream as it travels around the body the insulin will bind to receptor on certain cells which tells cell to take some of the glucose that’s floating in the blood

This happens in loads of cells most important liver and muscle cells these take up a lot of extra glucose molecules and combine them together to form glycogen

Bc glucose is removed from blood the conc decreases

How is the fall in blood glucose concentration regulated

When blood glucose levels fall too low it's detected by the pancreas

This causes the pancreas to release the hormone glucagon into the blood stream.

This hormone then travels around the body, and binds mainly to cells in the liver

This stimulates those liver cells to break down their stored glycogen into glucose and release it into the blood.

This extra glucose increases blood glucose levels back up to normal.

What’s the difference between glucagon and glycogen

Glucagon is a hormone whilst glycogen is a large molecule made up of lots of glucose molecules

How does insulin and glucagon create a negative feedback loop

Because if glucose levels get too high then insulin is released which causes the glucose to drop down again

If it drops too low glucagon is released which causes the glucose levels to increase again

Why does our blood glucose concentration constantly change/ fluctuates (rather than being straight line)

Because our bodies keep releasing both insulin an glucagon to ensure that the amount of glucose in our blood steam is always kept around the right levels