Insulin and Glucagon
- Insulin and glucagon are the 2 hormones that regulate homeostasis.
- In normal conditions, they keep the human blood glucose (sugar) level in equilibrium.
- Insulin is normally secreted by the beta cell of the pancreas in response to high blood sugar.
- Glucagon is secreted by the alpha cell of the pancreas when blood glucose is low.
What is Hemoglobin A1C
- It is a form of hemoglobin that is chemically linked to a sugar.
- It is Also called HbA1c, glycohemoglobin, glycated hemoglobin, and glycosylated hemoglobin with glucose attached.
- Hemoglobin is the part of your red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body.
- Hemoglobin is also an oxygen transporting protein found inside RBCs.
- AS glucose circulates in the blood some of it binds to hemoglobin.
- Once glucose or sugar binds to hemoglobin, it remains there for the life of the RBCs which is 3 months. That is why, A1C evaluate the amount of glucose in the blood over the last 2 to 3 months.
- A1C measures the percentage of glycated (glycosylated) hemoglobin in the blood.
- The higher the glucose or the sugar level in your bloodstream, the more glucose will attach to hemoglobin. The higher the level of glucose in the blood, the more A1c is formed.
- The higher your A1c level, the poorer is your blood sugar control and the higher is your diabetes complication.
- All you really want is to have a low percentage of A1c in your blood.
- If you have too much sugar in your blood, that’s mean your cells can not absorb sugar as well as they should.
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