Insulin is the only hormone in the human body that can directly reduce blood glucose. Diabetic patients suffer from chronic hyperglycemia due to insufficient insulin secretion in the body. Hyperglycemia does not directly harm the human body, but chronic complications caused by hyperglycemia can seriously threaten the human body's health. Insulin is secreted by pancreatic β-cells in the human pancreas. When the pancreatic islets are damaged, it will easily lead to insufficient insulin secretion and high blood sugar:

1, bad eating habits, if the long-term diet of energy overload, such as like to eat high-energy foods, including French fries, fried chicken, ice cream, sweet drinks, fat meat, animal offal and other foods, the body's intake of excess energy will be in the form of fat accumulation in the body, thus leading to obesity. Obesity will cause insulin resistance, so that the body's sensitivity to insulin decreases, then the body will be compensatory secretion of more insulin to reduce blood glucose, over time, the pancreas is overwhelmed, diabetes will occur.

2, if the lack of exercise, also easy to lead to obesity, and insufficient exercise will also reduce the body's sensitivity to insulin, so that the risk of diabetes increased, "China Diabetes Exercise Prevention and Control Guidelines" also mentioned that diabetes is considered a lack of exercise disease, exercise less will make the risk of diabetes increased.

3, late at night, mental stress and other bad lifestyle, will make the human body endocrine disorders, so that inappropriate elevation of glucose hormone, such as adrenaline, catecholamines, growth hormone, etc. have the effect of elevating blood glucose, thereby increasing the workload of the pancreatic islets, if the pancreatic islets overloaded with work for a long period of time, it is easy to develop lesions, resulting in diabetes.

4, smoking, alcoholism and other bad habits, will also increase the risk of diabetes, smoking will directly affect the function of the pancreatic islets, alcoholism will lead to lipid metabolism disorders, affecting blood sugar.

Insulin is the only hormone secreted by the β-cells of the pancreas that can lower blood glucose. When the pancreatic islet function of the human body is damaged, it can lead to insufficient secretion of insulin and elevated blood glucose. It is similar to the fact that when our heart function decreases, heart failure will slowly occur, the blood output of the heart will decrease, and ischemia and hypoxia will occur. So what can cause damage to pancreatic islet function?

Obesity, bad dietary habits such as overeating, a lot of high-sugar foods, high-calorie diet, lack of exercise, staying up late, sleep deprivation, stress, smoking, alcohol abuse, etc. will increase the burden on the pancreatic islets, pancreatic islets are overloaded, increasing the workload, which will lead to a decline in the synthesis of pancreatic islet cells and the ability to release insulin over time. Smoking and alcoholism can directly damage the synthesis and release ability of pancreatic β-cells, leading to a gradual decrease in insulin secretion. So whether you are a diabetic or a normal person, you should try to avoid it.

By Jing Yun Zhang in Fengtai Hospital, Beijing, China Member of the Pharmacy Network August 15, 2018

The authoritative interpretation of Pharmaceutical Affairs, unauthorized reproduction, plagiarism will be punished.

Thank you for inviting Wu Yibo, a member of the Chinese Popular Science Writers Association, to answer your questions.

Possible causes of insulin decline in the body include: smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary structure, obesity, genetics, and chronic diseases.

So how do these causes lead to a decline in insulin production?

Cigarettes contain harmful substances such as nicotine, carbon monoxide, tar, and norepinephrine, which reduce the synthesis of glucose transporter proteins, thus weakening insulin action(Insulin needs to activate glucose transporter proteins in order to function as a blood sugar lowering agent; like a pen refill and a pen casing, you need both to function, you can't have one without the other.)Tumor necrosis factor alpha produced by smoking also promotes adipocyte catabolism and free fatty acid release, which can indirectly induce insulin resistance.When insulin resistance occurs, the pancreas secretes more insulin to support it in order to restore blood sugar; however, in the long run, the pancreas can't hold out, and then, as a producer, output naturally and slowly diminishes when its function declines.

For chronic drinkers, insulin sensitivity is significantly reduced and the prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance is significantly higher.This is because long-term alcohol consumption can induce insulin resistance in a variety of insulin target organs, including skeletal muscle, fat, and liver; it can also directly impair the ability of pancreatic β-cells to synthesize and release insulin.Therefore, long-term alcohol consumption is even more terrible, not only will increase the workload of the pancreas, but also to launch a direct attack on it, resulting in a gradual decrease in insulin secretion.

In terms of dietary structure.in the event thatExcessive intake of high calories, fat, protein, sugar and refined sucrose，It increases the incidence of insulin resistance, aggravating the pancreas over timeThe insulin-producing function of the pancreas is gradually weakened and insulin secretion decreases.High-fat diet can change the fatty acid content in the cell membrane, impede the function of insulin receptors, affect glucose transport, inhibit the oxidative utilization of glucose, and cause apoptosis of pancreatic islet β-cells. Therefore, if the diet structure is not reasonable, it will also lead to a decrease in insulin secretion.

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Obesity also produces an insulin-resistant effect, especially central obesity, which gradually prevents the pancreas from working properly, leading to a gradual decrease in insulin secretion.

Diabetes mellitus has a clear genetic predisposition and is a polygenic-multifactorial inherited disease. Therefore, if one has an immediate family member with diabetes, the next generation will be many times more likely to develop the disease than if there is no history of diabetes.But that's only a probabilistic possibility, it doesn't mean it's going to happen.

In terms of chronic diseases, if there are patients with high blood pressure, their risk of developing diabetes is 10 times higher than that of people with normal blood pressure; people with dyslipidemia will also exacerbate the occurrence of reduced insulin secretion, which will accelerate the pace of developing diabetes.

Of course, there are other causes of decreased insulin secretion, so let's share the main points above today haha.

A summary of what was shared is below:

Question Answered by: Lian Siheng, Fujian Medical University Reviewed by: Wu Yibo

Insulin is secreted by pancreatic beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is involved in the regulation of glucose metabolism and the control of blood glucose homeostasis. The pancreas not only secretes insulin but also secretes a hormone called glucagon, which can raise blood glucose. Insulin is the only hormone that lowers blood sugar in the body, and the hormones that raise blood sugar are glucagon, adrenaline, growth hormone, etc. So we can see that insulin is born to be a big tree. When our body diet process, food in the digestive tract into blood sugar, insulin began to secrete, while lowering blood sugar, but also to withstand the antagonistic effect of various other hormones.

For each individual himself, there are so many factors that can affect his own insulin resistance in addition to the old family genes. Usually, as we age, gain weight, get thicker around the waist, sleep less, get more stress, have less activity levels, get unhappy, get sick, get injured, our insulin is bound to encounter more antagonistic forces, i.e. insulin resistance increases.

The medical definition of "insulin resistance" is that the peripheral target tissues of insulin (mainly skeletal muscle, liver, and adipose tissue) have reduced sensitivity and responsiveness to endogenous or exogenous insulin, resulting in a physiologic dose of insulin that produces less than normal physiologic effects.

As an analogy, if insulin is regarded as a "worker" performing the task of lowering blood glucose, the occurrence of insulin resistance is equivalent to a decrease in the efficiency of the workers, and the original task that can be accomplished by two workers now requires four or even six people to complete. When the β-cells are fully functional, they can send more workers to accomplish the task of lowering blood sugar. Although the labor consumption has increased, the work can still be done and therefore diabetes does not occur.

However prolonged overload can harm the pancreatic beta cells. Once the β-cell function is impaired, the ability to secrete insulin decreases, which means that no more workers can be sent to do the work, then the blood sugar can not be lowered, and diabetes is formed in the long run. It can be said that insulin resistance is one of the major causes of diabetes.

The result of insulin resistance is that pancreatic beta cells have to compensate by secreting more insulin to overcome insulin resistance and maintain normal physiologic effects.

A further result of insulin resistance is that the pancreatic beta cells, after a long period of high workload, are finally overwhelmed and insulin production decreases.

And after insulin secretion is reduced, insulin resistance also remains persistent and continues throughout type 2 diabetes.

There is a type of cell in the body that regulates blood glucose, and when this cell is damaged or degraded, it loses its regulatory function. This can be caused by hereditary factors or age-related degeneration, or by acquired damage caused by diet and lifestyle habits. The former may require lifelong medication; the latter can be cured.

Blockage of some of the tissues of the pancreas leads to a decrease in insulin secretion and a decrease in quality. Pancreatic secretion is more alkaline among human organs, ranking first among women and second among men, and pancreatic fluid PH can be up to 8.8, which is about 1.4 higher than blood PH. This means that the pancreas needs more alkaline substances to maintain normal metabolism, and nowadays our diet is dominated by acidic foods, which leads to a decrease in alkaline substances in the body, and after a long period of time, it causes a low level of metabolic disorders, leading to a partial blockage of pancreatic tissues, which affects the normal metabolism of the pancreas, leading to a decrease in the quality of the thankful insulin and a decrease in the secretion of the insulin. According to the research results of Shinohara Hidetaka, a famous Japanese medical scientist, the activity of insulin decreases by 30% when the blood pH decreases by 0.1.

Modern medicine is also using alkali to treat cases of diabetes. Excerpts from clinical trials [Diabetes New World][J].2014,34(21):10-11 Yang Fengqiong. Observation on the efficacy of Chuanxiongzine and scopolamine in the treatment of diabetic foot

Abstract:ObjectiveTo observe the clinical efficacy of Kawakouzine and scopolamine in the treatment of diabetic foot. Methods 45 cases of diabetic foot patients admitted in this hospital from October 2010 to November 2013 were randomly divided into treatment group (23 cases) and control group (22 cases), the control group was treated with basic treatment of diabetes mellitus, and the treatment group was given Chuanqiongzine and scopolamine on the basis of the control group, and the clinical therapeutic effects of the patients in the two groups were observed and compared. The cure rate and total effective rate of patients in the treatment group were 69.6% and 91.3%, which were significantly higher than those of 22.7% and 50.0% in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05); the average number of days to cure and the number of days to get better were (24.7±4.9) and (10.8±4.2), which were significantly lower than those of (37.4±11.3) and ((19.7±8.6)) in the control group, and the mean number of days to cure and days to get better was (24.7±4.9) and (10.8±4.2), which was significantly lower than that of (37.4±11.3) and (19.7±8.6) in the control group. 19.7±8.6)d, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Chuanqiongzine and scopolamine have obvious clinical efficacy on diabetic foot, which can effectively alleviate the clinical symptoms of patients and facilitate the improvement of the condition, and are worthy of clinical promotion.

Over the past 30 years our diet has been overloaded from alkaline-based plant foods and naturally alkaline water to acidic meats, grains, alcohol, beverages, diets, and acidic water, which has put the organism under a double strain of reduced alkaline intake and increased acidic intake. The change in diet has led to a decrease in the alkalinity of the organism, dragging down the normal metabolism of the pancreas and causing a surge in diabetics in recent years.