Any form of sugar you eat causes your pancreas to release insulin. This insulin allows your body to convert the carbohydrates into glucose before storing them in your liver. A healthy liver releases these glucose reserves into your bloodstream in small amounts until you eat again. After you eat again, your body detects the carbohydrates and signals your liver to stop releasing reserve glucose into your bloodstream. Someone whose cells cannot synthesize glucose into glycogen, however, accumulates an excess supply of glucose in the bloodstream, kidneys and liver cells, resulting in diabetes.
Excessive Urination
Failure to synthesize glucose into glycogen creates a dangerous buildup of glucose in your kidney and liver cells. Your kidneys try diluting the excess glucose by drawing water from your blood. The accumulation of water in your kidneys fills your bladder, which creates a frequent and urgent need to urinate. Drawing water from your blood also causes intense thirst. This cycle of frequent drinking and urination is one of the first signs of diabetes.
Ketoacidosis
Despite excess glucose in your kidney and liver cells, the absence of insulin means your cells cannot synthesize glucose into glycogen. In the absence of glycogen, your body begins using fat cells for energy. Ketones are the toxic acid byproduct of broken-down fat cells. As the disease progresses, fat cells become your main energy reserve. The accumulation of toxic ketones in your blood results in a potentially fatal condition known as ketoacidosis. Symptoms of ketoacidosis include stomach pain, lack of appetite, headache, fatigue and sweet-smelling breath.
Liver Disease
Your liver interprets the absence of glycogen as a signal to release glucose reserves to synthesize into glycogen. However, since your kidney cells cannot synthesize glucose properly, the reserve glucose stores released by your liver only exacerbate the problem and increase the amount of glucose in your bloodstream. As your body becomes increasingly resistant to insulin, your liver tissue becomes inflamed and damaged trying to provide more glucose.
Kidney Failure
Your kidney cells cannot synthesize glucose into glycogen without insulin. This creates glucose buildup in your kidneys. As the disease progresses, trying to filter such high levels of glucose causes your kidneys to leak blood protein albumin into your urine. Without proper treatment, filtering these excess protein levels will permanently damage your kidneys. According to the National Kidney & Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse, diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure.
References
- Human Biology: Cecie Starr, Beverly McMillan. 2008
- Scion Publishing: Control of the Carbohydrate Metabolism
- Nobel Prize: Facts About Diabetes and Insulin
- Diabetes Self Management: Blood Glucose Monitoring -- What Do the Numbers Tell You?
- PubMed Health: Diabetic Ketoacidosis
- National Kidney & Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse: Kidney Disease of Diabetes
