WILTIMS #110: A tasty, tasty lie

Sometimes the body is stupid. The α-cells of the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas produce glucagon, the hormonal opposite of insulin. Whereas insulin decreases blood sugar levels, glucagon increases it. Ideally, you'd like the cells that make each of these hormones to be able to sense the amount of sugar in the blood, to see if they are needed. The β-cells, which make insulin, can detect blood sugar through GLUT2 glucose transporters. The α-cells, however, use an insulin sensitive glucose transporter, GLUT4, that requires insulin to function.

So, imagine you have type I diabetes. Sorry. Your β-cells don't produce enough insulin, so your blood sugar is always high. The lack of insulin turns off the GLUT4 transporters, convincing the α-cells that you are hypoglycemic when you are in fact quite the opposite. The α-cells release loads of glucagon to fix the imagined problem, stimulating the liver and other tissues to release even more sugar into the blood, making all of your problems worse. As I have said before, 'intelligent design' my ass.

TIL: One protein that promotes fatty acid transport is called, seemingly unimaginatively, fatty acid transporter. But this is conveniently abbreviated as FAT.

The actual cause of death for starvation is typically respiratory failure. In the body's desperate search for energy, it turns from burning the last stores of sugar and fat to breaking down protein, which is mostly found in skeletal muscle. When the diaphragm, the muscle responsible for the bulk of our breathing, is degraded to the point that it can't sufficiently do its job, the person dies.