Your body uses glycogen for fuel between meals. Read more: Simple vs. About four to six hours after you eat, the glucose levels in your blood decrease, triggering your pancreas to produce glucagon. This hormone signals your liver and muscle cells to change the stored glycogen back into glucose. These cells then release the glucose into your bloodstream so your other cells can use it for energy. This whole feedback loop with insulin and glucagon is constantly in motion. It keeps your blood sugar levels from dipping too low, ensuring that your body has a steady supply of energy.
Diabetes mellitus is the best known condition that causes problems with blood sugar balance. Diabetes refers to a group of diseases. And when the system is thrown out of balance, it can lead to dangerous levels of glucose in your blood. Of the two main types of diabetes, type 1 diabetes is the less common form. As a result, you must take insulin every day. For more information, read about the complications of type 1 diabetes. Learn more: Everything you need to know about insulin ».
Over time, type 2 diabetes makes your body produce less insulin, which further raises your blood sugar levels. Some women develop gestational diabetes late in their pregnancies. In gestational diabetes, pregnancy-related hormones may interfere with how insulin works.
This condition normally disappears after the pregnancy ends. As a result, your blood glucose levels are raised, though not as high as they would be if you had type 2 diabetes. Many people who have prediabetes go on to develop type 2 diabetes. Knowing how your body works can help you stay healthy. Insulin and glucagon are two critical hormones your body makes to keep your blood sugar levels balanced.
This process is called gluconeogenesis. It reduces glucose consumption by the liver so that as much glucose as possible can be secreted into the bloodstream to maintain blood glucose levels. How is glucagon controlled? What happens if I have too much glucagon? What happens if I have too little glucagon? Last reviewed: Mar Prev. Glucagon-like peptide 1. Related Endocrine Conditions. Diabetes mellitus Insulinoma Glucagonoma View all Endocrine conditions. Related Hormones. Adrenaline Glucagon-like peptide 1 Insulin View all Hormones.
Related Glands. Pancreas Adipose tissue View all Glands. Glucagon is a linear peptide of 29 amino acids. Its primary sequence is almost perfectly conserved among vertebrates, and it is structurally related to the secretin family of peptide hormones. Glucagon is synthesized as proglucagon and proteolytically processed to yield glucagon within alpha cells of the pancreatic islets. Proglucagon is also expressed within the intestinal tract, where it is processed not into glucagon, but to a family of glucagon-like peptides enteroglucagon.
The major effect of glucagon is to stimulate an increase in blood concentration of glucose. As discussed previously, the brain in particular has an absolute dependence on glucose as a fuel, because neurons cannot utilize alternative energy sources like fatty acids to any significant extent. When blood levels of glucose begin to fall below the normal range, it is imperative to find and pump additional glucose into blood.
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