Question

A 41-year-old male presents to the emergency room complaining of frequent urination, increased hunger, “always being thirsty,” and fatigue. He is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

In your initial post answer the following questions:

In explaining to him the physiological reason for his symptoms, what cellular functions do you think would help him understand his disease?
How might you explain his fatigue on a cellular level?

Answer 1

Insulin is responsible for the inhibition of the breakdown of glycogen or the process of gluconeogenesis. It helps in the transport of glucose into fat and muscle cells. It also stimulate glucose storage in the form of glycogen.
If insulin level are low or if cells respond poorly to insulin, or if the insulin is defective, then glucose absorption and storage will be impaired. The result is persistently high levels of blood glucose, poor protein synthesis, and other metabolic derangements.
When the blood glucose concentration remains high over longer period, kidney reaches a threshold of reabsorption, glucose is excreted in the urine.This leads to increased the urinary osmotic  pressure and inhibits water reabsorption by the kidney, resulting in increased urine production. This is the reason for frequent urination.
Lost blood volume is replaced osmotically through the water contsined in body cells and other body compartments, causing dehydration and increased thirst. This is called polydipsia.

Cellar respiration is the process by which cells produce energy required the body to function. Cellular respiration requires glucose to produce energy in the form of ATP. When the body is not able to utilize the glucose present in blood as seen in diabetes to produce the energy, body functions slows down and fatigue takes over