What is Insulin Shock?

About Insulin Shock:

• What is it? Insulin shock occurs when you have too much insulin in your blood. This can lead to hypoglycemia, also called low blood sugar.
• If left untreated for too long, it can lead to loss of consciousness and even death.
• It can occur in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes if they are using certain medications.
• Warning Signs: Dizziness, shaking, clamminess, a rapid pulse, and other symptoms.

What is Diabetes?

• It is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas can no longer make insulin or the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces.
• What is Insulin? It is a hormone that regulates blood glucose.
• Not being able to produce or use insulin effectively leads to raised glucose levels in the blood, known as hyperglycaemia.

Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes:

• Type 1 diabetes:
  • It is a condition in which your immune system destroys insulin-making cells in your pancreas. These are called beta cells.
  • When you have type 1 diabetes, your body produces very little or no insulin.
  • It requires daily administration of insulin to maintain blood glucose levels under control.
  • It is usually diagnosed in children and young people, so it used to be called juvenile diabetes.
  • Symptoms: Excessive excretion of urine (polyuria), thirst (polydipsia), constant hunger, weight loss, vision changes, and fatigue.
• Type 2 diabetes:
  • It results from the body’s ineffective use of insulin that it produces.
  • More than 95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. 
  • This type of diabetes is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity.
  • Symptoms may be similar to those of type 1 diabetes but are often less marked. As a result, the disease may be diagnosed several years after onset.

Q1) What is hyperglycaemia?

Hyperglycaemia, or a hyper, can happen when your blood glucose (sugar) levels are too high – usually above 7mmol/l before a meal and above 8.5mmol/l two hours after a meal. This happens because the body either cannot produce enough insulin to process the sugar in the blood or it cannot use the insulin effectively enough.

Source: Too much insulin can be as dangerous as too little: Research

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