Video Transcript
The following chart shows the
changes in blood glucose levels after two comparable patients have consumed the same
amount of a sugary drink. What can we conclude from this
chart about the patients? (A) Both patients are not
diabetic. (B) Both patients are diabetic. (C) Patient A is diabetic, and
patient B is not diabetic. Or (D) patient B is diabetic, and
patient A is not diabetic.
This question is asking us to
compare blood glucose levels of two patients after they have had a sugary drink. So what happens after we have a
sugary drink? Well, it goes through our digestive
system, and the sugars inside of it get broken down into a simple sugar called
glucose. This glucose is absorbed in the
blood, and that’s why we see the blood glucose levels rising in both of our patients
here. When glucose is in the blood, it
travels to different cells of our body, like our muscle cells, that can absorb
glucose and use it for energy production. But glucose isn’t absorbed right
away. To be absorbed by muscle cells, the
muscle cells need a hormone called insulin.
A hormone is a chemical messenger
that travels in the body and usually in the blood. So to get insulin, the pancreas
needs to make it, and the pancreas makes insulin when it detects a rise in the blood
glucose levels. When insulin levels go up, the
glucose in the blood can be absorbed by different cells. That’s when the blood glucose
levels start to drop. In people with diabetes, they don’t
make insulin properly. So when the blood glucose levels
are high, it takes longer for it to be absorbed because insulin isn’t being made
effectively, so glucose levels stay higher for longer.
Therefore, we can conclude that
patient A in this graph is diabetic, while patient B is not.
