4.5.3.2b - Diabetes and Blood Glucose Treatments

Diabetes and insulin

Blood glucose concentration means the amount of glucose dissolved in the blood. Glucose is an important fuel for respiration, but its concentration must be controlled within a safe range.

In a person without diabetes, the pancreas helps control blood glucose by producing the hormone insulin when blood glucose is too high. Insulin causes glucose to move from the blood into body cells. In liver and muscle cells, excess glucose can be converted to glycogen for storage.

Diabetes happens when this insulin control does not work properly. The problem is different in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, so the treatment is different too.

The boundary matters here. You need enough insulin knowledge to understand diabetes treatment, but glucagon and the insulin-glucagon negative-feedback cycle are not taught in this lesson.

Type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is a disorder in which the pancreas fails to produce sufficient insulin. This means glucose is not moved out of the blood into cells effectively, so blood glucose concentration can become uncontrolled and too high.

Type 1 diabetes is normally treated with insulin injections. The injected insulin replaces the insulin that the pancreas is not producing in sufficient amounts. This helps glucose move from the blood into cells, lowering blood glucose concentration.

At GCSE level, the important treatment idea is insulin injections. Real treatment is supervised by healthcare professionals, but the required wording here is that Type 1 diabetes is normally treated with insulin injections.

A common misconception is that Type 1 diabetes is caused by diet or lifestyle. That is not the GCSE comparison. The AQA distinction is that Type 1 is about insufficient insulin production by the pancreas.

Type 2 diabetes

In Type 2 diabetes, the body cells no longer respond properly to insulin produced by the pancreas. The pancreas may still produce insulin, but the response of the cells is reduced, so glucose remains in the blood at a higher concentration than normal.

A carbohydrate-controlled diet and an exercise regime are common treatments for Type 2 diabetes. A carbohydrate-controlled diet helps manage how much glucose enters the blood after digestion, because carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars such as glucose. Exercise can increase the amount of glucose used by cells in respiration and can help with body mass control.

Obesity is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. A risk factor increases the chance or incidence of a disease; it does not mean the disease is certain. So a careful answer says obesity increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, not that obesity always causes Type 2 diabetes in every person.

For this specification point, the treatment examples you must know for Type 2 diabetes are a carbohydrate-controlled diet and an exercise regime.

Comparing types and treatments

Compare questions need direct comparison language. Do not write a full paragraph on Type 1 and then a separate paragraph on Type 2 without linking them.

A strong comparison uses paired sentences:

In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas fails to produce sufficient insulin, whereas in Type 2 diabetes the pancreas produces insulin but body cells no longer respond properly to it. Type 1 is normally treated with insulin injections, whereas Type 2 is commonly treated using a carbohydrate-controlled diet and exercise regime.