What exactly is insulin?

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows your body to use sugar (glucose) ✅ from carbohydrates in the food that you eat for energy or to store glucose for future use.

Insulin helps keeps your blood sugar level from getting too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia).

The cells in your body need sugar for energy. However, sugar cannot go into most of your cells directly. After you eat food and your blood sugar level rises, cells in your pancreas (known as beta cells) are signaled to release insulin into your bloodstream. Insulin then attaches to and signals cells to absorb sugar from the bloodstream.

👉Insulin is often described as a “key,” which unlocks the cell to allow sugar to enter the cell and be used for energy.

What role does Insulin have in the body?

If you have more sugar in your body than it needs, insulin helps store the sugar in your liver and releases it when your blood sugar level is low or if you need more sugar, such as in between meals or during physical activity. Therefore, insulin helps balance out blood sugar levels and keeps them in a normal range. As blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas secretes more insulin.