Diabetes practices and regimens can vary between countries, hospitals / clinics, & specialists.  Therefore what may be encouraged in one setting may not be so recommended in another.  This insulin tutorial is not meant to provide a didactic (regimented / fixed) plan for using insulin.  Rather the tutorial intends to show some ways of doing things, and provide some explanations as to why things may be done in a certain way.  Furthermore it is hoped that this tutorial may encourage people to think a bit more about what insulin regimens are possible, & how they might be improved and / or tailored for an individual.  In all this remember that people's mileage may vary - so what works for one person may not be appropriate for someone else.  Therefore, as with all medical information on the Web, it is important that you consult your doctor or diabetes specialist before considering acting on any of the information discussed in this tutorial.


Insulin Tutorial 4-1
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Glucose and the kidney



The kidney can be of great importance in the regulation of the blood glucose level

Blood from all the organs of the body flows to the kidney. If any substance is present in the blood in excessively high concentration it will be excreted by the kidneys into the urine.

This can happen to glucose. If it is present in the blood in too high a concentration it will be excreted by the kidneys into the urine.

This means that the amount of sugar in the urine gives some measure of the height of the blood glucose level.

18 mg/dl (mg%) of glucose = 1 mmol/l



As the blood flows through the kidney the glucose is filtered into the primary urine. Under the conditions of a normal blood sugar level all the glucose is passed back into the blood, so that the final urine does not contain any glucose.


Even when the blood glucose level is as high as 160 mg/dl (8.9 mmol/l) the kidney can usually reabsorb all the glucose, so that no glucose appears in the urine.

18 mg/dl (mg%) of glucose = 1 mmol/l

Diabetes Insulin Tutorial
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The information presented at this site is for general use only and is not intended to provide personal medical advice or substitute for the advice of your doctor or diabetes specialist. If you have any questions about any of the information presented here, concerns about individual health matters or the management of your diabetes, please consult your doctor or diabetes specialist
The material in this on-line Diabetes / Insulin Tutorial has been drawn from a number of different sources.
However the original Web-based version can be found at the AIDA Website at: http://www.2aida.org/tutorial.

AIDA diabetes software simulator program of glucose-insulin interaction