Where does Glucose in the Blood come from?

There are two sources from which glucose can enter the blood:

FROM THE GUT: After we eat, food is broken down in the upper intestine and absorbed, partly as glucose. Then it enters the blood directly, raising the blood glucose.

FROM THE LIVER: If you think about it, the body must have the ability to make its own glucose. If it didn't, every time an individual starved (fasted) for a prolonged period, the cells would use up the pre-existing glucose that was present in the blood, and the level of glucose in the blood would drop. Eventually, there would be no glucose left in the blood and levels would be zero. This process would happen very quickly in fact, and within a few hours the individual would be in trouble from a lack of glucose. As mentioned earlier, the brain is absolutely dependent on glucose for energy, i.e., it cannot use any other fuel. In fact, our brains could never survive this lack of glucose.

Therefore the human body has a mechanism to protect itself: as glucose is used, the liver makes more of it. The amount of glucose in the blood is thus held constant, a process which is necessary for life. Several factors influence and coordinate the liver's glucose production, including current blood glucose level, how much insulin is available, and the levels of other hormones and nutrients in the blood.

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Hydrochloric acid aids in the digestion of proteins by making the environment ideal for pepsin. Therefore if you take antacids you will slow digestion.

Although it may be true that HCl aides digestion by dissolving food, our results show that it also provides the best environment for pepsin to react in. The egg white in jar 3 was eaten away quite rapidly. Either pepsin aided the dissolving effect of HCl or HCl aides the digestive effect of pepsin. Because HCl is a dissolving agent only because it is a strong acid and dissociates completely, its properties will not be altered by the addition of pepsin. However, pH level does affect the efficiency of enzymes like pepsin. We can then conclude that all digestion of egg white in jar 3, minus the small amount dissolved by HC1 in jar 1, is a result of pepsin. Relative to the 4 cm of egg white digested in jar 3, any dissolving of egg white due to HCl is completely insignificant. We can therefore conclude that HCl plays a major role in digestion by providing pepsin the best reacting environment. Normally, such an acidic environment would denature any protein. Pepsin, apparently, thrives in it.