Question

according to this question -> if elisa had the diabetes condition what would happen to her startch/glucose.

and this answer -> Starch she eats will still be digested to glucose, but that glucose will enter her bloodstream and tend to run higher and stay high compared with a person without diabetes.

explain why she has the condition.

Answer 1

Short answer: because her body can’t move the glucose out of the blood into tissues normally. Starch still gets broken down to glucose, but that glucose either isn’t signaled into muscle/adipose or there isn’t enough insulin to do it, so blood glucose rises and stays high.

Why that happens (brief physiologic explanation)
- Digestion: starch → maltose/oligosaccharides → glucose in the small intestine; glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream. This step is normal in diabetes.
- Normal insulin action: after a meal the pancreas releases insulin. Insulin prompts muscle and fat cells to take up glucose (mainly by moving GLUT4 transporters to the cell membrane) and tells the liver to store glucose as glycogen and stop making new glucose.
- In diabetes these insulin actions are impaired:
- Type 1 diabetes: autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells → little or no insulin produced (absolute insulin deficiency). Without insulin the tissues don’t receive the uptake signal.
- Type 2 diabetes: tissues (muscle, fat, liver) become resistant to insulin’s effects. The pancreas may produce insulin but it’s less effective, and over time the beta cells may fail and produce less insulin. Insulin resistance means GLUT4 translocation is reduced, muscle/fat don’t take up glucose well, and the liver continues making glucose.
- The result: after starch ingestion glucose is absorbed normally but isn’t taken up or cleared efficiently, and the liver may keep releasing glucose — so blood glucose rises higher and remains elevated longer. If levels exceed the kidney threshold, glucose appears in urine (glycosuria).

Causes/risk factors
- Type 1: genetic susceptibility + autoimmune trigger (often viral or other environmental trigger).
- Type 2: genetic predisposition plus lifestyle factors (obesity, inactivity), chronic inflammation, high circulating fatty acids and ectopic fat causing insulin signaling defects.
- Other causes include pancreatitis, certain medications, endocrine disorders, and genetic/rare forms.

If you want, tell me which type of diabetes you mean (or whether there are clues about Elisa’s age, weight, onset) and I can explain the most likely cause for her specifically.