Is diabetes mellitus 1 characterized only as the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin?
A person with this condition may have to give oneself intramuscular injections in order to regulate glucose level in the blood. And I understand that glucagon injections aren’t as practical because the mere consumption of carbohydrates should do the trick.
So my question is: Does the pancreas of a person suffering from diabetes mellitus 1 produce glucagon?
First of all, Type 1 diabetics only give subcutaneous injections of insulin, not intramuscular. If insulin was injected into muscle, the effect would be dangerously rapid and unpredictable absorption.
Type 1 diabetics also have damage to their alpha cells or impaired alpha cells, which release glucagon. So yes, their counter-regulatory mechanism for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is impaired. They do not produce (generally) enough glucogon to prevent a severe low blood sugar. Type 1 diabetics, unlike Type 2′s, are prone to severe low blood sugar for this reason, as is the fact that they do not have insulin resistance, and the fact that they are exogenously injecting much more insulin than their body would need to sustain itself, in addition to general factors for hypoglycemia.
Nobody knows if the damage or dysfunction of the glucagon secreting cells (alpha cells) is autoimmune also, or if it is a result of a lack of beta cells (i.e. The cells may figure, if the body is not making any insulin, you can’t have a low blood sugar, right?).
If the person with Type 1 diabetes is conscious and having a low blood sugar, then glucagon should NOT be given. Fast acting carbohydrate (glucose gel etc.) should be given by mouth.
If the person is unconscious, a glucagon injection or IV glucose MUST be given instead.