• Question: • Can a reason for causing diabetes are your nerves either being too tight or too loose?

    Asked by ChellPortal to Andy, Duane, Giovanna, Katie, Theresia on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Duane Mellor

      Duane Mellor answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      The ‘tone’ of the sympathetic nervous system can effect insulin resistance. This is very complex, it is not a case of the nerve being too tight or loose, it is more how it is stimulating organs in the gut and liver to effect the hormones they produce. This can mean that insulin is less effective and you become insulin resistant, which can lead to diabetes. We know this as some types of weight loss surgery changes how this works and is possibly one way it helps to almost reverse type 2 diabetes.

    • Photo: Andrew Philp

      Andrew Philp answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Nerves are the bodies way of activating organs with electrical impulses. Like Duane mentioned this can be through altering the release of hormones in central organs like the gut and liver. In muscle nerves transmit these signals to make the muscle contract. If you are inactive then this signal is less frequent and we know that this leads to an unhealthy muscle. So physical inactivity is associated with unhealthy muscle in obesity/diabetes, partly because the muscle activity is low. So I don’t think its necessarily that the nerves are tight or loose, rather their activity/function is altered which then effects the organs that they activate…

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