Carbohydrate Metabolism

What is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the sum total of all chemical reactions involved in maintaining the living state of the cells, and thus the organism. Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats all undergo metabolism.

In general metabolism may be divided into two categories: catabolism or the breakdown of molecules to obtain energy; and anabolism or the synthesis of all compounds needed by the cells.

Fig 1: Summary of all the metabolic processes in the body

What is carbohydrate metabolism?

Carbohydrate metabolism is the formation, breakdown and inter-conversion of carbohydrates involving metabolic pathways such as glycolysis, glycogenesis, glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis.

Specifically, glycolysis breaks down glucose, gluconeogenesis synthesises glucose, glycogenesis synthesizes glycogen, and glycogenolysis breaks down glycogen. (Please refer to the diagram above for a clearer picture of the processes)

Carbohydrate metabolism is important as it affects the body’s ability to process carbohydrates. If there is a problem with one’s carbohydrate metabolism, this can lead to disorders. There are many disorders of carbohydrate metabolism. Some examples include lactose intolerance, fructose intolerance, diabetes, and Galactosemia. The most commonly known carbohydrate-related disorder is diabetes; and this is what we will be focusing on in this blog.

So what is diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition where the amount of glucose in blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly. This is because the pancreas does not produce any insulin, or not enough, to help glucose enter the body’s cells – or the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance).

We’ll be talking more about diabetes in our further posts, so stay tuned!

Citations

1. Carbohydrate metabolism. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bioscience.co.uk/products/carbohydrate-metabolism

2. What is diabetes? . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Introduction-to-diabetes/What_is_diabetes/
3. Overview metabolism. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/5900verviewmet.html