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Biology
Homeostasis: blood glucose regulation
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Change meals, activity and feedback to follow glucose, insulin, glucagon and the roles of the liver and tissues.
Meal timing and portions
Changing conditions resets time to 0.
Glucose flows · g/min
Fixed scale 0–1.2
Gut → blood0.00
Blood → liver0.00
Liver → blood0.12
Blood → tissues0.12
In 0.12 · Out 0.12
A trial is ready. Run it, then change one condition and compare the response.
Concentration changes with the difference between incoming and outgoing glucose. Homeostasis maintains a balance while flows continue.
Reserves and signals
- Insulin action
- Liver glycogen
- 70 g
Relative to the normal baseline = 1. Solid-line width is proportional to g/min; bars share a fixed 0–1.2 scale. Particles show direction only. Dashed lines and × baseline bars encode signals; the tick marks 1 and // marks scale overflow. Insulin action lags behind the hormone.
Model notes
- This is a qualitative six-hour teaching model, not an individual person. It cannot guide diagnosis, meals, exercise or medication doses.
- Glucose uses mmol/L. Insulin, glucagon and insulin action are indices relative to a normal baseline of 1. Coefficients and the 4–6 mmol/L reference band are model choices, not diagnostic criteria.
- Carbohydrate and glycogen use grams of glucose equivalent. Liver reserves are finite. Gluconeogenesis, renal glucose loss, medicines, stress, other hormones and intense exercise are omitted. Do not extrapolate to prolonged fasting.
- Meal types change carbohydrate absorption only, without separate protein, lipid or incretin effects. Consuming tissues include basal insulin-independent uptake.
- Reduced secretion and reduced response start at the same glucose to isolate mechanisms; they do not fully represent diabetes types. The organ diagram is not to anatomical scale. Flow widths and g/min bars use fixed linear scales; particles indicate direction, not molecule counts. The effective 18 L glucose distribution compartment is not anatomical blood volume.