What Causes Polyphagia in Diabetes?
As mentioned, polyphagia is commonly associated to diabetes. Diabetes patients tend to eat more than the usual. They feel very hungry too often and as a result, they end up eating more than what they should be consuming.
For healthy individuals who are not suffering from diabetes or other conditions, the food that they consumed converts to glucose. This glucose acts as a fuel to your body cells for your body to carry out the necessary functions. The insulin hormones secreted by the pancreas help to ensure the flow of glucose into cells.
If you have diabetes, the glucose does not enter your body cells. This is either due to insulin insufficiency or insulin resistance. In this case, cell absorption of the glucose will not take place. There is always a small amount of glucose that is present in the bloodstream. However, since the body cells do not absorb glucose, it causes pooling of glucose to the bloodstream. Therefore, despite of high amounts of glucose circulating in the bloodstream, body cells can be deprived of glucose. The cellular response to glucose starvation can result in frequent hunger pangs, which is a symptom of polyphagia.
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