Open book assessment Health, Medicine, Nursing Coursework (Coursework Sample)

NURS 1002  
 
Open book assessment 
Submission date 22/7/2020 by 16:00.
 
 
Section A (Worth 50%) 
 
1 Describe how blood glucose levels are regulated in normal health (10 marks) 
The blood glucose is mainly regulated by the pancreas. The pancreas is an endocrine and endocrine gland, which plays a role in hormone regulation and digestion by releasing pancreatic hormones and digestive juices respectively. Digestive juices are secreted into the stomach through the pancreatic duct whereas the pancreatic hormones are released directly into the bloodstream (Roder et al., 2016) The hormones released by the pancreas are: glucagon, amylin, C-peptide, insulin, pancreatic polypeptide and somatostatin. Glucagon is responsible for increases sugar levels in the body whereas insulin decreases blood sugar levels. Somatostatin inhibits the release of both insulin and glucagon. Pancreatic polypeptide regulates the activity of the pancreas. All these hormones regulate blood glucose in humans (R der et al., 2016). When the blood glucose is low, the a-cells release glucagon which promotes the breakdown of glycogen stored in the liver muscles into glucose. This leads to increased blood sugar levels. In contrary, increased blood sugar livers stimulates the b-cells to release insulin which promotes the utilization and conversion of excess glucose into glycogen which is stored in the liver. Insulin acts by suppressing gluconeogenesis, which is the secretion of hormone glucagon (Petersen & Shulman, 2017). This is how blood glucose homeostasis is maintained in the body.