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If you eat, and eat, and eat, and eat, never mind how little exercise; there will come a time when there is no more room for glycogen in your liver. High levels of insulin will make you start to turn the excess glucose into FAT. Please balance your diet!!!!!
When you fast for more than two days, your liver will run out of glycogen, so you will have to use fat and protein to get energy.
When your blood sugar level falls too low, not only does the pancreas make less insulin, but another endocrine gland, the adrenal gland, starts to make adrenalin and glucocorticoids.
Adrenalin and glucocorticoids are hormones which have the opposite effect to insulin, i.e. they help to raise blood sugar level.
The hypothalamus detects the conditions in your blood. It measures many things including blood sugar level. The hypothalamus is connected to the pituitary gland which is yet another endocrine gland.
Negative feedback is the special mechanism for turning the hormones off after they have done their job. So when your blood sugar level drops, the amount of insulin produced also falls, and when your blood sugar level has risen back to normal, the amount of adrenalin and glucocorticoids falls.
Definitions:
Hormone: this is a chemical secreted directly into the blood by an endocrine organ, it carries a message to a target organ. A hormone is a chemical messenger.
Endocrine Organ: this is an organ which secretes a chemical messenger or hormone directly into the blood. (c.f. an exocrine organ.) Endocrine organs make hormones.
Target Organ: this is any organ which is affected by a hormone. Almost every organ in the body is affected by one or more hormones. Target organs ar controlled by hormones.
Hypothalamus: this is a region at the base of the brain which monitors the conditions of your blood. It measures how much water, salts, bicarbonate ions and sugar is present; it also measures blood temperature. The hypothalamus helps to control the pituitary gland.
Pituitary Gland: this is the Master Endocrine Gland. It secretes hormones which control other endocrine glands.
Homeostasis: this is the mechanism for keeping your internal conditions constant. Blood sugar control is one example of homeostasis/a homeostatic mechanism. The other important ones are: osmoregulation, & thermoregulation.
Negative feedback: this is exactly the opposite of positive feedback! Another page in this Web Site to explain it. It is a switching off mechanism.
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