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Insulin
Insulin is a polypeptide hormone that regulates carbohydrate metabolism. Apart from being the primary effector in carbohydrate homeostasis, it has effects on fat metabolism and it can change the liver's ability to release fat stores. Insulin's concentration has extremely widespread effects throughout the body. Insulin is used medically in some forms of diabetes mellitus. Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus depend on exogenous insulin for their survival because of an absolute deficiency of the hormone; patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have either relatively low insulin production or insulin resistance or both, and a non-trivial fraction of type 2 diabetics eventually require insulin administration when other medications become inadequate in controlling blood glucose levels.
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April 8, 2026
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