In the insulin vs glucagon comparison, we can say they are both hormones secreted by the endocrine pancreas. However, the similarity ends there, because they perform different metabolic functions. Although most people have only heard of or read about the former, because almost everybody knows that those patients who suffer from type II diabetes have too much insulin in their bloodstream, the latter role during time of fasting is extremely important.
The reason why almost no one has ever heard of glucagon is because our modern lifestyle has become contaminated by carbohydrates; too much carbs, which are the results from the development of modern agriculture; and modern lifestyle also implies a sedentary life. And you eat too much carbs and lead a sedentary life, your pancreas won’t secrete this hormone. To summarize, insulin vs glucagon means either gaining weight or losing weight; thus, the former means metabolic diseases, while glucagon paves the way for a healthy cellular respiration.
Insulin
This hormone is produced by the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans. Whenever you eat carbs, your glucose (sugar) levels in your bloodstream go up, and since it is bad for your body tissues, glucose has to be lowered to normal levels. So, insulin is secreted and pumped into your bloodstream. Then this hormone induces your body cells to take up more glucose out your blood, and the excess glucose molecules that are not used by your tissues cells are absorbed by the adipose cells and converted into triglycerides and stored as such in their cytoplasm, making you fat or gain weight.
But too much insulin is inflammatory to your body tissues as your body cells become resistant to it and they no longer pay attention to its presence. Thus, in time your glucose levels remain high, which is also inflammatory, meaning they both do damage to your body tissues. This is the case when somebody suffers from diabetes. The culprit behind it is called carbohydrates.
Glucagon
When you are fasting or when you are working out, your glucose levels in your bloodstream drop naturally without the intervention of insulin because you are not eating carbs and your muscle cells are using up a lot of glucose to produce ATP. As your sugar levels drop, glucagon is produced by the alpha cells of the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas and then released into your bloodstream, inducing the liver to break down glycogen into glucose (glycogen is stored in this organ and muscle cells as an energy reserve tank). But if you keep fasting or working out, you run out of glycogen too; if this is the case, your pancreas keep secreting glucagon, which activates an enzyme called lipase.
Trapped in between your adipose (fat) cells, lipase triggers the release of triglycerides from your fat cells into your bloodstream, converting them into the smaller molecules of glycerol and fatty acids. These moles travel into the liver through the hepatic artery proper where they are metabolized into ketone bodies that are used as fuel by the cells mitochondria, replacing glucose.
To make it brief, glucagon makes your body burn the fat you have stored around your waist as you lose weight. And when you lose weight, it means that your body cell mitochondria are using ketone bodies (which derive from fat) as fuel instead of glucose. And when this happens, you have a healthy and more efficient cellular respiration. In other words, the possibilities for you to develop either type II diabetes and cancer are 0 (zero).
