Intensive insulin therapy and microvascular disease) is central to the development of complications of diabetes mellitus. This evidence convinced most physicians who specialize in diabetes care that an important goal of treatment is to make the biochemical profile of the diabetic patient (blood lipids, HbA1c, etc.) as close to the values of non-diabetic people as possible. This is especially true for young patients with many decades of life ahead. A working pancreas continually secretes small amounts of insulin into the blood to maintain normal glucose levels, which would otherwise rise from glucose release by the liver, especially during the early morning dawn phenomenon.
Insulin resistance is a prominent change of metabolic conditions, under which the mother has to reduce her muscles' insulin sensitivity to spare more glucose for the brains (the mother's brain and the fetal brain). This can be achieved through raising the response threshold (i.e., postponing the onset of sensitivity) by secreting placental growth factor to interfere with the interaction between insulin receptor substrate (IRS) and PI3K, which is the essence of the so-called "adjustable threshold hypothesis" of insulin resistance. It is well known that insulin regulates the conversion of carbohydrates into fats (triglycerides) by promoting the absorption of, especially, glucose from the