DiaCell is a fun and effective educational tool that explains normal fuel metabolism and the defects associated with type 2 diabetes. In addition, it can be used to motivate patients to lower blood glucose levels through diet, exercise and medications.

How to use DiaCell:

1. Imagine the DiaCell is a liver or muscle cell.
2. When you eat carbs, they are broken down and enter you blood stream as glucose (hold up one of the wood shapes).
3. In response, your pancreas releases insulin.  Here is the insulin (hold up the other wood shapes).
4. When insulin binds to the cell, (push block into closed cell).
5. The cell opens up (open cell).
6. And glucose gets in (put other wood block inside cell and pretend to gobble up).
7. With diabetes type 2, the insulin binds but the cell doesn’t open.
8. With type 1, there is no insulin made, so the cell can’t open to glucose.
9. How do people with type 2 diabetes open their cell? – Exercise increase insulin sensitivity for 24-48 hours – Weight loss (5-10%) – Meds/insulin

DiaCell Teaching Tool Video Demonstration

In this video, Beverly discusses how to use our Pancreas Pillow and DiaCell Teaching tools to promote strategies to prevent diabetes and protect the insulin producing beta cells. It also demonstrates the use of the DiaCell as an educational tool to explain normal fuel metabolism and the defects associated with type 2 diabetes. In addition, strategies to help motivate patients to lower blood glucose levels through diet, exercise and medications are demonstrated.