glucagon emergency kit

[Bruser]

I am a high school student who has a brother with juvenile diabetes, diagnosed at the age of 6.  I often do oral reports on the educating the public of Type 1 diabetes and I am to do my next oral report on the use of the glucagon emergency kit.  My brother has had to use it a few times but we don't have any written material on it and I was hoping someone can direct me to the right place to get this information for my report.  Thank you,

[JDRF-Team-sgg]

I am so impressed that you would choose to do this kind of report to educate people about type 1 diabetes! Let me offer you some websites that have good information. Some of the information may be medical information that may be too technical for what you need it for, but if you browse through these articles, you may be able to glean what you are seeking for your report:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucagon

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/pancreas/glucagon.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682480.html

I hope that these three articles will be enough for you. There really IS a lot of information about glucagon on the web (you can do a Google search and come up with a lot of articles). In a nutshell for those who are reading this note but don't intend to read the articles, glucagon kits are used to treat severe hypoglycemia. Glucagon is injected, and it causes the liver to release emergency stores of sugar. It will only work if the liver HAS emergency stores of sugar, and then will not work again until the liver replenishes the sugar. So it is not a substitute for drinking juice or eating some carbohydrates, but is used to help the severely hypoglycemic person until he or she can eat or drink something.

Good luck with your report!

[wolfenastar]

I am glad that you have taken an interest in your brothers condition, it shows you care.
Below is a good information site about the emergency glucagon kit.

http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/d_0n_022.htm

This particular sire has a lot of information on it.
Good luck with your report.