Our bodies and brains run on glucose. The carbohydrates we eat are broken down in the small intestine into glucose and circulated throughout the body. The body’s ability to use glucose as its main source of energy depends on the hormone insulin, produced by the pancreas.

The pancreas, located behind the stomach, that secretes digestive enzymes into the duodenum of the small intestine, which then combine with bile, produced in the liver. The majority of cells in the pancreas (some 98%) are cells arranged in grapelike clusters that produce these important enzymes. The other 2% of pancreatic cells are those that produce insulin and other hormones that govern sugar metabolism.