They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning, No one you see, is smarter than he, And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder, Flying there under, under the sea! I’m not sure when my dolphin love began. But, since I’m a product of the 60’s and 70’s, it could have started with Flipper on Sunday nights, or the first time I swam with dolphins (metaphorically) on The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. I suspect it doesn’t really matter. Like most humans, I possess an unexplainable respect and admiration for dolphins which probably has more to do with our suspicion that they possess human qualities we’re only beginning to understand. Exciting new research suggests that dolphins (bottlenose dolphins to be exact), have what could be considered a form of type 2 diabetes . The fascinating part, beyond the fact that they would have diabetes at all, is their ability to flip an internal switch and turn it on or off when it doesn’t serve them. It’s believed that this is an evolutionary adaptation in order to protect their big ol’ dolphin brains. Big, as in the second biggest brain next to ours – ratio-wise . We need plenty of glucose running through our bodies because it’s necessary to keep our brains functioning, so maybe the same is true for dolphins. The difference is, dolphins eat fish. Fish is high in protein and low in sugar. So, where do the dolphins get their supply of glucose? Highly evolved insulin resistance. They activate their ‘diabetes’ when they need it. They can flip it on when they’re sleeping and flip it back on when they’re noshing on breakfast in the morning. There is still disagreement that dolphins use glucose the same way we do, because their metabolism is different. Because they have a layer of blubber, for example, they store and use energy differently.  It’s still an exciting finding

Original Source of Diabetes and Dolphins