Metaphorically speaking

Quotes from MJA contributors in 2005

It is unusual to find mention of beavers’ living arrangements in a physiology journal but, according to Swain, there are similarities between beaver pond levels and blood glucose levels. A beaver must maintain a constant water level in its pond for the proper functioning of its lodge, just as we must maintain our blood glucose levels within a defined range to ensure, among other things, brain function.1 The beaver controls the water bed by changing outflow over the dam and inflow from the stream beds, just as insulin controls glucose leaving the blood and entering tissues, and, among other things, glucagon affects glucose release from the liver.