Calculate integral from graph of postprandial glucose in subjects

You're right to question the units. But I think that's a result of asking the wrong question of the graph.

To simplify it, suppose I measure the concentration of salt water in a glass over a span of 5 hours, and find that it is a constant 35 grams per liter. What would it mean to ask for the total grams of salt? That is not a function of time; it's a function of total volume, which I didn't even mention. If I had a liter of water sitting there, then the total amount (regardless of how long it's there) will be 35 grams!

Now, if the salt water were passing through the glass at some known rate, then the total amount of salt would depend on how fast (liters per hour) and how long (hours) the flow continued. But that's an entirely different question.

In the real graph, as far as I can tell, you have glucose coming into the blood from the intestines and then being metabolized or whatever, and we have no way to know what the total amount of glucose that has passed through the blood might be, as it would depend on the total volume of blood and how fast new glucose is coming in while old glucose is being removed.

So, what is it that you actually want to find, and why do you think this graph alone will provide it?
 
Hi and thanks for your reply.

What I want to find is the amount of glucose during that 5h period that is responsible for the rise in blood glucose levels above 100mg/dl during that 5h period.

In other words, as we eat, glucose enters the blood at a time rate so it created a rise in blood glucose. I want to know how much glucose miligrams in total enter the blood during that 5h period so that we result with the curve we see.

How can I find that?

I suppose there is a rate of glucose entering the blood as well as glucose being removed from blood (and entering the tissues). That's why the curve starts rising up to a top point and then decreases. But how much glucose is entering the blood during that period? (I am not interested in the removal of glucose from blood so I assume I should not care about the drop of glucose after the top point?)

Or another way to put it, every unit of time, I need to remove an amount of glucose so that I correct the level to the 100mg/dl baseline. How much will I have to remove during the 5h period? Would that be an accurate representation of what I want to find?

Thanks
 
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