Seven Herbs And Supplements For Type 2 Diabetes

Seven herbs and supplements for type 2 diabetes

Diabetes is a widespread disorder affecting the blood sugar and insulin levels in the body. Managing the long-term consequences and complications of diabetes are as much of a challenge as the disease itself.
There are two main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is where the pancreas produces no insulin. Type 2 diabetes is more common. With type 2, the body either does not produce enough insulin or produces insulin that the body does not use properly.
There are many treatment options for people with type 2 diabetes. Growing research suggests that some herbs and supplements may help with the condition.
Useful herbs may be great to combine with more traditional methods to find relief from many type 2 diabetes symptoms.
Seven herbs and supplements
Here are seven herbs and supplements that may be of benefit to people with type 2 diabetes.
Aloe vera
Aloe vera is a common plant with many different uses. Most people are aware of the plant being used to coat the skin and protect it from damage caused by too much sun exposure.
However, the plant has many lesser-known benefits as well. These range from helping digestive issues to possibly even relieving type 2 diabetes symptoms.
One review analyzed many studies using aloe vera to treat symptoms of diabetes. Their results strongly suggested an antidiabetic potential for aloe. Subjects given aloe showed lower blood sugar levels and higher insulin levels.
Further tests showed that aloe helps to increase how much insulin is produced by the pancreas. This could mean that aloe helps to restore bodies with type 2 diabetes or protect them fro Continue reading

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World Diabetes Day: Google celebrates man who discovered insulin could TREAT diabetes

The search engine’s latest doodle features a picture of Sir Frederick Banting, who, with the help of Charles Best, found hormone could treat diabetes.
The second ‘O’ of the word Google is replaced by a bottle of insulin, and the doodle also features a drawing of Sir Banting.
The doodle also features the pancreas, the organ which makes insulin, a hormone which helps the body store and use glucose.
Banting's interest in diabetes first developed when he read an article about the pancreas.
He then drew upon research which found diabetes resulted from a lack of a hormone secreted by the organ.
Banting also sought advice from Professor Macleod, at the University of Toronto, who provided facilities for the scientist, and assistance of Dr Charles Best and biochemist James Collip.
Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery insulin could treat diabetes.
Diabetes occurs where there is too much glucose in the blood because the body cannot use it properly.
There are two forms of the condition - Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body cannot produce insulin.
Fri, August 19, 2016
Diabetes is a common life-long health condition. There are 3.5 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 500,000 who are living undiagnosed with the condition.
Around one in 10 people with diabetes have Type 1 and it usually affects children or young adults.
Type 1 diabetes means the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin.
When insulin is not produced a person’s glucose levels increase Continue reading

Drug to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Passes Critical Test in Mice

In a groundbreaking study, researchers found that they were able to effectively reverse type 2 diabetes symptoms in mice by administering a daily oral drug with no adverse side effects.
Millions of people worldwide suffer from diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes—which accounts for nearly 90% of all documented cases. If the medication is successful in humans, it would revolutionize how diabetes is treated.
Type 2 diabetes is common in older individuals whose bodies’ do not respond as they should to insulin, the key hormone that regulates blood sugar. Most diabetics opt for insulin injections to control their blood sugar levels, while others rely on restrictive diets to avoid sugar altogether. Though both of these techniques help manage the disease, they cannot cure it. They come with a number of potential of side effects including weight gain and diarrhea.
What’s more, dependence on insulin injections may lead to insulin resistance. And if untreated, type 2 diabetes can lead to health problems like kidney disease, nerve damage, and vision problems.
The proposed daily pill would restore the body’s sensitivity to insulin and increase the activity of the insulin receptor in the liver. Researchers believe this could introduce a new therapeutic strategy to treating type 2 diabetes and hopefully result in a lessened reliance on insulin injections by people with adult-onset diabetes.
Here’s Andy Coghlan, reporting for New Scientist:
The drug works by inhibiting an enzyme called low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (LMPTP), which seems to contribute to cell Continue reading

A New Clinical Trial Just Made Diabetes Patients Insulin Independent

New research involving pancreatic islet cell implants show promise in treating Type 1 Diabetes, a potentially debilitating form of the disease that affects more than a million people in the U.S. This new treatment might just spell the end for T1D.
With Promising Potential
No matter how modern the world has become, there are certain ailments that continue to persist. One of these is diabetes, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are now over 422 million people in the world suffering from it. Generally characterized as a problem in blood sugar levels, diabetes has two variants — an insulin-dependent one, known as type 1 diabetes (T1D), and type 2 diabetes that’s non-insulin-dependent.
In the United States, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation reports that about 1.25 million people have T1D. The cause of this particular diabetes variant still remains unknown, and treatments generally involve pumping insulin daily into the patient’s body. As such, there’s still no known cure for T1D. However, researchers from the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine in Florida may have just made it possible to develop one.
In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers described how clinical trials involving pancreatic islet cell implants to the omentum — the tissue covering organs in the abdomen — shows promise in treating T1D. “Islet transplantation can restore euglycemia and eliminate severe hypoglycemia in patients with [T1D],” the researchers wrote. “The omentum has a dense vascularized surface Continue reading

'Smart' insulin hope for diabetes

Scientists are hopeful that "smart" insulins which are undergoing trials could revolutionise the way diabetes is managed.
Instead of repeated blood tests and injections throughout the day to keep blood sugar in check, a single dose of smart insulin would keep circulating in the body and turn on when needed.
Animal studies show the technology appears to work - at least in mice.
Scientists plan to move to human trials soon, PNAS journal reports.
Experts caution that it will take years of testing before treatments could become a reality for patients.
Smart insulin
People with type 1 diabetes, who either do not make or cannot use their own natural insulin, rely on insulin injections to stay well.
Without these, their blood sugar would get dangerously high.
But injecting insulin can also make blood sugar levels dip too low, and people with type 1 diabetes must regularly check their blood glucose levels to make sure they are in the right zone.
Diabetes experts have been searching for ways to make blood sugar control easier and more convenient for patients, which is where "smart" insulins come in.
There are a few different types in development, but all are designed to automatically activate when blood sugar gets too high and switch off again when it returns to normal.
Dr Danny Chou from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been testing a smart insulin that he and his colleagues developed in the lab.
It is a chemically modified version of regular, long-acting insulin.
It has an extra set of molecules stuck on the end that binds it to proteins that circulate in the bloodstr Continue reading