Could Lettuce Cure Diabetes?

Would you believe that the lettuce you are eating in your dinner salad could possibly be a cure for Type 1 diabetes? In about five years, a diabetic could be swallowing a capsule containing ground up lettuce with insulin once or twice a week for a few weeks and then be cured and not have to inject insulin for the rest of his life.

Let's start at the beginning. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in young adults and children. Diabetes does not permit the body to manufacture insulin, which is needed to convert starches, sugar and other food into energy. This disease can bring on many problems such as blindness, foot and skin problems, and heart and kidney disease. Watching their blood sugar levels is a number one priority for patients with this form of the disease.

According to the American Diabetes Association, about 20.8 million children and adults or about 7 percent of the population have type 1 or 2 diabetes in the United States. The National Changing Diabetes Program released last month that the number of Americans with diabetes is estimated to double by 2025. During a congressional briefing, the Mathematical Policy Research, Inc. reported that one of every eight federal health care dollars, $79.7 billion out of $645 billion, is spent on care for diabetics.

The current treatment for type 1 diabetes entails putting insulin into the bloodstream usually by injection. Patients can also inhale the insulin or wear a pump that delivers the insulin into the bloodstream. Unfortunately, the insulin does not cure the diabetes, it only treats it. Patients have to take insulin for the rest of their lives. People experiencing this disease may have a cure and it could come from lettuce, according to Henry Daniell, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.

According to Dr. Daniell, a lettuce leaf is put into a machine and then it is injected with a human gene for insulin. The leaf is in effect creating human insulin. The lettuce is grown in the lab. The lettuce is then ground up and put into a capsule. Dr. Daniell considers the lettuce to be genetically modified. Every solitary cell in the lettuce leaf contains 10,000 copies of the insulin gene. The plant cell walls are made of cellulose to prevent the insulin from degrading. Insulin is little by little sent into the bloodstream when the bacteria living in the intestine slowly break down the cell walls. This generates an immune reaction in the body and trains it to release its own insulin. This is a completely new theory and a new way to use this oral delivery system to cure this immune disorder. Dr. Daniell has been working to make his technique perfect for the past 20 years.

Dr. Daniell has tested this concept on mice. All the diabetic mice had normal blood sugar levels and created insulin after eight weeks, even after they quit ingesting the lettuce powder. He had given the lettuce powder to the mice once a week and the results were amazing.

Patients would only have to take the pill for weeks, not months or years according to Dr. Daniell. Technically, they would no longer have diabetes once their immune system reacts to the pill. Additionally, since this therapy is based on plants, it would only cost pennies to produce. The mice had no side effects from the treatment.

The next step is to test the lettuce capsules in humans and that is expected to start in the next year. Dr. Daniell said his research team has offers from formal partners and the University of Central Florida is consulting with them to start a phase 1 clinical trial. Dr. Daniell is expecting to see the same result in humans as they found in the trials on mice.

Prior results and these results signify that insulin capsules possibly in the future might be used to prevent diabetes before the symptoms appear and even treat the disease in its later stages. It could also assist patients that have multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes and some forms of arthritis.

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Calorie restriction helps severely obese diabetics

By David Liu, PHD

Sunday March 11, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- One report posted on foodconsumer.org says that fasting can help fight cancer. Now a new study a very low calorie diet helps severely obese diabetes patients.

The study led by I Malandrucco of University of Rome Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy and colleagues found 7 days of a very low calorie diet (400 kcal per day)lowered fasting plasma glucose and triglycerides in additiono to 3.22 percent weight loss.

The authors reported that the diabetes patients after the dietary regimen were able to increase their body's capability to disoise a glucose load to 76 ml per min per meter square of body surface area.

They also observed these improvements were accompanied by improvements in indexes of both first and second-phase insulin secretion, but no insulin sensitivity was improved.

Calorie restriction was found to improve glucose control quickly in obese diabetics, independent of weight loss status, according to the study report.

The researchers concluded that it was the amelioration of beta cell function that drastically improved the metabolic profile in the severely obese patients with type 2 diabetes after a 7-day very low calorie diet.

An estimated 26 million Americans live with type 2 diabetes.  One third of adults may be obese in the U.S.  Both diabetes and obesity may result from a unhealthy diet and lifestyle.  Modiciation of lifestyle parameters can help improve the condition of diabetes.

Herbal Remedies For Diabetes, Diabetes Cure

Diabetes, or Diabetes Mellitus to give it its proper medical name, is a disorder of assimilation. When the pancreases become inactive or atrophied and cease to produce insulin, the body is unable to convert the sugar into energy for the muscles. Its chief symptoms are weakness and loss of weight, great thirst and increase in the amount of urine passed. There is sometimes voracious appetite but the patient. Gradually becomes more and more emaciated.

Herbal remedies for diabetes become an adorable treatment alternative since the world learns so many things about the effectiveness of herbal to cure illnesses. A good assumption about herbal is telling us that herbal is safe to consume and also affordable for most of people in around the world. Herbal remedies for diabetes is one of the prominent medication treatment alternative that often asked regarding its effectiveness.

Evening Primrose Oil
Green plaintain peels
European blueberry
Bitter Gourd
Ground fenugreek seeds

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Pitaya

A pitaya  or pitahaya is the fruit of several cactus species, most importantly of the genus Hylocereus (sweet pitayas).
These fruits are commonly known as "dragon fruit" as in the Chinese huǒ lóng guǒ, "fire dragon fruit", and lóng zhū guǒ, "dragon pearl fruit", the Vietnamese thanh long meaning "green dragon", the Indonesian and Malaysian buah naga, the Lao mark mang gohn, and the Thai kaeo mangkonor "dragon crystal". Other vernacular names are strawberry pear or nanettikafruit.

Sweet pitayas come in three types, all with leathery, slightly leafy skin:

• Hylocereus undatus (red pitaya) has red-skinned fruit with white flesh. This is the most commonly seen "dragon fruit".
• Hylocereus costaricensis (Costa Rica pitaya, often called H. polyrhizus) has red-skinned fruit with red flesh
• Hylocereus megalanthus (yellow pitaya, formerly in Selenicereus) has yellow-skinned fruit with white flesh.

Early imports from Colombia to Australia were designated Hylocereus ocampensis (supposedly red fruit) and Cereus triangularis (supposedly yellow fruit). It is not quite certain to which species these taxa refer, though the latter is probably the red pitaya.

The fruit can weigh from 150 to 600 grams; some may reach one kilogram.

CONSUMPTION

To prepare a pitaya for consumption, the fruit is cut open to expose the flesh. The fruit's texture is sometimes likened to that of the kiwifruit because of its black, crunchy seeds. The flesh, which is eaten raw, is mildly sweet and low in calories. The seeds are eaten together with the flesh, have a nutty taste and are rich in lipids, but they are indigestible unless chewed. The fruit is also converted into juice or wine, or used to flavour other beverages. The flowers can be eaten or steeped as tea. The skin is not eaten, and in farm-grown fruit it may be polluted with pesticides.

Ingestion of significant amounts of red-fleshed dragon fruit (such as Costa Rica Pitaya) may result in pseudohematuria, a harmless reddish coloration of the urine and faeces.

Several of the Padres who missionized Baja California recorded an unusual form of consumption of pitaya that is also shared in some O'odham stories from southern Arizona. It is called the "second harvest" of pitaya seeds. With the scarcity of fruits in their lands, the pitaya was such a prized fruit that once it was eaten, the natives would wait for their own excrement to dry, then break it apart separating the pitaya seeds. These seeds would be ground into a flour and eaten again, giving the pitaya's "second harvest" it's name. Interestingly, the O'odham name for the Milky Way translates as "the second harvest of pitaya."

Taste

The mild taste of pitaya flesh is often remarked upon, as it stands in stark contrast to the vibrant exterior. The taste has been described as being "very bland... like a melon or kiwi," with a "mild sweetness."

Nutritional information

The edible parts of raw pitaya consist of mostly water and carbohydrates, with some protein and fat content. Pitayas contain slight amounts of calcium,iron, phosphorus, and other nutrients.

USES

• Particularly red-skinned pitayas are a good source of Vitamin C.
• Pitayas are rich in fiber and minerals, notably phosphorus and calcium. Red pitayas seem to be richer in the former, yellow ones in the latter.
• The seeds are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, and in particular Red Pitayas contain very little saturated fat.
• Pitahayas also contain significant quantities of phytoalbumin antioxidants, which prevent the formation of cancer-causing free radicals.
• In Taiwan, diabetics use the fruit as a food substitute for rice and as a source of dietary fiber.
• Pitaya supposedly increases excretion of heavy metal toxins and lowers cholesterol and blood pressure. Eaten regularly, it is credited with alleviating chronic respiratory tractailments.

Red Meat tied to stroke risk

By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Eating red meat -- including beef, pork, lamb, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and bacon -- may increase the risk of stroke, a meta-analysis showed.

Each one-serving-per-day increase in fresh, processed, and total red meat intake was associated with an 11% to 13% relative increase in the risk of all strokes, driven by an increase in the risk of ischemic stroke, according to Joanna Kaluza, PhD, of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland, and colleagues.

There was, however, no relationship between red meat consumption and hemorrhagic stroke risk, the researchers reported online inStroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The findings are "of great public health importance because of the widespread consumption of red meat and the high morbidity and mortality associated with stroke," Kaluza and colleagues wrote.

Chowing down on red meat has been associated with greater risks of some cancers, coronary heart disease, and diabetes, as well as all-cause mortality and death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Studies examining the relationship between red meat and the risk of stroke have yielded mixed results, so Kaluza and colleagues performed a meta-analysis of prospective studies examining the issue.

They identified five publications that included results from six studies (two in Sweden, three in the U.S., and one in Japan) that reported relative risks of stroke with various levels of consumption of red meat -- including pork, often advertised as "the other white meat."

The studies included a total of 329,495 participants and 10,630 cases of stroke.

All of the studies statistically adjusted for age, body mass index, and alcohol consumption, and most further accounted for smoking, physical activity, diabetes, hypertension, energy intake, and fruit and vegetable consumption.

After adjustment, the serving-per-day increase in red meat consumption associated with an increase in the risk of stroke was consistent for fresh meat (RR 1.11, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.20), processed meat (RR 1.13, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.24), and all red meat combined (RR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.16).

Among the four studies that had information on stroke subtypes, the risk of ischemic stroke was significantly related to one-serving-per-day increases in fresh meat (RR 1.13, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.27), processed meat (RR 1.15, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.24), and all red meat combined (RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.19).

The researchers suggested a few possible mechanisms to explain the findings, including consumption of high levels of saturated fats, which could lead to a greater risk of stroke from higher levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.

Red meat also contains heme iron, and "high doses of iron may lead to oxidative stress, a state with increased peroxidation of lipids, protein modification, and DNA damage," the authors wrote. "If continued for a long time, oxidative stress induced by iron may lead to the development of many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, neurological disorders, and chronic inflammation."

Processed red meat contains sodium and nitrite preservatives, which may also influence the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other diseases, according to the researchers.

They acknowledged some limitations of the meta-analysis, possible residual confounding from unmeasured factors in the individual studies, the use of self-report information on red meat consumption, between-study variations in the definition of a serving size and in meat consumption patterns, and possible publication bias.

Statin benefits outweigh diabetes risk, study finds

Six months after the US Food and Drug Administration required cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to carry warnings about diabetes risks, Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers conclude in a new analysis of a landmark study that the increased likelihood of diabetes is outweighed by the drugs’ protective effects against heart attacks, strokes, and heart disease deaths.

The new study, published Thursday in the journal Lancet, delved into findings from a 2008 clinical trial involving nearly 18,000 adults without heart disease or high cholesterol but with high levels of artery-damaging inflammation. That trial found a small increased diabetes risk among people who took rosuvastatin (Crestor). The new analysis shows that the bulk of the extra diabetes cases occurred in certain statin users: those already on the verge of getting the disease because of being obese or having an elevated blood sugar levels or resistance to the hormone insulin.

“We’re not seeing any excess risk in those who have normal blood sugar levels and no other risk factors for diabetes,” said study leader Dr. Paul Ridker, a Brigham cardiologist.

The original study, called Jupiter, and the followup analysis were funded by Crestor manufacturer AstraZeneca, and Ridker holds a patent on the test used in the trial to measure inflammation.

While statins have been shown to have life-saving benefits in patients already diagnosed with diabetes or in those who have had previous heart attacks, their use for preventing future heart attacks and strokes in healthier patients has come into question as diabetes risks have become more widely known. But the latest finding should provide reassurance to patients taking statins for the prevention of heart disease, said Dr. Allison Goldfine, head of clinical research at the Joslin Diabetes Center.

In patients at increased risk for diabetes, statins, when compared with a placebo, reduced the overall risk of dying or of having a heart attack, stroke, or other serious heart complication by 39 percent, the study found, while raising the risk of getting diabetes by 28 percent.

In absolute terms, 134 vascular complications or deaths were avoided for every 54 new cases of diabetes diagnosed during the trial in these high-risk patients, who were followed for an average of two years. The researchers found that the increased diabetes risk applied only to those who were already on the threshold of developing the disease — speeding up their time to diagnosis by about five weeks on average.

“Statins may bring on diabetes a little earlier, but the condition is manageable,” Goldfine added. “But the leading cause of death in diabetics is heart disease, and that’s what statins help prevent.”

Despite the finding from the Jupiter trial that statins provided net benefits for those with an elevation in an inflammatory marker called C-reactive protein but not high cholesterol, doctors have been largely reluctant to prescribe the drugs solely on the basis of elevated CRP levels because of concerns about diabetes and other side effects, such as muscle aches and rare but serious kidney or liver complications.

While the latest finding may shift practices somewhat toward prescribing statins more frequently, some doctors said the benefits are still very small in a population at low risk of having a heart attack.

“The study found only a marginal benefit for reducing major heart events, and it’s a narrow tradeoff with the increased diabetes risk,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif. “It’s not an acceptable reason to give rosuvastatin to those whose only risk is a high CRP.”

One reasonable approach doctors can take, said Goldfine, would be to analyze a patient’s heart disease risk factors, including age and family history, and to get a CRP measurement in those with a moderately high risk of having a heart attack during the next 10 years. “The CRP test could be a very valuable part of the decision in determining whether these patients should be on a statin.”

Foods That Decrease Blood Sugar

Diabetes is an ailment that needs good control over the diet and lifestyle of the affected person. People with high blood sugar levels are often left with very few options to choose from, when it comes to food. However, you should know that there are many foods, which help decrease blood sugar also. While some of the foods that help lower blood sugar are rich in fiber, others have nutrients that help keep the level of blood sugar steady. Such food items are recommended by the dieticians and doctors as well. In case you want to know more about the foods that help decrease blood sugar, the list given below will prove useful.

Best Foods To Lower Your Blood Sugar

Avocado

Avocado is packed with nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. It contains vitamin E in a recommended amount, which is needed for the regulation of blood sugar and thus lowering the blood sugar. It contains vitamin E, magnesium, vitamin C, folate, and zinc which are excellent for diabetics. Take a cup of freshly cut avocado every day.

Barley

Barley is a whole-grain product, which is high in soluble fiber and contains low glycemic index (GI) with certain types of indigestible carbohydrates. Taking barley in breakfast is a good way to keep your body healthy and to lower your blood sugar.

Broccoli, Spinach, and Green Beans

According to the diabetic experts, having plenty of vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, and green beans are good for people with high blood sugar. As these vegetables are non-starchy, high in fiber, low in carbs, these are an ideal food for a person suffering from high blood sugar. Incorporate these foods in your diet on a regular basis.

Berries

Generally, fruits are high in fructose, which makes them unsuitable for a hypoglycemic diet. However, fruits especially all types of berries are low in sugar, high in antioxidants and packed with nutrients, which makes them ideal for someone suffering from low blood sugar. Include berries such as strawberries, blueberries, acai berries etc in your diet.

Fish (Tuna, Salmon, Halibut, and Herring)

Fishes such as tuna, salmon, herring, halibut contain onega-3 fatty acid improves the body’s response to insulin and helps in regulating blood sugar. These fishes also contain selenium, which helps in lowering the blood sugar. Incorporate these fishes in your diet.

Flaxseed

Flax seed and its flax seed oil both have omega 3, an essential fatty acid that helps in regulating blood sugar level. It also contains mucilage, which is good for lowering blood sugar. They are also rich in protein, fiber, and are a good source of magnesium, which is very good for blood sugar control.

Green Tea

Green tea contains antioxidants and has been used to control blood sugar in the body from time immemorial. Studies also show that green tea helps in preventing the development of diabetes and slow the advance once a person has developed it. Green tea also helps in regulating glucose in a person’s body. 

Some other foods that help in lowering blood sugar are:

• Brown Rice
• Cabbage
• Canola Oil
• Carrots
• Cinnamon
• Lean Meat
• Lentils
• Low-Fat Dairy Products
• Nuts
• Olive Oil
• Wheat Bran