Diabetes Research: Red Wine's Resveratrol May Help To Prevent Diabetes

Recent research conducted by a team of scientist from the University of Texas, United States, showed a compound in red wine can help to prevent type 2 diabetes (formerly called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), or adult-onset diabetes). The new study shows, Resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red wine, may counter type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.

The study was conducted in mice by injecting resveratrol from red wine on its brain. The result is blood sugar levels decreased significantly. But the effect only occurs when red wine is injected directly into the mice's brain.

"Compounds in red wine is resveratrol found to work very effectively when injected in to the brain," said Roberto Coppari, assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Coppari added that if the compound developed further then it could become into drugs that can be directly working on the brain. The researchers very interested in the resveratrol compound, found in red wine, pomegranates and some other foods that can extend the life of mice in the study, although those mice were given a high-fat foods during the research.

This Coppari research, focusing to see the effect of resveratrol on diabetic. After five weeks given resveratrol injections, insulin levels in mice to be normal. The researchers estimate that it could be happened because the activation of sirtuin brain cells.

Coppari also reveals why drinking red wine has no effect on insulin levels. That is because the levels of resveratrol in red wine are very few and there are barriers as the blood flows to the brain. So resveratrol should be directly injected into the brain.

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Diabetics Diet: Biotransformed Blueberry Juice Extract To Prevent Diabetes Mellitus

Based on findings of scientist and researcher from Canada, Blueberry, with an extra bacteria inside the skin of the fruit would probably help people with obesity and diabetes. The reason is, Blueberry, especially if made to be a juice, has an extract which experienced biotransformation with bacteria from the skin of fruit to reduce hyperglycemia (the abnormally high concentration of glucose in blood) in diabetics when tested in mice.

Furthermore, this juice also proven can protect the research mice from diabetes mellitus due to the emergence of obesity. The research was published in the International Journal of Obesity. Senior researcher, Pierre S. Haddad, a pharmacology professor at the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Medicine says, "The results of this study clearly shows that biotransformed Blueberry Juice has strong anti-obesity and anti-diabetic potential."

Still according to Pierre S. Haddad, "Biotransformed Blueberry Juice may represent a novel therapeutic agent, since it decreases hyperglycemia in diabetic mice and can protect young pre-diabetic mice from developing obesity and diabetes."

Biotransformation of the blueberry juice was achieved with a new strain of bacteria isolated from the blueberry flora, specifically called Serratia vaccinii, which increases the fruit's antioxidant effects. "The identification of the active compounds in biotransformed blueberry juice may result in the discovery of promising new antiobesity and antidiabetic molecules," says Dr. Haddad.

"These mice were an excellent model that closely resembles obesity and obesity-linked type 2 diabetes in humans," says Dr. Haddad, who is also director of the CIHR Team in Aboriginal Anti-Diabetic Medicines at the Université de Montréal.

Tri Vuong, lead author and recent PhD graduate from the Université de Montréal's Department of Pharmacology says: As for the impact of blueberry products on diabetes, "Consumption of fermented blueberry juice gradually and significantly reduced high blood glucose levels in diabetic mice. After three days, our mice subjects reduced their glycemia levels by 35 percent."

The research has conducted by researchers from the Université de Montréal, the Institut Armand-Frappier and the Université de Moncton, and was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Fonds de recherche sur la nature et les technologies.

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Diabetics Diet: Vegetarian Diet Effective in Treating Type 2 Diabetes

The scientists and researchers have found that Type 2 diabetes can be treated more effectively with a vegan diet that are low in fat than the standard diabetic diet. Surprisingly, a low-fat vegan diet perhaps even more effectively treating the disease than single agent treatment with diabetes medications taken.

The study conducted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) at George Washington University and the University of Toronto with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Diabetes Action Research and Education Foundation.

The study involved 99 people with Type 2 diabetes. Half of the participants followed the standard diabetic diet guidelines based on the American Diabetes Association, and the other half of participants who followed a vegan diet low in fat for 22 weeks.

Both of the groups progress measured in all aspects of the standard of diabetes, but the vegan participants showed greater improvement. Associated with vegan diet, Dr. Barnard, PCRM chairman, said, "All the 'side effects' are the good things - weight reduction, lower cholesterol, and better health overall."

Type 2 diabetes is the form of most common diseases suffered by 85-90% of all diabetics. The disease is usually associated in general with old age. However, because the present unhealthy lifestyle, high fat, rarely exercise, so there are more young people who are suffering from diabetes, including children. This is a lifestyle disease and is closely related to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and excess of body fat around the lower body.

Unlike Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas in Type 2 patients are still producing insulin, but insulin does not work like the insulin is supposed to work and therefore the pancreas need to make more insulin, and ultimately could not make enough insulin to maintain glucose balance in blood properly. At this point doctors usually prescribe tablets and insulin.


Vance Warren, 36-year-old participant and a former Washington DC police, have benefited from the vegan diet: He reduced his weight as much as 74 pounds (37 kilograms), his cholesterol went from 221 to 148 points, and his A1C (a measure of the level of blood sugar) dropped from over 9 percent to 5.3 percent (normal value below 6.0 per cent). Other participants experienced the similar results.

Drastic advances in health condition obtained by the participants in this program to make people think that if these people had undergone a vegan diet before diabetes, then they will never have diabetes.

The results of this study warned that the western diet that contains meat, fat, and grains that have been processed may cause Type 2 diabetes. Maybe it's time for the government to begin to educate their citizens before they are exposed to this disease, to prevent diabetes before the disease strikes.

It is so usual for doctors to advise their patients to change their diet and eat less meat and saturated fat after they suffered a heart attack. Instead of making these recommendations after the disease strikes, why not encourage it before the disease come and save people from suffering that is useless and billions of dollars of money for medical expenses.

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