London: Asparagus, a
popular vegetable, can keep diabetes at bay by helping blood sugar
levels stay under control while boosting output of insulin, the
hormone that helps the body absorb glucose, says a study.
Type two diabetes, which accounts for 90 percent of all diabetes
cases, is emerging as a major health burden worldwide.
More than a million people are already affected by it in the UK
alone but don't realise they have it, perhaps because they do not
recognise symptoms such as fatigue, thirst, frequent urination,
recurrent thrush and wounds that are slow to heal, the British
Journal of Nutrition reported.
Left untreated, type two diabetes can raise the risk of heart
attacks, blindness and amputation. But if doctors catch it early,
it can be well controlled with diet and medication, according to
the Daily Mail.
Once known as 'late onset' diabetes, since it only tended to
strike from middle-age onwards, doctors are now beginning to see
patients in their teens and twenties with the condition.
Fatty foods and unhealthy lifestyles are believed to raise the
risks.
To see if asparagus could help, scientists at the University of
Karachi in Pakistan injected rats with chemicals to induce a
diabetic state, with low levels of insulin and high blood sugar
content.
They said: "This study suggests asparagus extract exerts
anti-diabetic effects."
They then treated half with an extract from the asparagus plant
and the other half with an established anti-diabetic drug, called
glibenclamide. The rats were fed the asparagus extract in small or
large doses every day for 28 days.
Only high doses of the extract had a significant effect on insulin
production by the pancreas, the organ which releases the hormone
into the bloodstream.
The findings support earlier studies highlighting the benefits of
asparagus.
One article published in the British Medical Journal in 2006
showed asparagus triggered an 81 percent increase in glucose
uptake by the body's muscles and tissues.
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