The consumption of pumpkin extracts could replace insulin injections in type 1 diabetes.

Ingestion of extracts from pumpkin could allow Type I diabetics no longer having to inject insulin every day in all cases to reduce very significantly the number of injections they are obliged to face each day. This suggests that a Chinese study whose results have just been published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Type I diabetes, also called “lean diabetes or” insulin dependent “, is caused by the destruction, following immune dysfunction (autoimmune disease), insulin producing cells in the pancreas.

Tao Xia and his colleagues at the Normal University East China showed that pumpkin extract would reduce the differences between diabetic rats and healthy rats. After a diet pumpkin, blood insulin levels in diabetic rats was lower by only 5% and the number of pancreatic beta cells (cells that normally synthesize insulin) fell 8%.

What magical substances are causing these effects?

The D-chiro-inositol and antioxidants, two classes of molecules would boost the level of insulin to lower blood glucose levels and reduce oxidative damage that glucose exerts normal pancreatic beta cell. Results: The cells of the pancreas are less damaged, they can regenerate and recover to make insulin, making the need less of this hormone screaming.

For David Bender, a researcher specializing in diabetes at the University Medical School in London, “these results are very exciting (…). They suggest that the pumpkin extract prevents the progressive destruction of pancreatic beta cells (…). But it is currently impossible to say whether these extracts can also regenerate human pancreatic cells.

Insulin has a key role in the process, because during the break down food digestion in order to create glucose, one of the body’s energy sources.

Glucose enters the blood, which allows insulin to enter cells. When people have diabetes that happens: either the pancreas does not produce insulin or produces too little, which is known as Type 1 Diabetes. And type 2 diabetes occurs when cells do not respond to insulin production.

In the case of type 1 diabetes is very difficult to prevent, however, in the case of type 2 diabetes can take steps to reduce the impact of the disease.

Symptoms of diabetes include chronic fatigue, sudden weight loss, nonhealing wounds, like going to urinate constantly, hungry all the time, blurred vision, sexual problems, vaginal infections, tingling in the fingertips of hands or feet, and thirst. If you think you feel some of these symptoms on a permanent basis should visit the doctor.

Type 1 diabetes occurs in young children, adolescents and young adults. Currently are still conducting research to discover what that destroys insulin-producing cells or what triggers the process and how to prevent it.

In the case of type 2 diabetes, it can be prevented. Factors contributing to the appearance of diabetes are known: age, family history of diabetes, overweight and physical inactivity.

Also this does not mean that people who lead a healthy way of life can not develop this type of diabetes.

To prevent the onset of this disease should lead a healthy life, to do you can follow these tips to help you prevent and control the onset of diabetes.

* Nutrition: a balanced diet is crucial to prevent the onset of the disease. Please include your diet foods low in fat, salt and avoid foods with added sugars. On the other hand should increase consumption of foods rich in fiber.

* Exercise: all investigations related to this disease showed that increasing the amount of exercise helps prevent disease. Only 30 minutes of exercise daily is sufficient. When you increase the amount of exercise you put to work in your metabolism, you spend more energy, and in a diabetic that means better use of insulin injected or produced by the pancreas.

With this distinction, which was delivered during the Congress of the Spanish Society of Diabetes, were awarded the project presented by Jose Manuel Garcia Lopez as principal investigator of the study ‘Effects of therapy with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) on glycemic variability ‘, said the Spanish Society of Diabetes.

This scholarship is awarded each year to conduct a study regarding the application of new technologies in the care of patients with diabetes mellitus, with the aim to encourage research among professionals.

The winning project aims at studying the variability in glucose levels and the risk of hypoglycemia in a group of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus have been selected for intensive treatment with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion.

With the final goal of achieving metabolic control closer to normal in these patients, the study aims to establish whether there is any metabolic benefit beyond achieving normal glycemic, especially if it results in decreased expression of the redox state and the inflammatory component triggered by glycemic fluctuations.

“This study has a major role, due to the unstoppable increase in the incidence of diabetes in the world population,” explained and pointed out that in Galicia in 2004 to 7% of the population over 18 years had diabetes.

In the last decades of life, the percentage of diabetics reaching over 30 percent, but still growing, especially in children.

To verify its effectiveness, was held, worldwide, a study period of seven years where more than 3,000 diabetic patients who were treated with inhaled insulin. This demonstrated that this treatment is as effective as injected insulin and superior to oral hypoglycemic agents or pills used by people with type 2 diabetes, to reduce and maintain well-controlled blood sugar levels.

However, there were some side effects such as cough, shortness of breath, dry mouth and episodes of hypoglycemia, so it is recommended to be alert to these symptoms and careful monitoring of glucose levels.

Furthermore, it was found that some patients had difficulty breathing after using inhaled insulin for several months. Because of this, there will be a study duration of 12 years to investigate in depth the possible side effects and the danger that can represent the use of this therapy in people who have a problem with the lungs.

For this reason it was decided to restrict its use in patients with asthma, emphysema, bronchitis or other lung problems as well as by those who smoke or have stopped doing so recently. On the other hand, the use of this therapy is not recommended for children and young people under 18 or pregnant women.

The precursor of diabetes mellitus is already in the fact that the cells develop in the long term resistance to insulin. This means that the cells respond not as sensitive to insulin and absorb as a result of less glucose.
A vicious circle is created: the blood sugar level is elevated, the beta cells of the pancreas respond with insulin secretion. As a result, fat burning is inhibited. The high insulin levels leads to a permanent blockage of burning fat with the consequence of the continuous weight gain. This cycle continues continuously through a permanent malnutrition and growing ever wider. In the preliminary stage of diabetes mellitus can be prevented with a change in behavior of exercise and diet and drug therapy with the progress of the disease, contrary. With a good implementation of the recommendations, the treatment of insulin resistance may be reduced or eliminated altogether. If the symptoms of diabetes mellitus but not recognized in time and therefore not treated, the progression of the disease is inevitable.

The digestive system builds the dietary carbohydrates that are contained in, for example, sugar, bread and other cereal products, to glucose (dextrose) from. This is absorbed by the intestinal wall into the blood and distributed throughout the entire body.

The pancreas produces in ?-cells of the islets of Langerhans of the hormone insulin. Insulin increases in muscle and fat cells, the permeability of cell membranes to glucose. In the cells the glucose is consumed for energy. Insulin also causes the glucose uptake in the liver cells, which they store in the form of glycogen. The blood sugar rises in the digestion phase and will then (a half to two hours after the last feeding) held constant within narrow limits, 80-120 mg / dl or 4,5-6,7 mmol / l. Even in long fasting blood glucose levels remain at normal levels. This is essentially the liver: first, the stored glycogen is broken down and re-released into the blood, on the other hand constantly glucose from smaller building blocks formed new (gluconeogenesis).

Insulin is made in the pancreas. If no or insufficient insulin is made, or when the body no longer responds to insulin, the body has trouble to get glucose from the blood. The blood flows remains around and can not be used for energy. The result is very thirsty and urinating a lot. Because the body tries to glucose in a different way to lose. As someone not glucose, so no power can take, he feels tired.

Diabetic patients, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have been able to stop injecting insulin through treatment with stem cells. The tests, conducted by a team of American and Brazilian scientists, were conducted on 15 patients recently diagnosed with the disease, they had to undergo immunosuppressive therapy and were transfused with stem cells from their blood.

14 of 15 volunteers have not resorted to injections of insulin – some for several years – after treatment. Indeed one patient was able to dispense injections for 35 months while 4 other patients would be provided for at least 21 months. The treatment was effective immediately after the transfusion of stem cells for 11 of the 15 volunteers who were able to dispense with insulin injections.

This form of therapy is known as transplant (or grafting) of autologous stem cells. She has already shown encouraging for the treatment of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease or lupus.

What is the insulin?

Endogenous insulin production

Beta cells produce insulin in stages. The first stage is the production of proinsulin. Proinsulin is a molecule composed of a protein chain of 81 amino acids, which is a precursor of insulin. Beta cells of the pancreas making process proinsulin to insulin by enzymatic removal of C-peptide, which is a structure of 30 amino acids that connects the A and B chains (21 and 30 amino acids, respectively).
C-peptide has no known function. However, it is secreted in the same quantities as insulin and, in fact, it circulates in the blood longer than insulin, making it a precise quantitative marker of beta cell function. Thus, normal levels of C-peptide suggest a relatively normal secretion of the pancreas.
Insulin is stored in secretory granules in beta cells, which are prepared for release in the bloodstream, in response to stimulation of an increasing concentration of glucose in blood. A normally functioning pancreas can manufacture and release daily from 40 to 50 units of insulin. It also has several hundred units stored and available to be segregated when needed

The role of insulin on the glucose
Glucose is the primary fuel for all body tissues. The brain uses about 25% of total body glucose. However, because the brain stores very little glucose, you always have to be a constant and controlled supply of available glucose in the bloodstream. The goal is to keep the brain working properly. In this sense, it is vital that the blood glucose level is maintained in a range of 60 to 120 mg / dl, in order to prevent a lack sumistro the nervous system.
Insulin is the principal hormone that regulates blood glucose levels. Its function is to control the rate at which glucose is consumed in the muscle cells, fat tissue and liver.

Each of these types of body cells use glucose differently. This usage is determined by the specific enzyme system of each. Treatment of diabetes is based on the interaction of insulin and other hormones in the cellular processes of these three types of body cells. Glucose is the most important stimulus for insulin secretion.