Ginger Improves Digestion: Benefits for Type 2 Diabetics Ginger root (Zingiber officinale) may help improve abnormal digestive function induced by elevated blood sugar, reports The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (2003;307:1098–103).

Ginger, a common spice in Indian kitchens can manage high levels of blood sugar which create complications for long-term diabetic patients, a new study said. Researchers from University of Sydney found that ginger has the power to control blood glucose by using muscle cells.

 The potential implication of this finding is that people with adult-onset diabetes (type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes) may experience fewer of the gastrointestinal complications that often occur with that disease.

In the new study, 22 healthy adults between the ages of 19 and 49 years underwent four different electrogastrographic (EGG) studies. (An EGG measures the rhythm of stomach contractions by placing electrodes over the abdomen.) Following ingestion of 1,000 mg of ginger root, the first EGG was performed after administration of intravenous glucose (to reach blood levels of 250 to 290 mg/dl) and the second after taking misoprostol (a substance known to disrupt the normal rhythm of the stomach). For the third and fourth EGGs, participants were given a placebo followed by the same administration of first glucose and then misoprostal. Each of the four EGG studies was recorded and analyzed for changes in normal stomach rhythm and rate of stomach emptying.

Ginger root significantly reduced the disruptive effect of elevated blood sugar on stomach rhythm and helped maintain a normal rate of stomach emptying, while the stomach rhythm and contractions were increased following taking a placebo. Similar results were observed after taking misoprostol; however, these results were not statistically significant. These findings suggest ginger root helps prevent abnormalities in stomach rhythm and emptying that could lead to constipation, heartburn, and ulceration in some individuals.
Although the current study was performed on healthy adults, the effects of ginger root may be useful in treating those with adult-onset diabetes. High blood sugar levels are known to disrupt the normal function of the stomach, and people with uncontrolled diabetes may have blood sugar levels that exceed those reached in the current study. Diabetics with stomach problems also tend to respond favorably to medications that normalize stomach rhythm and correct delayed emptying. Although controlling blood sugar is the most important thing diabetics can do to prevent complications associated with diabetes, ginger may help provide symptomatic improvement while they work on bringing their blood sugar down.
Since the study did not specifically examine those with adult-onset diabetes, it is unknown whether ginger would provide the same benefits in improving stomach function. Nonetheless, ginger is generally safe and may be worth trying for people with diabetes-related stomach disorders.

"Ginger extracts obtained from Buderim Ginger were able to increase the uptake of glucose into muscle cells independently of insulin," Professor of pharmaceutical chemistry Basil Roufogalis who led the research said in a statement.
"This assists in the management of high levels of blood sugar that create complications for long-term diabetic patients, and may allow cells to operate independently of insulin," Roufogalis said.
"The components responsible for the increase in glucose were gingerols, the major phenolic components of the ginger rhizome. Under normal conditions, blood glucose level is strictly maintained within a narrow range, and skeletal muscle is a major site of glucose clearance in the body," Roufogalis added.
The pharmacy researchers extracted whole ginger rhizomes obtained from Buderim Ginger and showed that that one fraction of the extract was the most effective in reproducing the increase in glucose uptake by the whole extract in muscle cells grown in culture.
The study also determined how the gingerols could increase glucose uptake and showed an increase in the surface distribution of the protein GLUT4.
When the protein localises on the surface of muscle cells it allows transport of glucose into cells.
In type 2 diabetic patients, the capacity of skeletal muscle to uptake glucose is markedly reduced due to impaired insulin signal transduction and inefficiency of the GLUT4.




 The study was published in the journal Planta Medica.

White Fat with Attributes of Brown Fat May Treat Obesity and diabetes, says Study

sugarcane extract to a fatty diet and it will help shed the flab. But that could be the way of the future if trials by scientists, including an Indian-origin researcher, pan out.

NEW YORK: Scientists have found a way to give white 'bad' fat some of the healthful characteristics of energy-burning brown 'good' fat to treat obesity and diabetes.
Researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a mechanism that can give energy-storing white fat some of the beneficial characteristics of energy-burning brown fat.

The findings, based on studies of mice and of human fat tissue, could lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes treatment.
"Turning white fat into brown fat is an appealing therapeutic approach to staunching the obesity epidemic, but it has been difficult to do so in a safe and effective way," study leader and professor of Medicine and the Russell Berrie Foundation professor at CUMC Domenico Accili said in a press release.
White fat can be "browned" with a class of drugs called thiazolidazines (TZDs), which increase the body's sensitivity to insulin.

Humans have two types of fat tissue: white fat, which stores excess energy in the form of triglycerides, and brown fat, which is highly efficient at dissipating stored energy as heat.
Infants have a relative abundance of brown fat, as protection against exposure to cold temperatures. In adults, however, almost all excess energy is stored as white fat. TZDs have many adverse effects - including liver toxicity, bone loss, and, ironically, weight gain - which have limited the use of these drugs.
The researchers had previously shown in mice that when sirtuin activity increases, so does metabolic activity.
In the present study, they found that sirtuins boost metabolism by promoting the browning of white fat.
"When we sought to identify how sirtuins promote browning, we observed many similarities between the effect of sirtuins and that of TZDs," lead author associate research scientist at CUMC said.
Sirtuins work by severing the chemical bonds between acetyl groups and proteins, a process known as deacetylation. The study was published in the journal Cell.

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have now come up with a new strategy to treat the largely growing problem of obesity, a recent report has revealed. They say that white 'bad' fat if converted into brown 'good' fat can prove an outstanding measure to treat the disease.
Domenico Accili, professor of Medicine as well as the Russell Berrie Foundation professor, says that a mechanism that is able to transfer healthful characteristics of 'good' fat to white 'bad' fat has been discovered. The same would be equally probably helpful for the cure diabetes also as per a study on mice and of human fat tissue.
As per the findings, two types of fat tissue are carried by humans, including white one that stores excess of energy in triglycerides’ form and brown fat, which can dissolve that energy as heat in an effective manner.
It has been told that thiazolidazines (TZDs), the name for a class of drugs can easily turn white fat into the brown one. TZDs are responsible for boosting the sensitivity of the body to insulin. "Turning white fat into brown fat is an appealing therapeutic approach to staunching the obesity epidemic, but it has been difficult to do so in a safe and effective way”, said lead author Accili.