Strawberries prove effective in fighting diabetes
A recent scientific study has found that eating freeze-dried strawberries daily may be an effective weapon to fight the "pre-diabetic" stage and limit its progression to full-blown diabetes.
The research team from the University of Nevada
Las Vegas
followed 25 participants suffering from pre-diabetes and found that regularly eating 32 grams of dried strawberries daily (equivalent to two and a half servings of fresh strawberries) for 12 weeks led to noticeable improvements on multiple fronts.
Fasting blood
sugar levels decreased significantly
vascular inflammation indicators decreased, and antioxidant indicators improved significantly. These improvements included increased activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase, higher levels of glutathione in the blood, and a comprehensive improvement in antioxidant capacity.
The importance of
- stage in which the progression of the disease can be prevented
- as a person suffers from a slight increase in blood sugar
but has not yet reached
the level of a diabetes diagnosis. At this stage, high blood sugar contributes to increased oxidative stress in the body, which leads to cell damage and disrupts insulin function.
Researchers attribute
these positive results to strawberries containing a rich group of
beneficial plant compounds
- most notably polyphenols such as anthocyanins and ellagic acid
- which work to enhance the activity of antioxidant enzymes in
- the body and improve insulin sensitivity.
This study adds new evidence of the importance of food as a means of preventing chronic diseases, as the results indicate that including strawberries in the daily diet can constitute a practical and simple strategy to prevent the development of diabetes, especially for people at risk of developing it.
It is noteworthy that the study
which lasted for 28 weeks, used a precise cross-research design
where each participant took strawberry supplements for 12 weeks
then stopped for 4 weeks
before moving on to the next stage of the study.
An improvement in health indicators was observed during periods of eating strawberries, while these indicators declined again during periods of cessation.
These promising results
open the door to the possibility of using strawberries as part of preventive programs for people at risk of developing diabetes, which reinforces the concept of "preventive medicine through nutrition" and emphasizes the importance of food choices in maintaining health and combating diseases.
What is "type 5 diabetes"
that affects 25 million people around the world?
After decades of mystery and misdiagnosis, a previously unknown type of diabetes has received official recognition under the name "type 5 diabetes".
This recognition represents
- an important turning point in understanding and treating diabetes
- as it is estimated that this type affects between 20
- and 25 million people around the world
most of
whom are concentrated in the regions of Asia and Africa.
Interestingly
this type has not been discovered recently
- but its first observations date back more than seventy years
- when British physician Philip Hugh-Jones noticed in Jamaica that
- some of his patients did not meet the characteristics of
known types of diabetes.
At the time, it was called "Type J" after Jamaica, but this classification disappeared from the spotlight for decades until it was rediscovered through a recent study in Africa that revealed the presence of a large number of patients who did not meet the specifications of the first and second types.
What distinguishes type 5 diabetes
is that although it is similar to other types in the symptoms of high blood sugar, its causes are radically different. Unlike type 1, which results from an immune attack on the pancreas, or type 2, which is associated with insulin resistance
type 5 is associated with chronic malnutrition during early childhood. Nutritional deficiency leads to a permanent weakening of insulin-producing pancreatic cells.
The turning point
came with the study "The Beginning of Diabetes in Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa" (YODA), published by The Lancet, which restored interest in this condition.
The study team initially began investigating type 1 diabetes among
about 900 young adults in Cameroon, Uganda and South Africa.
But when
the researchers analyzed blood samples, they found that about two-thirds of participants lacked the autoimmune indicators found in type 1 diabetes.
Further testing revealed that these individuals still produce small but measurable amounts of insulin, unlike classic type 1 cases. But their insulin levels were below the range typically seen in type 2 diabetes.
These results indicated
the presence of a distinct type of diabetes.
Treatment of this fifth type of diabetes requires special care
as giving insulin
- which is the usual treatment for other types of diabetes
- may be dangerous if not accompanied by adequate nutrition
- which reflects the challenge in poor areas where this type is widespread.
The importance of
this new classification lies in the fact that it opens the door to more research and funding to study this type, and helps doctors provide appropriate treatment to patients, after it had been misdiagnosed and treated for many years.