Health Express

Food has traditionally been used in Chinese herbal traditions in healing, so it’s no surprise that a study on the potential benefits of pumpkin extract on diabetes was conducted at the East China Normal University.

As this study was done on animals, it is too early to herald the benefits of pumpkin extract in people, but it points the way to some interesting new research. Animal studies are the first step usually before small and large scale studies with humans are organized.

The study found that the diabetic rats fed the pumpkin extract for 30 days had a greatly improved blood insulin level, and an improvement in the number of insulin-creating beta cells. In diabetes, beta cells are often damaged because of the high blood sugar levels that are a consequence of not having enough insulin. High blood sugar levels create more free radicals and hence oxidative stress, and this leads to the cell membranes of the beta cells being damaged. This in turn further reduces the ability of the body to produce insulin, as insulin is produced by the beta cells.

The authors found that not only was more damage to the beta cells prevented, but some actually regenerated. They do point out, however, that it is unlikely all beta cells that were damaged will be repaired, especially if diabetes has advanced, as some will be too damaged to be fixed.

They did say that even though their study was concerned with Type 1 diabetes, they thought that those with type 2 diabetes, and pre-diabetes would also benefit from using pumpkin extract. Can’t wait for the follow-up studies on this!

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