Ginger, The Potential Anti Type 2 Diabetes Pungent Spice, Scientists Say

By Kyle J. Norton

Ginger may be next generation whole food used for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes, with no side effects, some scientists suggested.

Type 2 diabetes is a medical condition characterized by insufficient insulin entering the bloodstream to regulate the glucose due to either cell in pancreas dying off or receptor sites clogged up by fat and cholesterol.

Researchers do not know what causes the pancreas dying off or receptor sites clogged up. However, they do know obesity or overweight, gender, ethnicity, age, family history, gestation diabetes, are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Some researchers also suggested that people with certain medical conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome. and high blood pressure is more prone to the onset of the disease.

Most common symptoms of type 2 diabetes are an increased thirst that won't stop with water intake, increased hunger (especially after eating), dry mouth, frequent urination, and unintentional weight loss.

If you experience some of the symptoms above, please make you check with your doctor to rule out the possibility of diabetes.

According to the statistics, diabetes is one the most common disease in the US. Approximately 10% or 29.1 million people in the United States have diabetes, accompanied by 8.1 million that are undiagnosed and unaware of their condition. 

About 1.4 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in the United States every year. More than one in every 10 adults who are 20 years or older has diabetes.

Dr. Rita R. Kalyani in the study to examine the increase with age and risk of type 2 diabetes wrote, "The unprecedented aging of the world's population is a major contributor to the diabetes epidemic, and older adults represent one of the fastest growing segments of the diabetes population".

"Almost one-third of U.S. adults over the age of 65 years have diabetes. Approximately half of those are undiagnosed, and an additional one-third of older adults have prediabetes" and "management of older adults with diabetes is clearly more complicated given the observation that they commonly have multiple coexisting medical conditions that can impact clinical management".

Compared to the general population risk of type 2 diabetes, the results clearly stated, the risk of type diabetes in elderly is  3 fold higher and the management of the disease is more difficult due accompanied by other medical conditions, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) or ginger root, the second superfood used for thousands of years by mankind, is the genus Zingiber, belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, native to Tamil.

The root has been used in traditional and Chinese medicine to treat dyspepsia, gastroparesis, constipation, edema, difficult urination, colic, etc.

With an aim to find a natural whole food for the prevention and treatment of diabetes with little or no side effects, researchers looked into the effects of ginger consumption on glycemic status, lipid profile and some inflammatory markers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial, included 70 type 2 diabetic patients allocated randomly into ginger group consumed 1600 mg ginger and control group consumed 1600 mg wheat flour daily for 12 weeks.

Patients treated with ginger demonstrated a significant effect in reducing the levels of fasting plasma glucose, 3 months average glucose concentration, insulin resistance.

Furthermore, the blood profile of treatment group also displayed lower levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, a hormone associated with lipid peroxidation. compared to the placebo group.

There were no significant differences in high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein LDL, and TNFα, the inflammatory cytokine between two groups.

The findings firmly indicated ginger improves insulin sensitivity and some fractions of lipid profiles and reduced inflammation in type 2 diabetic patients.

Additionally, with an aim to reaffirm the effects of ginger against the development of type 2 diabetes and diabetic complications, researchers investigated the effect of ginger supplementation on glycemic indices in Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial included 20-60 -year-old patients with type 2 diabetes who did not receive insulin.

Participants in the intervention and control groups were received 3 g of powdered ginger or placebo (lactose) (in capsules) daily for 3 months.

At the end of the 3 months, researchers showed that all parameters associated diabetes were reduced substantially in the treatment group compared to control.

More precisely, the differences between the ginger and placebo groups were statistically significant as follows: serum glucose (-19.41 ± 18.83 vs. 1.63 ± 4.28 mg/dL, p < 0.001), (Hemoglobin A1C)HbA1c percentage (-0.77 ± 0.88 vs. 0.02 ± 0.16%, p < 0.001), insulin (-1.46 ± 1.7 vs. 0.09 ± 0.34 μIU/mL, p < 0.001), insulin resistance (-16.38 ± 19.2 vs. 0.68 ± 2.7, p < 0.001), high-sensitive CRP (-2.78 ± 4.07 vs. 0.2 ± 0.77 mg/L, p < 0.001), paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) (22.04 ± 24.53 vs. 1.71 ± 2.72 U/L, p < 0.006), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (0.78 ± 0.71 vs. -0.04 ± 0.29 µIU/mL, p < 0.01) and MDA (-0.85 ± 1.08 vs. 0.06 ± 0.08 µmol/L, p < 0.001) were significantly different.

Where paraoxonase ((PON)-1 is an enzyme associated with the protection against lipid oxidation, Malondialdehyde (MDA) is an oxidative stress marker.

Dr. Shidfar F, the lead scientist said, " the 3 months supplementation of ginger improved glycemic indices, TAC and PON-1 activity in patients with type 2 diabetes".

Taken altogether, ginger may be considered a functional food for the prevention and combined with the primary therapy for the treatment of type 2 diabetes with no side effects.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) The effect of ginger consumption on glycemic status, lipid profile and some inflammatory markers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by Arablou T1, Aryaeian N, Valizadeh M, Sharifi F, Hosseini A, Djalali M. (PubMed)
(2) Effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on plasma glucose level, HbA1c and insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetic patients by Mahluji S1, Attari VE, Mobasseri M, Payahoo L, Ostadrahimi A, Golzari SE. (PubMed)
(3) The effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on glycemic markers in patients with type 2 diabetes by Shidfar F, Rajab A, Rahideh T, Khandouzi N, Hosseini S, Shidfar S. (PubMed)
(4) Diabetes and Aging: Unique Considerations and Goals of Care, Rita R. Kalyani, Sherita H. Golden and William T. Cefalu. (Diabetes Care)