Artichoke, The Herb that Regulates Insulin Response, According to Studies

By Kyle J. Norton

Insulin response is a process of your body that reacts to the dietary intake.
Insulin produced by the pancreas is a hormone that binds the insulin receptors in the promotion of cells of the intestines to convert glucose to energy for the body's needs.

Acute insulin response was used as the predictor of type 2 diabetes by diagnosing both regular fasting and 2-h plasma glucose concentrations.

Compared to a healthy individual with normal insulin response, most patients with prediabetes and diabetes have elevated fasting and 2 hours of plasma glucose concentration.

There are many risk factors associated with the abnormal insulinemic response. However, some researchers suggested that the gradual dying of the beta cells of the pancreas and insulin receptor sites clogging up by cholesterol are 2 of the major causes that affect insulin expression.

Some researchers suggested that abnormal insulin response may be correlated to the widespread obesity that leads to insulin resistance in the Western world.

Dr. Olga T. Hardy, in the evaluation of the causes of insulin resistance underlying obesity, wrote,

"The association between obesity and insulin resistance is an area of much interest and enormous public health impact".

And, "Visceral adiposity is correlated with the accumulation of excess lipid in the liver and results in cell-autonomous impairment in insulin signaling. Visceral adipose tissue is also prone to inflammation and inflammatory cytokine production, which also contribute to impairment in insulin signaling".

The results strongly suggested if you are obese, your risk of insulin resistance increased substantially compared to overweight or healthy-weight individuals.

Artichoke is a perennial thistle of Cynara cardunculus species of the Cynara genus, belonging to the family Carduoideae native to Southern Europe around the Mediterranean.

The herbal plant has been used in traditional medicine as a liver protective and detoxified agent, and to treat digestive disorders, abdominal pain gas, bloating, etc.

Researchers on finding a potential natural ingredient for the modulation of insulinemic response, researchers investigate the impact of the supplementation of a pre-biotic compound [Jerusalem artichoke meal (JAM)] on the glycaemic and insulinemic response in healthy, non-obese warm-blooded horses.

The study included 6 adult mares fed with crushed oat grains (1 g starch/kg bwt per day) and meadow hay (2 kg/100 kg bwt per day) together with either 0.15 g fructooligosaccharides and inulin (FOS+INU)/kg bwt per day via commercial JAM or maize cob meal without grains as control (CON) in 2 × 3-week periods according to a crossover design.

According to the sample collected at the postprandial (PP) time points (-60, 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240, and 300 min), and the plasma glucose and serum insulin levels, JAM vs. CON did not change the PP peak of glucose or insulin (glucose: 6.3 ± 0.40 vs. 7.0 ± 0.87 mmol/l.

However, following JAM feeding, glucose and insulin levels declined more rapidly until 240 min PP compared to animals fed with CON.

The finding suggested that JAM exerted a significant effect on postprandial (PP) glucose and insulin levels on and after the time points of 240 min.

Furthermore, in order to reveal more information about JA insulinemic response, researchers compared the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus Linne, HTL) and chungkookjang (CKJ; fermented soybeans) in energy and glucose metabolism.

The study included rats divided into partially pancreatectomized (Px) diabetic rats and sham-operated non-diabetic control rats and all fed high-fat diets. Additionally, diabetic rats were subdivided into an untreated diabetic control group and those fed with 5% HTL, 5% CKJ, or 5% HTL+5% CKJ for 8 weeks. HTL+CKJ treatment reduced visceral fat without modulating energy intake compared to diabetic control.

According to the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic assay, rats treated with HTL, HTL+CKJ showed an improvement in glucose tolerance, compared to the diabetic normal-control group.

CKJ and CKJ+HTL but not HTL, injection groups increased first and second-phase insulin secretion compared to diabetic control.

Moreover, the glucose infusion rates (mg/kg bw/min) and hepatic insulin sensitivity were increased and CKJ+HTL (13.5), but not HTL (9.4) or CKJ (9.5) alone, and HTL and CKJ+ HTL decreased hepatic glucose compared to diabetic control.

Dr. Yang HJ, the lead scientist wrote in the final report, "HTL and CKJ enhanced glucose tolerance in different manners, and exhibited partially additive and complementary effects by reversing insulin resistance and enhancing β-cell function in diabetic rats".

Taken altogether, artichoke used alone or combined with another herbal remedy may be considered functional food for the enhancement of insulinemic response against the onset of diabetes, pending to the validation of a larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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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 referenced in medical research, such as the international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Glycaemic and insulinemic responses of adult healthy warm-blooded mares following feeding with Jerusalem artichoke meal by Glatter M1, Bochnia M1, Goetz F1, Gottschalk J2, Koeller G3, Mielenz N4, Hillegeist D5, Greef JM5, Einspanier A2, Zeyner A. (PubMed)
(2) Jerusalem artichoke and chungkookjang additively improve insulin secretion and sensitivity in diabetic rats by Yang HJ1, Kwon DY, Kim MJ, Kang S, Kim DS, Park S. (PubMed)
(3) What causes the insulin resistance underlying obesity? by Olga T. Hardy, Michael P. Czech, and Silvia Corvera. (PMC)