According to an emerging scientific report, one in 10 people over the age of 40 in the United Kingdom are reportedly now living with Type 2 diabetes, which is a condition that causes too much sugar in your blood.
However, there is one common vegetable now reported to have the ability to lower blood sugar, by 50 percent, and with this, could see the potential use in treating patients with diabetes.
People with this type of diabetes are not able to produce sufficient insulin from their pancreas to regulate blood sugar, which means that their blood can reach dangerously high levels.
In 2018, researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and the University of the Faroe Islands showed the positive effects of football on the cardiovascular and metabolic health profile.
Playing football in the likes of thursday night football tonight can boost heart and bone health in untrained middle-aged and elderly people with pre-diabetes, a study has found.
“Individuals with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes have a higher prevalence of osteopenia and bone fractures, so it is essential to develop treatment protocols for them,” said Magni Mohr, an associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
He added:
“Our results show that football and dietary guidance are indeed an effective cocktail for improving bone health.
“The football group derived significant positive effects in the legs and clinically important femoral sites emphasizing that football is effective osteogenic training for this participant group”
However, findings from 2015, which were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 97th annual meeting in San Diego, revealed that the extract of an onion bulb can “strongly lower” high blood sugar and total cholesterol levels when given alongside the antidiabetic drug metformin.
Also, this was seconded by lead study author Anthony Ojieh of Delta State University in Abraka, Nigeria, who said at the time:
“Onion is cheap and available and has been used as a nutritional supplement. It has the potential for use in treating patients with diabetes.”
The researchers tested the theory on rats. In total, three groups of rats with medically induced diabetes were given various doses of the onion extract to see if it would enhance the drug’s effect. The doses were 200mg, 400mg, and 600mg per kilogram of body weight. The researchers also gave the drug and onion to three groups of nondiabetic rats with normal blood sugar.
The study found that, of the diabetic rats, those given 400mg and 600mg per kilogram of body weight “strongly reduced” their blood sugar levels by 50 percent and 35 percent respectively compared with a baseline level. The onion extract also lowered the total cholesterol level in diabetic rats, with 400mg and 600mg having the greatest effects.
The study also found that the onion extract led to weight gain among the nondiabetic rats, but not the diabetic rats.
“Onion is not high in calories,” Ojieh explained. “However, it seems to increase the metabolic rate and, with that, to increase the appetite, leading to an increase in feeding. “We need to investigate the mechanism by which onion brings about blood glucose reduction. We do not yet have an explanation.”
