Novel Diabetes Hope Comes from Chinese Herbs

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100817211054.htm
                According to this article, Emodin is a natural product that can be obtained from many different Chinese herbs such as Rheum palmatum and Polygonum cuspidatum. This natural product shows promise as an agent to help reduce the impact of type 2 diabetes. Research results show that “giving Emodin to mice with diet-induced obesity lowered blood glucose and serum insulin, improved insulin resistance and lead to more healthy levels of lipid in the blood.” It also helps to reduce body weight central fat mass. Dr Ying Leng says that all of these changes would be good effects for people with type 2 diabetes or other metabolic diseases connected with insulin resistance. Research shows that an enzyme, 11-HSD1, plays a role in the body’s reaction to sugar contained in a person’s diet. When a person eats sugar-containing food, a lot of the glucose floods into the blood stream. In response to that, the body releases insulin and this hormone initiates various actions that helps to clear extra glucose from the blood. However, another set of hormones know as glucocorticoids have the opposite effect to insulin, and this is when the enzyme 11-HSD1 helps to increase their ability to act. Overall, the research reveals that Emodin is a strong and effective selective inhibitor of the enzyme 11-HSD1. As a result, it limit’s the effect of the glucocorticoids and improves diabetes and insulin resistance.


                This article relates to science/biology concepts since it talks about how Emodin can help reduce the impact of type 2 diabetes. It also talks about what happen when a person eat sugar-containing food and how the body reacts to that. The enzyme 11-HSD1 and the hormones glucocorticoids are also mentioned. This article is basically suggesting that Emodin could be a new way of helping people with type 2 diabetes even though further research can be done.

                This information was put in the newspaper because people with type 2 diabetes are concern about different treatments that can help them. After reading this article with all the beneficial factors of Emodin, they actually care to try it. However, according to the article, researchers will need to develop chemicals that have similar effects to Emodin, so that they can see if any of these chemicals could be used as a therapeutic drug. Although further research may be done, people with type 2 diabetes are happy to hear that a new type of treatment will be coming along the way.