Ginseng a remedy for Type 2 diabetes?

Monday, October 5, 2009

Denton Hoffman, general manager of the Ontario Ginseng Growers' Association, thinks it's just a matter of time before there's a ginseng solution for Type 2 diabetes.

For the past 10 years, the ginseng industry has been supplying Dr. Vladimir Vuksan of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, who is exploring the glucose-lowering effects of ginseng.

Now scientists are beginning to grow ginseng developed with beneficial attributes specific to Type 2 diabetes. "They're doing micro-propagation," Hoffman notes, adding that the ginseng industry and the University of Western Ontario in London received funding from the provincial government last year to develop solutions.

In Canada, almost three million people have diabetes, according to the Canadian Diabetes Association website. About 10 per cent have Type 1, a disease where the pancreas doesn't produce insulin, while the rest have Type 2.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that affects how a body metabolizes sugar (glucose), the body's main source of fuel. With this diabetes, the body is either resistant to the effects of insulin, a hormone that regulates the movement of glucose into cells, or it doesn't produce enough to maintain normal glucose levels. Left untreated, this condition can be life-threatening.

There is no cure, but the condition can be managed through diet and exercise.

Ontario is the largest ginseng-producing area in the world with 150 farmers growing 7,000 acres, Hoffman notes. BF