A new study has revealed that eating broccoli and other cruciferous veggies containing sulforaphane can help diabetes patients to manage their blood sugar levels and aid type-2 diabetics. This chemical has been detected by scientists from Sweden, the US and Switzerland.
Type 2 diabetes affects more than 300 million people globally, and as many as 15 per cent of those patients cannot take the first-line therapy metformin because of kidney damage risks.
The researchers conducted the study on rats and found out that the blood sugar levels had dropped with this compound. The study involved 97 type-2 diabetics who were given placebo or a concentrated dose of sulforaphane every day for three months. The dose of the compound given to the participants was 100 times, which is found naturally in eating five kg of broccoli every day.
"It was the same as eating around five kg of broccoli daily," Anders Rosengren, one of the researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden said.
Reports said three of the partakers continued consuming the oral blood sugar lowering drug called metformin. Meanwhile, the others who did not have the medicine could still handle their condition.
The research concluded that type-2 diabetics who were given the broccoli extract had a drop of blood glucose levels by 10 percent in comparison to those who were on placebo. Rosengren said that the researchers were very excited about seeing the impact of the broccoli extract on the patients.
According to the researchers, the depletion of blood glucose by 10 per cent is enough to reduce the complication aroused by diabetes in the organs like kidneys, eyes and blood. Apart from this, the study also pointed out that the extract had benefited obese participants diagnosed with dysregulated diabetes.
The New Scientists quoted Rosengren as saying that the broccoli extract could act as a substitute got metformin. This is because most diabetics can't have the drug due to kidney complications.
However, the researchers are yet to carry out further research on the chemical as this was a small scale study. The Medical Xpress reported that the researchers noted their technique for discovering the compound's usefulness in treating the disease could very well be applied to other diseases.
