Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus by Lifestyle, Diet and Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Globally, the prevalence of chronic, noncommunicable diseases is increasing at an alarming rate and diabetes is one of them. If diabetes is not controlled then a lot of complication like coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy arise in diabetic patients and causes morbidity and/or mortality. Diabetes is increasing at an epidemic form and in near future the largest increases will take place in the regions dominated by developing economies. So, it will be a great social and economical burden to developing countries as well as the developed. But if we be aware about our diet and lifestyle and take proper medication we may prevent and reduce the prevalence of diabetes. Oral medicine plays an important role in management of diabetes. But most of the oral drugs are costly and have a lot of side effects. For this it is also necessary to take medicines with fewer or no side effects. And antidiabetic medicinal plants may play an important role in this case. In this article we have tried to describe how diet and lifestyle with using medicinal plants may help to prevent or maintain diabetes and help to reduce the mortality and morbidity due to diabetes or complication related to it.

Hypoglycemic effect of Brassica juncea (seeds) on streptozotocin induced diabetic male albino rat

“…This might be due to the time taken for the intestinal absorption of the aqueous seed extract of B. juncea. Earlier works [15,16] carried to assess the effect of various edible plant products has also shown that plants have a potential to treat diabetes and its complications. Among these we have shown that Fenugreek (Methi), Murraya koeingii (Curry Patta), B. juncea (Rai), Momordica charantia (Karela) and Eugenia jambolana (Jamun) which are used as spices in India have been found to possess hypoglycemic activity in experimental as well as clinical studies [17,18] .…”

Effects of exercise intervention on vascular endothelium functions of patients with impaired glucose tolerance during prediabetes mellitus

“…In general, the important factors affecting IR (1) include being overweight or obese, low levels of physical exercise and genetic factors (2). Currently, the physically less active modern lifestyle is a significant factor leading to the increased incidence of IGT and diabetes mellitus (DM) with IR (4–6). …”

“…Previous studies indicated that exercise increases energy consumption, reduces body fat, increases muscle mass and also has a profound effect on the endocrine system (4–6,11). Compared with other methods for controlling IGT, exercise therapy is a low cost, simple, properly implemented and safe strategy without side-effects.…”

Mutation of mtDNA ND1 Gene in 20 Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients of Gorontalonese and Javanese Ethnicity

“…There were 15% of patients who regularly exercised for more than 30 min and the rest exercised only less than that. Thirty-minutes daily exercise is recommended by International Diabetes Federation (Haque et al 2011). All subjects in this research, patients and non-patients, are of Javanese tribe.…”