Researchers have identified an antioxidant – richly occurring in broccoli – as a new antidiabetic substance. A patient study shows significantly lower blood sugar levels in participants who ate broccoli extract with high levels of sulforaphane.
“There are strong indications that this can become a valuable supplement to existing medication,” says Anders Rosengren, Docent in Metabolic Physiology at the University of Gothenburg.
Researchers have identified an antioxidant – richly occurring in broccoli – as a new antidiabetic substance. A patient study shows significantly lower blood sugar levels in participants who ate broccoli extract with high levels of sulforaphane.
“There are strong indications that this can become a valuable supplement to existing medication,” says Anders Rosengren, Docent in Metabolic Physiology at the University of Gothenburg.
The publication in the journal Science Translational Medicine builds on several years’ research at Sahlgrenska Academy and Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Gothenburg, and the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University.
The objective was to find new medications against type-2 diabetes by addressing an important disease mechanism: The liver’s elevated glucose production. The classic drug metformin works by doing just that, but often causes gastric side-effects and can also not be taken when kidney function is severely reduced, which affects many with diabetes.
Read more at University of Gothenburg
Image: Broccoli is pictured. (Credit: Margareta Gustafsson Kubista/University of Gothenburg)
