Role of Herbal Supplements in the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes

Author(s):  
Sonia Singh ◽  
Bhupesh C. Semwal ◽  
Yogesh Murti

Around the world, the prevalence of obesity and diabetes are high raising multiple severe diseases. Some of the common disorders associated with obesity are diabetes, heart diseases, and hypertension. These disorders have a tremendous effect on social lifestyles of every individual. However, another lifestyle disorder is diabetes, which can also be called hyperglycemia. Uncontrolled diabetes has the potential to cause serious complications in the body including kidney disease, loss of vision, and cardiovascular disease, which contribute towards morbidity and mortality. Though various allopathic drugs are available in the market, the herbal products and their derivatives have enough potential to treat such diseases with little or no side effects. This chapter is concerned and focuses on the application of herbal drugs along with proven mechanisms of action.

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (9) ◽  
pp. 1297-1309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navamayooran Thavanesan

The increase in the prevalence of obesity in recent years has prompted research into alternative methods of modulating body weight and body fat. The last decade has reflected this with a surge in studies investigating the potential of green tea as a natural agent of weight loss, with a view to confirming and elucidating the mechanisms underlying its effect on the body. Currently, it is widely believed that the polyphenolic components present in green tea have an anti-obesogenic effect on fat homeostasis, by increasing thermogenesis or reducing fat absorption among other ways. The data published to date, however, are inconsistent, with numerous putative modes of action suggested therein. While several unimodal mechanisms have been postulated, a more plausible explanation of the observed results might involve a multimodal approach. Such a mechanism is suggested here, involving simultaneous inhibition of the enzymes catechol-O-methyltransferase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthase and impeding absorption of fat via the gut. An evaluation of the available evidence supports a role of green tea in weight loss; however the extent of the effects obtained is still subject to debate, and requires more objective quantification in future research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanli Jiao ◽  
Yu Wang

Sweet taste, one of the five basic taste qualities, is not only important for evaluation of food quality, but also guides the dietary food choices of animals. Sweet taste involves a variety of chemical compounds and structures, including natural sugars, sugar alcohols, natural and artificial sweeteners, and sweet-tasting proteins. The preference for sweetness has induced the over-consumption of sugar, contributing to certain prevailing health problems, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Non-nutritive sweeteners, including natural and synthetic sweeteners, and sweet-tasting proteins have been added to foods to reduce the caloric intake from sugar, but many of these sugar substitutes induce an off-taste or after taste that negatively impacts any pleasure derived from the sweet taste. Sweet taste is detected by sweet taste receptor, that also play an important role in the metabolic regulation of the body, such as glucose homeostasis and incretin hormone secretion. In this review, the role of sweet tastants and the sweet taste receptors involved in sweetness perception, and their effect on obesity and diabetes are summarized. Sweet taste enhancement, as a new way to solve the over-consumption of sugar, is discussed in this contribution. Sweet taste enhancers can bind with sweet tastans to potentiate the sweetness of food without producing any taste by itself. Various type of sweet taste enhancers, including synthetic compounds, food-processed substances and aroma compounds, are summarized. Notably, few natural, non-volatile compounds have been identified as sweetness enhancers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. BARCZYNSKA ◽  
K. BANDURSKA ◽  
K. SLIZEWSKA ◽  
M. LITWIN ◽  
M. SZALECKI ◽  
...  

Over the past few decades there has been a significant increase in the prevalence of obesity in both children and adults. Obesity is a disease that has reached epidemic levels on a global scale. The development of obesity is associated with both environmental and genetic factors. Recent studies indicate that intestinal microorganisms play an important function in maintaining normal body weight. One of the objectives in the gut microbiota research is to determine the role it plays and can it be a reliable biomarker of disease risk, including the predisposition to obesity. This article discusses (1) the role of prebiotics and gut microbiota in maintaining a healthy body weight and (2) potential influence on the gut microbiota in the prevention and treatment of obesity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-73
Author(s):  
Pratik Talukder ◽  
Tiasha Majumdar

Plants produce a wide diversity of secondary metabolites which serve them as defence compounds against herbivores, and other plants and microbes, but also as signal compounds. In general, secondary metabolites exhibit a wide array of biological and pharmacological properties. Because of this, some plants or products isolated from them have been and are still used to treat infections, health disorders or diseases. Vitiligo is a skin disorder that is caused due to oxidative stress in the body resulting in the destruction of melanocytes, which are the cells responsible for the pigmentation of the skin. On their destruction the skin gets depigmented resulting in patches of skin losing their colour. In this review we focus on how plant based herbal products help in curing vitiligo.


Author(s):  
Shampa Ghosh ◽  
Srividya Manchala ◽  
Manchala Raghunath ◽  
Gaurav Sharma ◽  
Abhishek Kumar Singh ◽  
...  

: Obesity has become a worldwide health problem. It triggers additional co-morbidities like cardiovascular diseases, cancer, depression, sleep disorders, gastrointestinal problems and many more. Excess accumulation of fat in obesity could be caused by many factors like sedentary lifestyle, consumption of high fat diet, genetic predisposition, etc. Imbalanced energy metabolism i.e., greater energy consumption than utilisation, invariably underlies obesity. Considering the high prevalence and continuous, uncontrolled increase of this major public health issue, there is an urgent need to find appropriate therapeutic agents with minimal or no side effects. The high prevalence of obesity in recent years has led to a surge in the number of drugs available in the market that claim to control obesity. Although there is a long list of medicines and management strategies that are available, selecting the right therapeutic intervention and feasible management of obesity is a challenge. Several phytochemicals like hydroxycitric acid, flavonoids, tannins, anthocyanins, phytohaemagglutins, thymoquinone and epigallocatechin gallate have been shown to possess promising anti-obesity properties. However, studies providing information on how various phytochemicals exert their anti-obesity effects are inadequate. This calls for more experimentation in this less explored area of research. Additionally, the complication of obesity arises when it is a result of multiple factors and associated with a number of co-morbidities. In order to handle such complexities combinatorial therapeutic interventions become effective. In this review, we have described the medicinal chemistry of different highly effective phytochemicals which can be used in the effective treatment and management of obesity.


Eating NAFTA ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 89-116
Author(s):  
Alyshia Gálvez

The fourth chapter, “NAFTA: Free Trade in the Body,” describes the magnitude and characteristics of Mexico’s so-called obesity and diabetes epidemic and the current hypotheses for the causes and treatment of obesity for individuals and at the population level. The chapter points out some of the lesser known hypotheses for the abrupt rise in obesity and diet-related chronic diseases in the last few decades. Far from linking the rise of obesity to increased appetites for snacks and sodas, some of these hypotheses focus on ways that the production and consumption of processed foods and beverages have increased people’s exposure to chemicals with metabolic and endocrinological properties that produce weight gain and alter organ function. The methodological and empirical challenges of understanding the effects of economic policy, like free trade agreements, on the body are explored.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-96
Author(s):  
Peter Lindner

Since the publication of Nikolas Rose’s ‘The Politics of Life Itself’ (2001) there has been vivid discussion about how biopolitical governance has changed over the last decades. This article uses what Rose terms ‘molecular politics’, a new socio-technical grip on the human body, as a contrasting background to ask anew his question ‘What, then, of biopolitics today?’ – albeit focusing not on advances in genetics, microbiology, and pharmaceutics, as he does, but on the rapid proliferation of wearables and other sensor-software gadgets. In both cases, new technologies providing information about the individual body are the common ground for governance and optimization, yet for the latter, the target is habits of moving, eating and drinking, sleeping, working and relaxing. The resulting profound differences are carved out along four lines: ‘somatic identities’ and a modified understanding of the body; the role of ‘expert knowledge’ compared to that of networks of peers and self-experimentation; the ‘types of intervention’ by which new technologies become effective in our everyday life; and the ‘post-discipline character’ of molecular biopolitics. It is argued that, taken together, these differences indicate a remarkable shift which could be termed aretaic: its focus is not ‘life itself’ but ‘life as it is lived’, and its modality are new everyday socio-technical entanglements and their more-than-human rationalities of (self-)governance.


This chapter describes the importance of the gut to HIV infection, as it contains the largest lymphoid tissue of the body (gut-associated lymphoid tissue). This chapter explains the role of gut permeability and microbial translocation in immune activation and HIV disease progression. HIV persists in the gut-associated lymphoid tissue even in aviraemic-treated patients. The chapter provides gastrointestinal (GI), from oral down to anal manifestations of HIV disease. The chapter lists the common presentations, their differential diagnosis, and how to manage them. Specifically, the chapter gives information about GI opportunistic infections and malignancies. As diarrhoea is common in HIV infection, the chapter provides practical guide, and algorithm for the management of chronic diarrhoea. Hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases in HIV are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5715
Author(s):  
Veronica Pena-Leon ◽  
Raquel Perez-Lois ◽  
Luisa Maria Seoane

Mammalian, or mechanic, target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling is a crucial factor in the regulation of the energy balance that functions as an energy sensor in the body. The present review explores how the mTOR/S6k intracellular pathway is involved in modulating the production of different signals such as ghrelin and nesfatin-1 in the gastrointestinal tract to regulate food intake and body weight. The role of gastric mTOR signaling in different physiological processes was studied in depth through different genetic models that allow the modulation of mTOR signaling in the stomach and specifically in gastric X/A type cells. It has been described that mTOR signaling in X/A-like gastric cells has a relevant role in the regulation of glucose and lipid homeostasis due to its interaction with different organs such as liver and adipose tissue. These findings highlight possible therapeutic strategies, with the gut–brain axis being one of the most promising targets in the treatment of obesity.


2005 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Gill ◽  
Lesley King ◽  
Ian Caterson

Obesity is a serious public health problem that has important social, economic and health consequences. The prevalence of obesity is rising rapidly throughout the world in both rich and poor countries, and it affects all sections of society. There are several important reasons for addressing the prevention of obesity, rather than its treatment or management. The prevention of weight gain (or the reversal of small gains) and the maintenance of a healthy weight are likely to be easier, less expensive and potentially more effective than the treatment of obesity after it has fully developed. A structured planning framework for the identification of potential interventions for the promotion of healthy weight and the prevention of weight gain is clearly required. However, detailed reviews of the scientific literature have revealed that the body of research is too small to provide firm guidance on consistently-effective interventions for adults or children. Ultimately, a broader approach to evidence of effectiveness needs to be adopted. The present paper proposes a structured planning approach that utilises the portfolio model and allows the selection of interventions to be based on the best available evidence, while not excluding untried but promising strategies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document