Michael Harper for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online
A study funded by a company which produces an extract from green coffee beans has found that this substance can help lower and even control blood sugar levels. This extract is taken from green and unroasted coffee beans and is sold as a powerful antioxidant to regulate blood sugar levels and improve other body functions.
Joe Vinson, PhD, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, Scranton, conducted the study which has supported these claims and found that larger doses of the extract correspond to more significant drops in blood sugar levels. The results of this study are expected to be presented at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in New Orleans.
Dr. Vinson and a host of other officials have agreed that Type 2 diabetes is becoming a growing health problem all over the world. There are pills currently available which will adjust or regulate blood sugar levels to stimulate or reduce insulin productions, while controlling one´s diet and watching one´s weight can also help to curb the advancement of the disease. With positive research results in hand, Dr. Vinson says a single pill which can do both of these things may help stem the tide of this growing epidemic.
“A simple natural pill or capsule that would both help control blood sugar and foster weight loss at the same time would be a major advance in the treatment of type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Vinson in a statement.
“Our own research and studies published by other scientists suggest that such a treatment may, indeed, exist. There is significant epidemiological and other evidence that coffee consumption reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes,” he added.
Dr. Vinson and colleagues studied 30 men and women of normal weight who did not have any form of diabetes. These participants were then given between 100 milligrams and 400 milligrams of the green coffee extract each day. The researchers followed up with glucose tolerance tests at several points throughout the study.
Once completed, Dr. Vinson and his team discovered that the green coffee extract was successful in bringing down blood sugar levels in each participant. What´s more, those who took a larger, 400 milligram dose of the extract saw their blood sugar levels drop more significantly.
“This study had strictly normal [participants], but it has a lot of potential for diabetes [control],” Vinson said, according to US News. “It’s a fairly cheap intervention and might cost less than a dollar or two per day — less than a coffee at Starbucks.”
While a similar study has shown similar results in people who drink coffee every day, green and unroasted coffee beans have a more profound effect.
Green coffee beans fresh from the cherry contain a high concentration of chlorogenic acids. Roasting the coffee beans removes some of these elements. While Dr. Vinson is ready to say this extract could be useful in controlling Type 2 diabetes, Dr. John Anderson with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) believes there must be more research conducted first.
“To say that something can prevent or delay diabetes is almost impossible to prove unless they’re willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on research,” said Dr. Anderson in an interview with US News. “This is only [30] people, and all they did was look at a glucose tolerance test. I think it’s interesting, but I don’t think we really know any more than that.”
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