An international study comprising researchers from Australia and Spain has found that a particular compound inside the lupin plant can help treat type 2 diabetes.
According to the study published in the scientific Journal of Functional Foods, a protein called conglutins commonly found in narrow-leafed lupins reversed the harmful effects of inflammation caused by the progression of type 2 diabetes.
The testing population of the study included 14 healthy individuals and 14 diabetic patients with each group receiving the same treatment.
Kadambot Siddique, study co- author and director of the University of Western Australian Institute of Agriculture, said in a statement with the university that the results of the study indicate that this protein family was able to reverse the adverse effects of inflammation several stages back.
Siddique believes that with this particular treatment, the progression of type 2 diabetes can be suppressed and reversed. Basing on the fundamentals of the study, future treatments can be developed to effectively treat inflammation in patients suffering from diabetes.
Currently, further studies to reveal the specific anti-inflammatory properties of conglutins are still being undertaken by the proponents of the study.
The study also notes that not only does conglutins work against diabetes but it can also be used to combat cancer, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension -- ailments that are also linked to bodily inflammation.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs in individuals whose pancreas fail to produce insulin or the body itself not effectively using the insulin that is produced.
In WHO's global diabetes report for the year 2016, its states that more than 400 million people worldwide live with diabetes. Meanwhile, in 2015, the ailment was identified to be the primary cause of death of 1.6 million people around the globe.
At present time, no permanent cure for diabetes has been discovered, but treatments and maintenance medicine are available to combat its progression.
