Mexico, ninth country in the world with more cases of diabetes

According to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), in Mexico 8.7 million people have diabetes. It is also estimated that about 12 million people suffer from the disease without knowing it because they have not been diagnosed.

These data place the country in ninth place in diabetes Around the world, explained Adolfo Andrade Cetto, an academic from the Faculty of Science of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The expert confirmed that the total figure will increase by 2025in which Mexico will rank seventh in the world in diabetes.

To effectively treat the disease, Andrade Cetto studies the active ingredients of the plants, because "93% of the diabetics of the country combine medical treatment and traditional medicine. 5% use only drugs and only 2% of plants, "he explained.

From an ethnopharmaceutical perspective, the expert-led team meets with patients from different communities to determine which plants to study and how they can be combined with prescribed medications.

"We talked with people to see how they understand the disease and how they treat it, "said the scientist.

Andrade Cetto, author of numerous books on the use of medicinal plants in the world, has developed an equation that helps validate traditional knowledge. The formula studies where the plant is collected, at what time, how it is prepared and its side effects.

"Our idea is to isolate the active ingredients to obtain a phytopharmaceutical product having hypoglycemic activity. The plants do not contain active ingredients permanently: their chemical composition changes according to the moment of their collection ", revealed the academic.

Species like Cecropia obtusifolia, Malmea depressa, Smilax moranensis o Rhizophora mangle they are recommended to treat the disease. They all have in common that prevent synthesis of glucose in the liver (gluconeogenesis), "but we must consider that the extracts can have this effect only in certain concentrations".

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which glucose (sugar) level in the blood They are very high It occurs when the body loses the ability to produce insulin or using it properly and suffering from it causes vascular problems, heart attacks, kidney failure, blindness, amputations, strokes or kidney damage.

When people fast, the liver produces glucose. In the case of a diabetic, it is necessary to prevent this organ from contributing to glucose in the bloodstream; in fact, the compounds of certain plants perform this function and prevent the liver from producing an excess of sugar.

Type 1 diabetes: Insulin – a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps glucose to enter cells and get energy to make our body work – is diminished and its secretion can become zero when this organ stops working.

Type 2 diabetes: yes, there is insulin, but its receptors fail. In other words, even if it is in the bloodstream, glucose can not enter the target cells and its concentration increases. Hyperglycemia occurs in both cases.

Patients feel bad when Insulin production is decompensated and glucose is increased. Then appear the clbadic symptoms of the disease such as thirst, urine and hunger.

"It would be ideal for diabetics in a community they will use the same hypoglycemic plant, same part (leaf, stem, root) and preparation, but it does not happen ".

Andrade Cetto's team is trying to "find a plant or drug that avoid insulin resistance in muscle, adipose tissue and liver ".

The expert said that in Germany, doctors prescribe phytodrugs up to 40% (whose active ingredients come from plants), while in Mexico, they should benefit more. Although it is an incurable disease, you can control glucose levelsand with proper exercise and diet, it is possible to delay its effects.