Best herbs for managing diabetes: a review of clinical studies

Diabetes mellitus é um problema de saúde pública que leva a complicações graves ao longo do tempo. Experimentalmente, muitas ervas têm sido recomendadas para o tratamento da diabetes. Contudo, na maior parte dos casos as recomendações são baseadas em estudos em animais e existem evidências limitadas sobre a sua utilidade clínica. Esta revisão tem como foco as ervas nas quais as ações hipooglicêmicas são apoiadas por três ou mais estudos clínicos. Realizou-se pesquisa no Google Scholar, Medline e Science Direct utilizando palavras-chave diabete, plantas, ervas, glicose e pacientes. Segundo os estudos clínicos, Aegle marmelos, Allium cepa, Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Ocimum sanctum, Nigella sativa, Ocimum sanctum, Panax quinquefolius, Salacia reticulate, Silybum marianum e Trigonella foenum-graecum mostraram atividade hipoglicêmica e, em alguns casos, hipolipidêmica em pacientes diabéticos. Entre elas, Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Silybum marianum e Trigonella foenum-graecum apresentam grande reputação no manejamento da diabetes. Portanto, parece que os médicos podem confiar nessas ervas e aconselhar aos pacientes para que melhorem o tratamento da diabetes.Diabetes mellitus is a public health problem which leads to serious complications over time. Experimentally, many herbs have been recommended for treating diabetes. In most cases, however, the recommendations are based on animal studies and limited pieces of evidence exist about their clinical usefulness. This review focused on the herbs, the hypoglycemic actions of which have been supported by three or more clinical studies. The search was done in Google Scholar, Medline and Science Direct databases using the key terms diabetes, plants, herbs, glucose and patients. According to the clinical studies, Aegle marmelos, Allium cepa, Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Ocimum sanctum, Nigella sativa, Ocimum sanctum, Panax quinquefolius, Salacia reticulate, Silybum marianum and Trigonella foenum-graecum have shown hypoglycemic and, in some cases, hypolipidemic activities in diabetic patients. Among them, Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Silybum marianum and Trigonella foenum-graecum have acquired enough reputation for managing diabetes. Thus, it seems that physicians can rely on these herbs and advise for the patients to improve management of diabetes

Pancreatic beta cell protection/regeneration with phytotherapy

Although currently available drugs are useful in controlling early onset complications of diabetes, serious late onset complications appear in a large number of patients. Considering the physiopathology of diabetes, preventing beta cell degeneration and stimulating the endogenous regeneration of islets will be essential approaches for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The current review focused on phytochemicals, the antidiabetic effect of which has been proved by pancreatic beta cell protection/regeneration. Among the hundreds of plants that have been investigated for diabetes, a small fraction has shown the regenerative property and was described in this paper. Processes of pancreatic beta cell degeneration and regeneration were described. Also, the proposed mechanisms for the protective/regenerative effects of such phytochemicals and their potential side effects were discussed.Embora medicamentos disponíveis atualmente sejam úteis no controle de complicações da Diabetes, complicações aparecem em grande número de pacientes. Considerando-se a fisiopatologia do Diabetes, a prevenção da degeneração de células beta e o estímulo da regeneração endógena de ilhotas será abordagem essencial para o tratamento de diabetes mellitus insulino-dependente. A presente revisão aborda compostos fitoquímicos, cujo efeito é provado na proteção/regeneração de células beta de pâncreas. Entre centenas de plantas que têm sido investigadas para o diabetes, pequena fração tem mostrado propriedade regenerativa, que será descrita neste trabalho. Os processos de degeneração e de regeneração das células beta do pâncrease são descritos. Além disso, mecanismos propostos para efeitos de proteção e regeneração desses compostos fitoquímicos e seus possíveis efeitos colaterais também serão discutidos neste trabalho

Simulation of flood risk area in Kelantan watershed, Malaysia using numerical model

Flood events have recently increased and caused extensive damages to the agricultural area and infrastructures, despite enormous efforts to decrease this hazard. Modeling of runoff can be a suitable approach to determine the effective factors in flooding, and to explore reasonable solution and thus to be able reduce hazard on watersheds. The current work attempted to derive basin and sub-basins, stream network, aspect, slop and all relevant physiographic parameters of Kelantan watershed in order to estimate depth of runoff using DEM data , satellite images and field study. In addition, the maximum rainfall intensity of all the meteorological stations were extracted and the interpolation of the values obtained, led to derive a contour map as rainfall intensity for the watershed. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) model was employed to calculate the surface flows, and to derive the flood hydrograph for all the sub-basins at the return periods of 5,10,25,50,100, considering to the Curve Number (CN) is a function of land use, soil, and primary moisture content. HEC-HMs model was calibrated for the study area using observed storm rainfall and recorded floods at the number of hydrometric stations. A good agreement was obtained between simulated and observed data with a correlation of 82%. Calibrated model was used to simulate depth of runoff in different return period that led to derive flood risk maps for Kelantan watershed. Results obtained revealed that flooding could be moderated and managed within a number of the sub - basins through implementing a technical scheme, depending on characteristic of the sub- basin, and its effect on the flood peak

Effects of Social Media on People’s Tendency Toward Aesthetic Dental Treatments

Objectives This study aimed to investigate the impact of social media on people’s tendency toward aesthetic dental treatments in Iran. Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 410 individuals, including dentists or dental students and laypeople, who were selected via convenience sampling. A questionnaire, consisting of sociodemographic characteristics, frequency of social media use, tendency toward aesthetic dental treatments, and factors affecting people’s decisions, was completed for data collection. This online questionnaire was created using the Porsline© website and posted on social media. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS version 21, using Chi-square test. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Of 410 participants, 157 (38.3%) were dentists or dental students. Only 38.2% of the participants in the dentist group were willing to receive aesthetic dental treatments, whereas laypeople were significantly more inclined to receive such treatments (69.2%) (P<0.001). Almost half of people who used social media platforms several times a day and also 71.8% of people who used social media once a day or less showed tendency toward aesthetic dental treatments (P=0.01). Conclusion Based on the results, the time spent on social media was not significantly associated with people's tendency to receive aesthetic dental treatments. Also, dentists were less interested in such treatments for themselves

Delayed Haemorrhage Following Radical Gastrectomy: A Case Report

A 53-year-old man, who underwent total gastrectomy and esophagojejunostomy due to gastric cancer, came back to the emergency ward with delayed intra-abdominal haemorrhage. The patient was suffering from a distended, painful abdomenn. The patient was hypotensive, tachycardic, and oliguric. Laboratory analysis detected severe reduced haemoglobin concentration and coagulopathy. After resuscitation and correction of coagulopathy, the patient was transferred to the operating room. At the emergency operation we found that intra-abdominal haemorrhage was from the transverse mesocolon and site of celiac lymph node dissection. Haemostasis was done by suturing, cauterization, and patches with Surgicel

The effect of pipe collectors in reducing the drainage coefficient rate

A high groundwater table and soil salinity, especially in arid regions, often cause serious problems for agriculture. In irrigated areas the subsurface drainage can be an effective technique to lower the depth of the groundwater table and reduce soil salinity. In drainage systems, lateral pipes are designed to collect the free water from soil and convey it into collectors. In other words, collectors are commonly designed to convey drainage water from laterals downstream, while the laterals play an additional role in removing excess water from irrigated land. The present research was conducted to investigate the effects of collectors in discharging excess water from soil using a laboratory-tank model. The results indicated that on average 24% of drainage water was directly discharged through the collector pipe when the hydraulic gradient of the flow was sloped toward the collector pipe. Hence, it was concluded that, with proper monitoring, collectors were capable of reducing the drainage coefficient from an average of 32.5 to 24.5 mm/day, while drain spacing of the laterals can increase the results by about 15% in comparison with the present situation

Spectral Induced Polarization Response of Clay Rock Samples with a High Value of Pyrite

The induced polarization (IP) response in media containing clay and/or metallic minerals has been modeled in different research. Increasing the IP applications and measurements has revealed these models’ limitations. For instance, no model has described IP response in the media with metallic minerals higher than 22 percent. So, our goal in this contribution is to explain the IP response of clay-rich samples containing low- to high-grade pyrite, galena, and sphalerite from the Zn-Pb sedimentary-exhalative mine Koushk, central Iran. The samples’ background consists of clayey/micaceous minerals, including illite, muscovite, and chlorite, that, along with the metallic minerals, make the consecutive layers in some samples, while others have a different formation. The samples also contain some insulating grains such as quartz and gypsum. Therefore, there are different conduction and polarization mechanisms in them. These properties make our samples unique and substantial to study the IP response. To do this, we measured the samples’ complex conductivity, density, porosity, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and metallic/non-metallic minerals. Then, we investigated the relationship between electrical and petrophysical properties. The results showed that the chargeability has no relationship with CEC and is a complete representation of the metallic minerals’ polarization. The normalized chargeability depends linearly on the quadrature conductivity and is affected by the metallic minerals besides CEC. The content and type of clay/mica minerals control the CEC. Hence, the normalized chargeability is influenced by the metallic and non-metallic polarizable components. The conductivity linearly relates to metallic minerals’ content and, in vein mineralizations, has higher values than disseminated ones. Ultimately, comparing our samples’ IP response with Revil et al.’s and Pelton et al.’s models for chargeability, metallic minerals volume content, and time constant determined that increasing the metallic minerals makes the chargeability decrease and the time constant increase. So, in high-grade porous media or non-dispersive formations, chargeability is a function of the metallic minerals’ volume content and the time constant. Complex media like our samples are expected in geological environments. Hence, recognizing the parameters affecting IP response in these media helps to better understand their properties and, in general, IP response characteristics

Modelling the induced polarization of bentonite-sand mixtures

International audienceSpectral induced polarization (SIP) has become an increasingly popular geophysical method for hydrogeological and environmental applications. These applications include for instance the non-intrusive characterization of the textural and interfacial physicochemical properties of bentonites used as permeability barriers in landfills or to store various types of contaminants including radioactive wastes. Bentonites are mainly constituted of smectites, which have very high specific surface areas (SSA) and cation exchange capacities (CEC). Therefore, these minerals have very high electromigration and polarization current densities responsible for very high in phase and quadrature conductivities, respectively. In addition, in diluted water, the diffuse layer of smectites occupies a large fraction of the pore space and may be therefore considered as part of the pore space. In our approach [1], complex electrical conductivities of saturated unconsolidated bentonite and bentonite-sand mixtures are modeled at different salinities (NaCl) of the bulk pore water using a Donnan equilibrium model coupled to the revisited SIP model of Leroy and Revil [2]. Our complex surface conductivity model considers the DC contribution of the diffuse and Stern layers as well as the electrochemical polarization of the Stern layer coating the grains with different sizes. The macroscopic SIP model is based on the differential effective medium theory and considers the complex surface conductivity of the sand and smectite grains and the complex conductivity of the pore space. In our model, the diffuse layer of quartz sands occupies a small fraction of the pore space and is considered therefore as part of the surface of the grains. Our SIP model predicts very well the low frequency (0.1 Hz - kHz) complex electrical conductivities of bentonite and bentonite-sand mixtures, except for very low frequencies (< 0.1 Hz) where membrane polarization may occur (Figure 1). The in phase conductivity of the sample with a high clay content (20 % in volume) increases slowly with salinity because of the very high DC surface conductivity of smectite. The observed large increase of the in phase and quadrature conductivity of the samples with the clay content (1, 20 and 100% in volume) is also predicted by our model. The quadrature conductivity of the samples with a high clay content is fairly independent on the pore fluid salinity because it is strongly connected with the SSA, CEC and Stern layer of smectite (Figure 1). The in phase conductivity of the sample with a low clay content (1% in volume) increases quickly with the salinity because of its low DC surface conductivity. Its quadrature conductivity also increases quickly with salinity because of the formation of the Stern layer at the surface of quartz sand. Nevertheless, our SIP model can't predict the quadrature conductivity spectra observed at very low frequencies (< 10-1 Hz). The missing polarization mechanism may correspond to membrane polarization and there is an effort to be done to incorporate this contribution in a unified model

In Vitro Cytotoxicity of a New Nano Root Canal Sealer on Human Gingival Fibroblasts

Introduction: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of a new nano zinc-oxide eugenol (NZOE) sealer on human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) compared with Pulpdent (micro-sized ZOE sealer) and AH-26 (resin-based sealer). Methods and Materials: The Pulpdent, AH-26, and NZOE sealers were prepared and exposed to cell culture media immediately after setting, and 24 h and one week after setting. Then, the primary cultured HGFs were incubated for 24 h with different dilutions (1:1 to 1:32) of each sealer extract. Cell viability was evaluated by methyl thiazolyl diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The results were compared using two-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: All sealer extracts, up to 32 times dilutions, showed cytotoxicity when exposed to HGF immediately after setting. The extracts obtained 24 h or one week after setting showed lower cytotoxicity than extracts obtained immediately after setting. At all setting times, NZOE showed lower cytotoxicity than Pulpdent and AH-26. While one-week extracts of NZOE had no significant effect on the viability of HGF at dilutions 1:4 to 1:32, both Pulpdent and AH-26 decreased the cell viability at dilutions of 1:4 and 1:8. Conclusion: NZOE exhibited lower cytotoxicity compared to Pulpdent and AH-26 on HGF and has the potential to be considered as a new root canal filling material.Keywords: Cytotoxicity; Human Gingival Fibroblast; MTT assay; Nano; Seale