The effects of ginger on fasting blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c, apolipoprotein B, apolipoprotein A-I and malondialdehyde in type 2 diabetic patients

Diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine disorder, causes many complications such as micro- and macro-vascular diseases. Anti-diabetic, hypolipidemic and anti-oxidative properties of ginger have been noticed in several researches. The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of ginger on fasting blood sugar, Hemoglobin A1c, apolipoprotein B, apolipoprotein A-I, and malondialdehyde in type 2 diabetic patients. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial, a total of 41 type 2 diabetic patients randomly were assigned to ginger or placebo groups (22 in ginger group and 19 in control group), received 2 g/day of ginger powder supplement or lactose as placebo for 12 weeks. The serum concentrations of fasting blood sugar, Hemoglobin A1c, apolipoprotein B, apolipoprotein A-I and malondialdehyde were analyzed before and after the intervention. Ginger supplementation significantly reduced the levels of fasting blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c, apolipoprotein B, apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A-I and malondialdehyde in ginger group in comparison to baseline, as well as control group, while it increased the level of apolipoprotein A-I (p<0.05). It seems that oral administration of ginger powder supplement can improves fasting blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c, apolipoprotein B, apolipoprotein A-I, apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A-I and malondialdehyde in type 2 diabetic patients. So it may have a role in alleviating the risk of some chronic complications of diabetes. © 2015 by School of Pharmacy Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services

Qualitative exploration of the factors influencing the use of dietary supplements in Iranian women: introduction to areas of focus for developing interventions

Background: Literature shows that the consumption of Dietary Supplements (DS) is more common in Iran. This study aimed to explore the experiences of a sample of Iranian women regarding the factors influencing the use of DS. Methods: This qualitative content analysis study was conducted in Qods city, Tehran province, Iran from January to March 2020. Forty-two semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with women. The participants were asked about their experiences about the determinants of the consumption of DS. After the first round of the interviews was done, we performed content analysis of the data and continued up to data saturation. Results: Two main themes including personal factors (with 5 subthemes including sociodemographic characteristics, perceived benefits of DS, history of illness, physiological conditions, and lifestyle factors) and socio-economic factors (with 3 subthemes including subjective norms, the price of food and commercial considerations of the sectors involved in the production and sale of DS) emerged as the experiences of the participants as to the intake of DS. Conclusions: These variables may suggest areas which need to be focused on for performing more effective interventions to affect appropriate consumption of DS in Iran. © 202

The effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on glycemic markers in patients with type 2 diabetes

Background: Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is one of the functional foods which contains biological compounds including gingerol, shogaol, paradol and zingerone. Ginger has been proposed to have anti-cancer, anti-thrombotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, hypolipidemic and analgesic properties. Here, we report the effect of ginger supplementation on glycemic indices in Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial was conducted on 20-60 -year-old patients with type 2 diabetes who did not receive insulin. Participants in the intervention and control groups were received 3 g of powdered ginger or placebo (lactose) (in capsules) daily for 3 months. Glycemic indices, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde (MDA), C-reactive protein (CRP), serum paraoxonase, dietary intake and physical activity were measured at the beginning and end of the study, and after 12 h fasting. Results: Comparison of the indices after 3 months showed that the differences between the ginger and placebo groups were statistically significant as follows: serum glucose (-19.41±18.83 vs. 1.63±4.28 mg/dL, p1c percentage (-0.77±0.88 vs. 0.02±0.16, p<0.001), insulin (-1.46±1.7 vs. 0.09±0.34 μIU/mL, p<0.001), insulin resistance (-16.38±19.2 vs. 0.68±2.7, p<0.001), high-sensitive CRP (-2.78±4.07 vs. 0.2±0.77 mg/L, p<0.001), paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) (22.04±24.53 vs. 1.71±2.72 U/L, p<0.006), TAC (0.78±0.71 vs. -0.04±0.29 μIU/mL, p<0.01) and MDA (-0.85±1.08 vs. 0.06±0.08 μmol/L, p<0.001) were significantly different. Conclusions: This report shows that the 3 months supplementation of ginger improved glycemic indices, TAC and PON-1 activity in patients with type 2 diabetes. © 2015 by De Gruyter 2015

In vitro cardiovascular system emulator (bioreactor) for the simulation of normal and diseased conditions with and without mechanical circulatory support

© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation.This article presents a new device designed to simulate in vitro flow rates, pressures, and other parameters representing normal and diseased conditions of the human cardiovascular system. Such devices are sometimes called bioreactors or "mock" simulator of cardiovascular loops (SCVLs) in literature. Most SCVLs simulate the systemic circulation only and have inherent limitations in studying the interaction of left and right sides of circulation. Those SCVLs that include both left and right sides of the circulation utilize header reservoirs simulating cycles with constant atrial pressures. The SCVL described in this article includes models for all four chambers of the heart, and the systemic and pulmonary circulation loops. Each heart chamber is accurately activated by a separate linear motor to simulate the suction and ejection stages, thus capturing important features in the perfusion waveforms. Four mechanical heart valves corresponding to mitral, pulmonary, tricuspid, and aortic are used to control the desired unidirectional flow. This SCVL can emulate different physiological and pathological conditions of the human cardiovascular system by controlling the different parameters of blood circulation through the vascular tree (mainly the resistance, compliance, and elastance of the heart chambers). In this study, four cases were simulated: healthy, congestive heart failure, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction conditions, and left ventricular dysfunction with the addition of a mechanical circulatory support (MCS) device. Hemodynamic parameters including resistance, pressure, and flow have been investigated at aortic sinus, carotid artery, and pulmonary artery, respectively. The addition of an MCS device resulted in a significant reduction in mean blood pressure and re-establishment of cardiac output. In all cases, the experimental results are compared with human physiology and numerical simulations. The results show the capability of the SCVL to replicate various physiological and pathological conditions with and without MCS.Peer reviewe