Health for life

Researchers who presented April 4 at the Experimental Biology 2006 conference in San Francisco were the first to document the beneficial effect of cloves on insulin function in humans.

Study Summary*

• Participants - 36 patients with type 2 diabetes
  
• Length - 30 day intervention
  
• Methods - Participants were divided into 4 groups, assigned to take capsules containing 0, 1, 2, or 3 grams cloves per day.
  
• Findings:
  • No significant differences in responses among the 3 levels of cloves used.
    
  • Average blood glucose reduction - from 225 to 150 mg/dL
    
  • Average triglycerides reduction - from 235 to 203 mg/dL
    
  • Average total cholesterol reduction - from 273 to 239 mg/dL
    
  • Average LDL cholesterol reduction - from 175 to 145 mg/dL

If these findings bear scrutiny, taking the equivalent of 1 to 2 cloves a day may prove beneficial for people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

* The study was part of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), a member of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). Financial support was given by the Higher Educational Commission of Pakistan.

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For the studys abstract (pdf):
Cinnamon, cloves improve insulin function, lower risk factors for diabetes, cardiovascular disease

A story in the New York Times this month reported that the FDA, under Commissioner Hamburg, is pressuring the international group that sets standards (International Organization for Standardization: IOS) to tighten allowable errors for in-home blood glucose monitors.

If the IOS fails to act, the FDA may change the standards for meters in the US.

Self-monitoring of blood glucose devices (SMBG devices) are currently allowed to be inaccurate by up to 20%. However:

"A study by government researchers found that when comparing tests from five different popular monitors, results varied by as much as 32 percent.

For a class science project recently, Morgan DiSanto-Ranney, 16, of Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Va., bought seven different glucose monitors and had her father, a diabetic, use all of them.

“What I found was that almost all of the meters were off from one another by 60 to 75 points,” Morgan said in an interview. Two of the meters — Ascensia Breeze and Ascensia Breeze II, both made by Bayer — differed by an average of 62 points, she said."

An inaccuracy of 75 mg/dl is not trivial.
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Youve just been to the doctor. He found sugar in your urine. But your blood sugars are usually in the 90s fasting, and around 140 mg/dl after meals, at least when you check. And isnt the renal threshold, or the level of blood glucose above which kidneys fail to reabsorb, and thus spill glucose into urine, often stated as 180 mg/dl?

Might your sugars be going higher without you knowing it?

In addition to home testing, a simple A1C test might indicate that fact. ¹

However, theres the possibility you could be spilling glucose at levels below 180 mg/dl. A fair amount of normal variability exists in the renal threshold - both among individuals and within an individual - which makes urine testing not a very dependable tool for detecting a high blood glucose.

Here are a few erences I found to that effect:

Tests Of Glycemia In Diabetes, Diabetes Care, 2004

"Reasons why the use of urine glucose testing to estimate blood glucose concentrations in diabetes management is undesirable include the following:

1. Although the renal threshold for glucose in healthy adults corresponds to a plasma glucose concentration of ~180 mg/dl (10 mmol/l), there is wide individual variation. Of particular importance are findings that adults, especially those with long-standing diabetes, may have substantial increases in this threshold, resulting in underestimation of the blood glucose level. Conversely, children and, particularly, pregnant women may have very low or variable renal thresholds, resulting in overestimation of the blood glucose level.
   
2. Fluid intake and urine concentration affect urine test results.
   
3. The urine glucose value lects an average level of blood glucose during the interval since the last voiding and not the level at the time of the test.
   
4. A negative urine glucose test does not distinguish between hypoglycemia, euglycemia, and mild or moderate hyperglycemia. Thus, urine glucose testing is of limited value in preventing hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.
   
5. Urine glucose testing, which uses a color chart with which the test strip color is compared, is less accurate than capillary blood glucose monitoring, which typically uses a digital readout from a lectance meter.
   
6. Some drugs interfere with urine glucose determinations.
   
7. Evaluation of urine dipsticks reveals high imprecision at low glucose concentrations. Manufacturers claim that the test strips are positive if urinary glucose concentrations are 100 mg/dl or greater, but the data indicate this does not always occur."

Heres an older study that found pretty wide margins, +/- 150 mg/dl, in estimates of blood glucose from urine glucose...

Validity Of Urine Glucose Measurements For Estimating Plasma Glucose Concentration, Diabetes Care, 1983

"Although our observations show a significant correlation (P less than 0.0001) between plasma glucose concentration and urine glucose concentration or urine glucose excretion rate, the wide confidence limits [95% confidence limits (minimum) +/- 150 mg/dl] on plasma glucose concentration estimated from urine glucose measurements limit the clinical applicability of such estimates."

And one that found a mean of 130 mg/dl, much lower than 180 mg/dl, although it was a special population...

The Influence Of Renal Threshold On The Interpretation Of Urine Tests For Glucose In Diabetic Patients, Diabetes Care, 1980

"In a group of 65 insulin-dependent diabetic patients there was a wide variation in renal threshold, with a mean of 130 mg/dl (range 54-180 mg/dl). Threshold tended to rise with age, and it is suggested that the higher the renal threshold, the higher is the mean blood glucose achieved by the patient."

And a even older study, but telling ...

Renal Threshold For Glucose: Normal And In Diabetics, British Medical Journal, 1940

"The study of the renal threshold in diabetics and normals with healthy renal function shows frequent upward and downward deviations from the accepted "normal" figure of some 170 mg. per 100 c.cm.

The conception of a "normal" threshold is false. There is an average renal threshold, just as there is an average blood pressure, and the many deviations from it should be looked upon as physiological -- a matter of individual idiosyncrasy, and of no pathological significance."

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¹ HbA1C or just A1C is an abbreviation for glycosylated hemoglobin, blood levels of which can identify average glucose levels for an individual over approximately 120 days, the life span of a red blood cell.