Operation regulation: nutraceutical ingredients for healthy blood sugar; Diabetes continues to sweep populations all around the world, bringing with it many potential nutraceutical solutions that may afford consumers living with diabetes or diabetes-related conditions a chance to live a normal life.

For the 41 million Americans suffering from pre-diabetes--a precursor to diabetes type II--the American Diabetes Association (ADA), Chicago, IL, says lifestyle modifications, including dietary supplementation, can help turn this condition around. This is excellent news for the nutraceuticals industry, as products geared toward managing blood glucose levels can net a wide audience of repeat users. Further, creative manufacturers may want to consider "partnering" with healthy food manufacturers to create a cross-promotional purchase program that offers the consumer worried about diabetes the convenience and the message that healthy blood sugar regulation begins by eating right and supplementing wisely.

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The Health Dynamics of Diabetes

Of the key types of diabetes (see sidebar on page 56), type II is most frequently spotlighted because it is essentially preventable. This disease is deemed largely preventable by the medical community because it is understood to be a result of a lifestyle fraught with poor dietary habits, infrequent or no exercise, and other factors.

Pre-diabetes is the more recently used term to describe the state of elevated blood glucose levels; it is more formally known as impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose, depending on which test is used to ascertain the condition. According to the ADA, the condition of pre-diabetes "almost always" exists prior to the full development of diabetes type II. Key point: "Research has also shown that if you take action to manage your blood glucose when you have pre-diabetes, you can delay or prevent type II diabetes from ever developing."

In summary, a lifestyle of sugar intake or foods that quickly turn into sugars can be blamed for pre-diabetic and type II states. The rise of industrialism has, for many Americans, wiped out the ability of attaining nature-based foods from the land, which the evolution of the human body has come to rely on to maintain homeostasis. As more sugar-laden processed and packaged (i.e., "convenient") foods displaced the wholesome diet, cases of diabetes type II began to incline sharply. After a meal, the body's master metabolic hormone--insulin--is called upon to chauffeur the glucose from the bloodstream to cells that rely on glucose for energy. In cases where the bloodstream is repeatedly clogged with major traffic jams of glucose, the body releases high levels of insulin to clear it all up. What often occurs is that insulin loses its ability to do this job effectively, thereby leaving behind more glucose in the bloodstream that eventually becomes stored as fat.

Glycemic response is the pathway by which insulin reacts with glucose. According to Richard Staack, PhD, of Cevena Bioproducts, Inc., Chicago, IL and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, "Many of the foods we eat today contain carbohydrates that are broken down to glucose and rapidly absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream. This rapid absorption of glucose leads to a high glycemic response or glycemic index (GI) and a consequent rapid secretion of insulin from the pancreas. Increased insulin levels are thought to be a key factor in the development of several diseases, including non-insulin dependent diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance."

Several years ago, the theory of "Syndrome X" and its role in disease development, notably type II diabetes, became quite a hot topic. Ram Chaudhari, PhD, FACN, CNS, senior executive vice president and CSO Fortitech, Schenectady, NY, summarizes, "Insulin resistance, at the heart of type II diabetes, is also a key factor in the development of Syndrome X (also metabolic…