Type 2 diabetes, a condition characterized by high blood sugar levels due to insulin resistance or lack of insulin, is a significant health challenge worldwide.
The prevalence and associated healthcare costs of type 2 diabetes have increased steadily over the decades.
While current treatment options encompass lifestyle changes and medications, many of these drugs carry substantial side effects or limitations, necessitating new therapeutic interventions.
In a promising development, researchers have discovered that an extract from the roots of the Rhodiola rosea plant might offer a safe and effective alternative treatment for managing type 2 diabetes.
This finding stems from a study in which researchers tested the Rhodiola rosea extract’s efficacy on a mouse model that develops obesity, insulin resistance, and high blood sugar levels—similar to advanced human type 2 diabetes.
In the study, male and female mice were randomly assigned to two groups: a control group that received water, and an experimental group that received Rhodiola rosea extract.
The researchers observed that the mice administered with the plant extract showed lowered fasting blood sugar levels, an improved response to insulin injections, altered composition of gastrointestinal tract bacteria, and decreased several inflammation biomarkers.
These findings suggest that Rhodiola rosea might be beneficial for treating type 2 diabetes, primarily by modifying the microbiome to increase gut barrier integrity and reduce the translocation of inflammatory molecules into the bloodstream.
The researchers highlighted that the gut barrier integrity significantly influences body weight and insulin response, and this botanical product might enhance the liver and muscle tissues’ responses to insulin.
The research team, led by Mahtab Jafari, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, Irvine, intends to perform a larger follow-up study in another mouse model of obesity-induced diabetes to confirm these results and investigate the molecular mechanisms involved.
Jafari ultimately aims to conduct Rhodiola rosea clinical trials with patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, emphasizing the importance of high-quality pre-clinical studies in evaluating the efficacy of standardized plant extracts.
The research was funded by the UCI School of Medicine-Pharmaceutical Sciences Collaborative Research Funds and John P. and Lois C. Wareham, and it was published in the Scientific Reports journal.
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The study was published in Scientific Reports.
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