Well-Defined Quantity of Antioxidants in Diet Can Improve Insulin Resistance
Endocrine SocietyA diet rich in natural antioxidants improves insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant obese adults and enhances the effect of the insulin-sensitizing drug metformin, a preliminary study from Italy finds. The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego. “The beneficial effects of antioxidants are known, but we have revealed for the first time one of their biological bases of action—improving hormonal action in obese subjects with the metabolic syndrome,” said principal author Antonio Mancini, MD, an endocrinology researcher at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of metabolic risk factors for developing diabetes, heart disease and stroke. People with this syndrome cannot efficiently use insulin, the hormone that regulates glucose (sugar) in the blood. Some evidence exists that oxidative stress may play a role in the metabolic syndrome, according to Mancini. Oxidative stress, a bioc