Common allergy medicine to fight diabetes and obesity?

Flickr Image: Courtesy of fauxto_digit

The prevalence of obesity has increased markedly over the last 2 decades leading to an increase in type 2 diabetes. Nearly one-third of American adults are obese and over 7.8% of the population is affected by type 2 diabetes. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation an estimated 50 million Americans also suffer from some sort of allergy. Could common over the counter allergy medication be the next treatment for metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and obesity? Researchers from Harvard Medical School think so.

A group of papers appearing in Nature's Medicine show an interesting and promising link between the immune system, type 2 diabetes and obesity. Although chronic inflammation in the body has already been linked to heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, this latest research gives us a better understanding of the relationship between inflammation and metabolic disorders. Learning more about these relationships could lead to potential treatment recommendations for obesity and diabetes.

In the first study Guo-Ping Shi, a Biochemist from the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and colleagues divided obese mice into four groups (a control group, a healthy diet group, an allergy drug group and a healthy diet and allergy drug group). After two months, the group given the allergy medicine showed significant improvements in both weight and type 2 diabetes and the group fed a healthy diet and given allergy medicine showed almost 100% improvement "in all areas" according to the researchers.

A second study from researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center found a type of immune regulatory cell (T-cell or Treg) that was abundant in the belly fat of normal weight humans and mice, but almost absent in the belly fat of diabetic or obese humans and mice. In addition, obese and diabetic fat tissue was full of inflammatory macrophages and “it’s possible that the inflammation caused by macrophages results in insulin resistance” states Steven Shoelson, HMS professor of medicine at the Joslin Diabetes Center. So basically the T-cell’s needed to fight the inflammatory macrophages are not present in obese tissue, leading researchers to believe this could be part of the reason obesity leads to other diseases like diabetes.

So, what does this all mean? Until more research can be done on human subjects it’s hard to say how these findings will translate. However, you can start incorporating some healthy, “anti-inflammatory” lifestyle principles today. To reduce inflammation:

• Include as much fresh food as possible in your diet and avoid processed foods and fast food.
• Eat an abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables and full of anti-inflammatory plant chemicals and fiber.
• Increase your intake of whole grains such as brown rice and quinoa.
• Include a variety of beans, winter squashes and sweet potatoes in your diet.
• Avoid foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, trans fat or high amounts of saturated fat (fat that comes from animal sources).
• Include healthy fats such as olive oil, canola oil, nuts, seeds and fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, etc.) in your diet.
• Choose organic products whenever possible.
• Season your foods generously with anti-inflammatory herbs and spices like garlic, ginger, tumeric, cayenne, thyme and rosemary.
• Drink at least 6-8 glasses of filtered water every day.
• Limit caffeine. Instead choose herbal teas, especially green and black tea.
• Drink alcohol in moderation. If you do drink alcohol, try to make it red wine.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Participate in stress reducing activities like yoga or meditation and do aerobic exercise on a regular basis.
  

Incorporate some of these simple guidelines to reduce inflammation and potentially reduce your risk for a variety of chronic diseases!

To read more about the Harvard studies click here.