Honey - A Novel Antidiabetic Agent
Int J Biol Sci, 2012;8(6):913-34, Epub 2012 Jul 7
Diabetes mellitus remains a burden worldwide in spite of the
availability of numerous antidiabetic drugs. Honey is a natural substance
produced by bees from nectar. Several evidence-based health benefits have been
ascribed to honey in the recent years.
In this review article, we highlight findings which
demonstrate the beneficial or potential effects of honey in the
gastrointestinal tract (GIT), on the gut microbiota, in the liver, in the
pancreas and how these effects could improve glycemic control and metabolic
derangements.
In healthy subjects or patients with impaired glucose
tolerance or diabetes mellitus, various studies revealed that honey reduced
blood glucose or was more tolerable than most common sugars or sweeteners.
Pre-clinical studies provided more convincing evidence in support of honey as a
potential antidiabetic agent than clinical studies did.
The not-too-impressive clinical data could mainly be
attributed to poor study designs or due to the fact that the clinical studies
were preliminary. Based on the key constituents of honey, the possible
mechanisms of action of antidiabetic effect of honey are proposed. The paper
also highlights the potential impacts and future perspectives on the use of
honey as an antidiabetic agent. It makes recommendations for further clinical
studies on the potential antidiabetic effect of honey.
This review provides insight on the potential use of honey,
especially as a complementary agent, in the management of diabetes mellitus.
Hence, it is very important to have well-designed, randomized controlled
clinical trials that investigate the reproducibility (or otherwise) of these
experimental data in diabetic human subjects.
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