Mushrooms ‘could be used to treat diabetes'
Eating mushrooms could help people manage Type 2 diabetes, a study has suggested.
Researchers at Semmelweis University in Budapest found that edible fungi were rich in chemicals that helped improve sensitivity to insulin, a key problem for diabetics.
'Our study reveals the remarkable potential of natural compounds in mushrooms to address key metabolic pathways,' said Dr Zsuzsanna Németh.
Type 2 diabetes affects around 5.8 million people in the UK and is commonly caused by being overweight and eating an unhealthy diet.
The condition can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, vision loss and amputations.
A healthy body produces the hormone insulin in the pancreas in response to eating, using it to turn the sugars in food into energy.
However, in some people, cells develop resistance to the hormone and stop responding correctly.
This is called insulin resistance and leads to elevated levels of sugar in the bloodstream, because it has not been converted.
Dr Németh said: 'As interest grows in non-pharmacological approaches to disease prevention, this opens up exciting possibilities for using edible medicinal mushrooms as complementary agents in diabetes management.'
Previous studies have shown fungi to contain medically important components such as polysaccharides, terpenoids, phenols, and heterocyclic amines.
Mushroom extracts 'have anti-diabetic, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, cardioprotective, anti-osteoporotic, and anti-tumour effects', the Semmelweis team wrote in their study.
They found that polysaccharides – different types of sugar – in the white button mushroom can boost good gut bacteria in the human body.
Sugars in the lion's mane mushroom are an antioxidant, while the shiitake mushroom has chemicals linked to reducing blood glucose levels and anti-inflammatory effects.
The researchers wrote: 'Edible mushrooms, including medical mushrooms, are an important part of nutrition. They are a good source of fibre, vitamins, amino acids, and trace elements, but the most investigated are the water-soluble composites: polysaccharides.
'Polysaccharides have complex effects on the human body. They favourably modulate the intestinal microbiota, glucose, and lipid homeostasis, as well as the immune system, the combined effect of which can reduce insulin resistance.
'These effects make mushrooms, especially medicinal mushrooms, a potential part of complementary therapy for obesity and related diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes.'
The research was published by the international Journal of Molecular Sciences.
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