Latest research results | Drinking Pu'er ripe tea with meals can promote insulin secretion

   Multiple studies have shown that people who drink tea every day have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who don't drink tea.
   What is the mechanism by which drinking tea reduces the risk of diabetes? Recently, the "Chinese Journal of Clinical Pharmacology" published a "clinical observation" study on the effects of tea ingredients on human insulin secretion completed by Dr. Liu Yanjun and his team from Lanzhou Ruijing Diabetes Hospital, which revealed the mystery. Let's take a closer look. Let’s talk about the relationship between Pu’er tea and insulin.

01 Insulin and diabetes

   insulin therapy

   Before the 20th century, diabetes was a terminal disease. People who had diabetes were sentenced to death, and there was nothing they could do. Until the discovery of insulin, the first clinical trial of insulin therapy for diabetics in medical history was officially declared successful. Since then, insulin has transformed diabetes from a terminal illness into a controllable chronic disease. By the 21st century, diabetes has become a very common chronic disease.

   Insulin is the only hormone in the human body that can lower blood sugar levels. There are many hormones in the human body that affect blood sugar levels, such as epinephrine, growth hormone, glucagon, etc., which can raise blood sugar, but only insulin can lower blood sugar.

What role does insulin play in the body?

   When blood containing a large amount of glucose flows through the pancreas, the beta cells in the pancreas detect an increase in blood sugar concentration and release insulin into the blood to lower blood sugar and maintain blood sugar concentration within a normal range.

   Insulin lowers blood sugar in two ways:

   The first is to organize cells throughout the body to consume glucose. Insulin is like a "key" that can "open the door" on the cell wall, allowing glucose to leave the blood and enter the cells, and then convert glucose into glycogen, energy, fat, etc. in the cells through other channels. , thereby lowering blood sugar;

   The second is to inhibit the decomposition of glycogen into glucose and the conversion of non-sugar substances such as fat and protein into glucose.

   As the only hormone in the human body that can lower blood sugar, when the production of insulin is destroyed, that is, "the key is not enough to open so many doors", resulting in the inability to lower blood sugar, and the human body will suffer from type 1 diabetes.

   The pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes is not clear yet, but it is generally believed to be an endocrine disorder syndrome mainly characterized by insufficient insulin secretion and insulin resistance due to high-risk factors such as obesity and hypertension.

02 Pu'er tea and insulin secretion

Cell and animal experiments

Verified that plant active ingredients regulate insulin secretion

  Insulin is so important, so what are the ways that affect the body's insulin secretion?

   One is to directly improve the efficiency of insulin secretion in beta cells (increasing unit productivity); the other is to protect and repair beta cells by alleviating oxidative stress, anti-inflammation, etc. (to ensure a sufficient number of production units).

   By sorting out the literature on the regulation of insulin secretion by plant active ingredients in recent years, it was found that many natural functional ingredients of different structural types, such as polysaccharides, flavonoids, terpenes, polyphenols and alkaloids, etc., can regulate insulin secretion through "Ion channel" mechanism of action to improve insulin secretion efficiency in beta cells (increase unit productivity).

Clinical Observation

Study on the effect of drinking Pu'er tea on insulin secretion

  Although a large number of studies have shown that many plant active ingredients can promote insulin secretion, the human body is more complicated. Whether the regulatory effect of insulin secretion by pancreatic islet β cells in the human body is consistent with in vitro cell and animal experiments still requires further research. For example, in "improving unit productivity" Can the active ingredients of tea, which have effects on both aspects of "ensuring a sufficient number of production units", really increase insulin secretion in the human body? In March 2021, TAETEA No. 7 Hospital cooperated with Lanzhou Ruijing Diabetes Hospital to conduct a "clinical observation" study on the impact of tea ingredients on human insulin secretion.

   Research subjects: Patients with newly diagnosed prediabetes and new-onset type 2 diabetes were randomly divided into a control group and an experimental group.

   Research method: Taking the patients themselves as the control, the patients in the control group ate a steamed bun meal and drank water, and the experimental group ate a steamed bun meal and drank Pu'er tea. Then, the blood glucose levels were measured on an empty stomach and at 0.5 hours, 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours after eating the steamed bun meal. , insulin, C-peptide, glucagon and glucagon-like peptide index data, and then use statistical software to process and analyze the experimental data.

   Research conclusion: After 2 years, the research results were published in "Chinese Clinical Pharmacology". Through human clinical observation, it was found that drinking ripe Pu'er tea with meals can promote insulin secretion in the body after meals. The mechanism of action may be that the active ingredients in Pu'er tea prompt intestinal cells to secrete more "glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1)", a hormone that promotes beta cells to secrete insulin.

03 Hit the key points

  Through the above introduction, we can see that there is a close relationship between drinking Pu'er tea and insulin secretion. Cell experiments and animal experiments have proven that tea polyphenols, tea polysaccharides and other plant active ingredients can improve the efficiency of insulin secretion in beta cells through the mechanism of "regulating ion channels"; clinical observations further found that drinking Pu'er tea with a meal can promote insulin secretion after a meal. Insulin secretion in the body.

   I hope more people can understand the benefits of drinking tea, improve bad habits in life, eat reasonably, prevent together, and live a healthy life!