discovered at the SLAGA winter pot-luck.
One of these days I'm gonna find a diabetes TB from Arizona. Until such a time, enjoy this blurb on Arizona's native wildlife and diabetes.
The first snippet is from Mendosa dot com, an online diabetes resource and he is talking about the elusive Gila Monster; One of the only two venomous species of lizards in the owrld (the other is a cousin; the Mexican beaded lizard)
"The Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) is a poisonous lizard found in rapidly declining numbers in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Gila Monsters and the Mexican beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum) are the world's only known venomous lizards.
The Gila monster venom contains the drug that we may be able to use some day to regulate blood glucose."
The second is from a January 2005 article in Vibrant Life Magazine.
"In Mexican traditional medicine, prickly pear cactus (nopal) is used for the treatment of diabetes and high cholesterol. Today nopal is a commonly called upon herbal agent for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes by Mexican Americans as well as American Indians. The blood sugar-lowering action of nopal has been documented in a number of studies.
Extracts of prickly pear cactus have hypoglycemic effects when fed to animals with experimentally induced diabetes, as well as to healthy animals with elevated blood glucose levels. Researchers in Mexico found that patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus who were given broiled nopal stems experienced a significant drop in blood glucose levels, while their insulin showed improved effectiveness. Furthermore, the regular use of sap from prickly pear cactus has been shown to improve the general symptoms of a diabetic patient."
BTB, nopal is also yummy in salsas, or when cooked up and served like french fries (though frying might not be the best thing.)
So while caching remember to respect the wildlife- they could save your life someday.
[This entry was edited by Thystle on Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 11:38:00 PM.]