Momoh A Yakubu
Texas Southern University, USA
ScientificTracks Abstracts-Workshop: J Diabetes Metab
With life style changes being more affluent which are characterized by increased consumption of processed food, inactivity and reduced intake of vegetable/plant based food, incidence of chronic diseases and illnesses has been increased worldwide. Diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes) is one of such diseases which afflict a good number of people worldwide. Increasing number of people suffering from diabetes lives in the developing world (about 80%). This increment has taken place in the last twenty years as increased population in the developing world westernized their lifestyles. While diabetes and its complications continue to ravage the world, cure for diabetes and/or management of its attending complications continue to elude scientists despite the huge investments in research. Death from diabetes and complications continue to climb and those that survive diabetes complications surfers�?? morbidity and poor quality of life. Often, treatments for control of blood glucose/complications are fraught with serious side effects which could lead to life threatening conditions such as stroke, kidney and liver damage, hypertension, cognition decline etc. Also, most of these drugs are very expensive and out of reach of average diabetic patients in the developing countries. As a result, most of these patients revert to the age old remedy of herbal medications. There is a continuous upward trend towards the use of complementary and alternative medical practices in diabetes world over especially in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East and Europe. However, many suffer from an inadequate knowledge base in the use of these remedies. There is therefore the need to expand knowledge base for herbal medicine, focus attention on the use of herbal medicine in the management of diabetes and its complications, encourage research into identifying the potent and active herbs, investigate phytochemical components, understand the mechanism(s) of action, and identify candidates for advanced clinical studies. Therefore, a survey of different herbal remedies employed worldwide for management of diabetes and its complications will be presented and possible diabetes-complication targeted candidates identified for further discussion and investigation.
Momoh A Yakubu obtained his PhD from the University Of Glasgow, Department of Materia Medica. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences and Coordinator of Graduate Environmental Toxicology Program. He is also a Senior Scientist and Head of Vascular Biology Unit of the Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Texas Southern University, Houston. His research interest focuses on identifying signaling molecules involved in cerebrovascular and neurological dysfunctions following exposure to toxicants and pathological conditions to serve as molecular neuroprotective and therapeutic targets. He employs interdisciplinary research approach involving animal models, cellular and molecular techniques with integrated instrumental analysis using GC/MS, HPLC, ICP-MS, NMR, and MALDI-TOF.
Email: Yakubu_MA@TSU.EDU
