As the blood sugar epidemic explodes, science is beginning to uncover more and more problems related to the disease.
In recent years, scientists have discovered a strong link between blood sugar problems and low testosterone.
This leads to a whole host of problems, including infertility.
Some researchers are investigating natural remedies that people have been using to treat diabetes for thousands of years.
Recently, researchers showed that olive leaf extract can fight diabetes and that it can also fight low testosterone, protecting the male reproductive system.
These researchers carried out animal experiments at the Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. They published the results in the Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal.
Chronically elevated blood sugar causes a lot of problems, including low testosterone.
Different parts of the olive tree have been used for thousands of years to treat high blood sugar.
This research looked at the effect of olive leaf extract on diabetes-related testicular problems in rats.
They sorted lab rats into five groups of six and gave some of them chemicals that cause type 2 diabetes.
Then they gave some of those rats different treatments -- including olive leaf extract (OLE).
They looked at blood sugar and insulin levels. They also tested their testosterone and gonadotropins (hormones that stimulate the testes).
Testosterone is one of the most important male hormones and gonadotropins are hormones that control the production of sperm and testosterone.
The diabetic animals that did not receive treatment had lower levels of testosterone and gonadotropins.
These negative effects were accompanied by damage to the testicles and deteriorating sperm health.
Both low-dose and high-dose olive leaf extract protected the male reproductive system against type 2 diabetes.
The researchers ran parallel experiments with a treatment called glibenclamide which is used to treat high blood sugar.
Olive leaf extract was more effective than the medical treatment.
The effects of olive leaf extract were dose-dependent…
Higher doses provided more protection.
Steroidogenic enzymes produce male hormones such as testosterone.
Olive leaf extract increased these enzymes.
So it seems that olive leaf extract could protect the male reproductive system against the deleterious effects of type 2 diabetes.
The researchers found two major beneficial effects of olive leaf extract. The first was increasing the steroidogenic enzymes. The other protective effect was reducingoxidative stress.
Oxidative stress is what happens when free electrons get out of control and damage cells and DNA.
Olive leaf extract has an antioxidant effect, meaning it soaks up the free electrons that cause oxidative stress.
So olive leaf may be one great way for men to naturally treat their blood sugar problems.
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