A Case Study on Functional Food Intake in a Diabetic Patient: No Such Thing as a Magic Bullet Part-I

FOONG; Anthony FW¹  HATTA; Kanji² 

¹ R&D Department, Imex Japan Co Ltd, 22-8 Shimomidori-cho, Shinchiku, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603-8425, Japan  (78imexfw@gmail.com) 

² Department of Psychiatric Nursing, School of Nursing, Takarazuka University, 16-13-1, Shibata, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0012, Japan

The present study reaffirmed that single-use of disorder-orientated functional foods may not be effective in resolving certain muscle- and orientation-relevant health problems. A male diabetic patient P on a functional food A (a product for blood pressure control) intake for more than 10 yr suffered from certain physical symptoms (PSs) such as forearm Grip-holding (FGH) muscular strength (PS-1), hindlimb joints (HJs) discomfort (PS-2), physical balance or orientation on one-legged standing (PS-3), and urination flow onset-latency and duration of complete emptying (PS-4) as well as poor metabolic indexes such as high levels of total cholesterols (T-Cho), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterols (LDL-C), triglycerides (TG), and HbA1C. When intake of A was complemented with daily product B, intake all PSs improved in a time-dependent manner; with different PS improvements requiring different intake duration: shorter intake duration for PS-1 (3-wk intake and thereafter), and longer intake durations for other PSs (at least more than 3-month intake). Additionally, high levels of T-Cho and relevant indexes were also improved over time with different intake durations, although the blood sugar levels (HbA1c) were unaffected. T-Cho (3-month intake), LDL-C (3-month intake), TG (after 6-month intake) were restored after different intake durations; however, blood sugar levels (HbA1c) were unaffected despite mulberry leaf extract having been documented to reduce blood sugar levels. Improvements of PSs and metabolic indexes were probably due to complementary effects of B whose effects in combination with A improved metabolic activity, nutritional, blood circulation and neurological effects and may have contributed to the favorable outcomes in this study. 

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