Pumpkin and Blood Glucose

[jojodancer]

I was doing some research (what little I can through firewalls at work) and I came across this:
www.diethealthclub.com/articles/86/diet-and-wellness/pumpkin-extract-helps-insulin-production.html

that says that pumpkin lowers blood glucose in humans.
And that the number of insulin producing cells increased in the rats which were given pumpkin.

So my question is, and obviously we need to look more into this, but is pumpkin safe to give to ferrets with insulinoma?

[Heather]

I gave slippery elm to my Zena. I was concerned about the naturally occuring sugars in the pumpkin. I will be interested to see where this thread might indeed go.
ciao

[mustelidmusk]

I've always been a little concerned about using pumpkin long term/regularly - espeially depending on what else the ferret is eating.

There's a risk with everything - just being alive is a risk!

-jennifer

[jojodancer]

Just doing a search on "pumpkin insulin rats" has yielded many more hits.
Here's a few that I could access at work:
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070708193019.htm
www.physorg.com/news103170537.html
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288673,00.html

The fox news story says "Research showed that pumpkin extract promotes regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells in diabetic rats, boosting levels of insulin-producing beta cells and insulin in the blood. "

The last thing insulinomic ferrets need are increased levels of insulin in the blood. But is the increase due to the regeneration of pancreatic cells, or some other means? And, if it regenerates the damaged cells that lead to diabetes (diabetes is not enough insulin in the blood, the pancreatic beta cells aren't producing enough) does it mean that in an insulinomic ferret where those beta cells are generating too much insulin, that it makes the regular cells to produce more, or will it even make the over-producing ones produce even more?

This freaks me out a bit. I have two insulinomic guys at home. I may table the pumpkin for a bit. I'll also ask my vet the next time I see him (or it may be worth a call)

[novemberkris]

I think the next questions would be, what chemical compound/vitamin/antioxidant component of the pumpkin is/are producing a positive response in these tests? After all, pumpkin is a natural source of beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A as needed for repairs and the like. Then the next question would be, are there meat sources that this can be derived from (since our babies are carnivores)? Another thought is, how does this correlate with hypoglycemia? Does pumpkin help them as well?

[On a half serious note, since diabetes runs in my family, I have to personally think this is why pumpkin pie is one of my favorite desserts .]

UPDATE:
Here's the abstract to study that examines one possible chemical component of Pumpkin that does good (looks like it is a kind of sugar(?polysaccaride) that is bound with protein that has this effect--what are the odds, protein has another benefit) www.springerlink.com/content/m7p65k1kr27q6407/

It looks to cause a hypoglycemic effect in order to reduce the glucose in the blood. This study is different than the ones you've listed so far, I think.

The problem with any science is too often one question leads to 10 or more.

[mustelidmusk]

There are a couple of theories/observation surrounding glucose and insulin. I'll start out wth a theory that is fairly well-accepted...

Theory states that insulinoma is caused by an overworked pancreas.

If that's true, then the following theories may have substancial merit...

Two of the older "standards" for evaluating food for diabetes include: (Please excuse my GROSS oversimplification here )
1. Glycemic Index - meaures the effects of carbs on blood sugar level
2. Glycemic Load - measures carb content based upon the glycemic index

A newer theory, which is hard to find info on measures insulin response. This is called the Insulin index, and it's pretty interesting because it demonstrates that just because a food has mre carbs doesn't necessarily mean it will elicit the highest insulin response. here is a good article on it....
www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/66/5/1264.pdf

Of course, there's nothing on pumpkin in this article. But I wanted to think that pumpkn has a high glycemic index with a lower glycemic load.In addition, Inulin is not suppose to affect the blood sugar as much as some other sugars.

Also, you may want to read the sticky thread on insulinoma under the medical section there are some good pots there as well.

-jennifer