SPIRULINA- A BOON FOR DIABETIC PATIENTS

Spirulina is blue green algae. It is simple, one celled form of algae that thrives in warm, alkaline fresh water bodies. The name spirulina is derived from the Latin word for helix or spiral; denoting the physical configuration of the organism when it forms swirling, Microscopic strands spirulina is being developed as the food of the future because of its amazing ability to synthesize high quality concentrated food more efficiently than any other algae. Most notably, Spirulina is 65 to 71 percent complete protein, with all essential amino acids in perfect balance. In addition, spirulina is one of the very few plant sources of Vit B12, usually found only in animal tissuesA teaspoon of spirulina supplies 21/2 times recommended daily allowance of vitamin B12 and contains more than twice the amount of this vitamin found in an equivalent serving of liver Spirulina also provides high concentrations of many other nutrients- amino acids, chelated minerals, pigment ions, rhamnose sugars (complex natural plant sugars), trace elements, enzymes in an easily assimilable form.Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of death in diabetes. A risk factor for cardiovascular disease is dyslipidaemia. Both hypertension and lipid disorder should be actively sought and treated in patients with diabetes. It has been found by research that dietary hyperlipidemia caused by high fructose diet was improved by spirulina feeding, accompanied by significant increase in the lipoprotein lipase activity in post heparin plasma in rats. The control of blood glucose, lipids and body weight are the three major factors in diabetes management.Spirulina is a boon for diabetics. Spirulina on regular intake is found to reduce the incidence of diabetic retinopathy. It is also found that on regular intake of spirulina non insulin diabetes mellitus responds on a long term basis. Spirulina will be helpful in controlling the long term cardiovascular complications and retinopathy as revealed by research. It becomes therefore necessary for a diabetic patient to supplement his diet with spirulina. Taking into account the various advantages that spirulina offers to diabetic patients it becomes important for spirulina to be taken by all diabetic patients. Taking spirulina as tablets or capsules has a low compliance level among patients due to psychological reasons and so our product stands to provide an advantage over the other existing formulations.