Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. 12 patient with type 2 diabetes improved their blood vessel health and potentially reduced their overall cardiac risk by supplementing their diets with 56 grams of walnuts per day for 8 weeks.
Introduced to the Americas by Spanish explorers in the 1700s (1), walnuts are now the second largest nut crop produced in the U.S. (second only to almonds). Now a new study (2) has found that walnuts may help blood vessel health in diabetics. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that more than 24 million Americans have diabetes and this condition now costs our healthcare system more than $174 billion per year (3).
In the study, 24 patients with an average age of 58 years followed a diet that included 56 grams (366 calories) of walnuts or no walnuts per day for 8 weeks. Before and after the study, researchers measured the patients’ blood vessel circulation (called “flow mediated dilation” (4)). They also measured the patients’ blood samples for changes in plasma lipids, a protein marker of diabetes called HbA1c, blood sugar (5), insulin sensitivity, and body mass.
By the end of the 8 weeks, those in the walnut group had “significantly improved” blood vessel circulation compared to the placebo group. Specifically, those in the walnut group had a 2.2% increase in flow-mediated dilatation compared to 1.2% in the placebo group. Regarding the factors measured in the blood samples, no statistically significant differences were seen between the two groups.
For the researchers, “A walnut-enriched ad libitum diet improves [blood vessel health] in type 2 diabetics, suggesting a potential reduction in overall cardiac risk.”
Source: Ma, Yingying, et al. “Effects of walnut consumption on endothelial function in type 2 diabetic subjects.” Diabetes Care 33.2 (2010): 227-232.
© 2010 by the American Diabetes Association. http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Click here to read the full text study.
Posted January 11, 2010.
Reference:
- “Commodity Highlights: Walnuts” posted on the USDA Website.
- Ma Y. Effects of Walnut Consumption on Endothelial Function in Type 2 Diabetics: A Randomized, Controlled, Cross-Over Trial. Diabetes Care 2009 Oct 30. [Epub ahead of print.
- Number of People with Diabetes Continues to Increase” from the CDC Website.
- Malte K. Flow-mediated dilatation in human circulation: diagnostic and therapeutic aspects Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 282: H1-H5, 2002.
- “HbA1C” posted on the Medline Plus website.
