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From: ironjustice on 30 Jul 2008 11:51
"germ layer"

Compound That Helps Rice Grow Reduces Nerve, Vascular Damage From
Diabetes
ScienceDaily (July 30, 2008) — You may want to soak your brown rice.

Researchers have found that a compound that helps rice seed grow,
springs back into action when brown rice is placed in water overnight
before cooking, significantly reducing the nerve and vascular damage
that often result from diabetes.

"You have to let it grow, germinate a little bit," says Dr. Robert K.
Yu, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and
Institute of Neuroscience at the Medical College of Georgia. "Some of
the active ingredients generated as a result of the germination
process are beneficial to you."

Germinated brown rice's ability to help diabetics lower their blood
sugar has been shown but how it works remained unknown. New research,
published online in the Journal of Lipid Research, shows the growth
factor acylated steryl glucosides or ASG, helps normalize blood sugar
and enzymes that are out-of-whack in diabetes.

"The advantage of knowing this key ingredient and its structure is we
can now make a ton of it; you don't have to rely on rice to produce it
or eating rice to get this beneficial effect," says Dr. Yu, the
paper's corresponding author.

Studies were done in animal models of type 1 diabetes with two
different blood sugar levels that reflect patients' varying blood
sugars. They were fed diets of white, brown or pre-germinated brown
rice. Unlike white rice, less-processed brown rice still has some of
the germ or growth structure that, after about 24 hours in water,
resumes activity. Scientists watched as the resurrected ASG, a growth
factor and lipid, helped normalize metabolism.

"When blood sugar levels increase, the metabolic balance changes,"
says Dr. Seigo Usuki, neurobiologist in the MCG School of Medicine and
the paper's first author. "Part of the way we know this growth factor
works is by increasing levels of good enzymes that are decreased in
diabetes."

Dr. Usuki is talking about enzymes such as ATPase, which help maintain
nerve membranes so they can conduct electricity and communicate.
Decrease of ATPase is a hallmark of the nerve damage that accompanies
diabetes. Also reduced in diabetes is homocysteine-thiolactonase, or
HTase, an enzyme that decreases levels of homocysteine, a known risk
factor for vascular disease. The liver produces a low level of
homocysteine but that level is elevated in diabetes while the enzyme
that controls it decreases. Unchecked, homocysteine makes oxidative
stress compounds that injure and kill cells. HTase is one way HDL, the
so-called "good cholesterol," helps protect blood vessels from
disease. A regular diet of pre-germinated brown rice diet helps get
both back to a healthier level.

Fancl Hatsuga Genmai Co., Ltd., in Yokohama, Japan, which funded the
studies and supplied the pre-germinated rice, already is working with
Dr. Usuki on a supplement that can provide consumers who prefer not to
soak – or eat – rice with the benefits of ASG.

The MCG research team reported in December 2007 in Nutrition &
Metabolism that pre-germinated brown rice was better at protecting
nerves from diabetes than un-soaked brown or white rice. They showed a
then-unidentified lipid helped protect the nerve membrane and increase
activity of HTase and the good cholesterol. Germination also is known
to increase levels of the neurotransmitter GABA, which is believed to
have many beneficial health effects such as lowering blood pressure,
improving cognition and lowering blood glucose levels. However the MCG
scientists have shown the lipid has a more powerful impact on HTase
activity.

The germ layer activated by soaking brown rice contains many vitamins
and minerals in addition to the bioactive ingredient that would be
beneficial to everyone, Dr. Yu says. The roughage of the rice grain
also is helpful.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adapted from materials provided by Medical College of Georgia.
Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of
the following formats:
APA

MLA Medical College of Georgia (2008, July 30). Compound That Helps
Rice Grow Reduces Nerve, Vascular Damage From Diabetes. ScienceDaily.
Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/
2008/07/080728192817.htm


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