Dr Paul Clayton 2004
Diabetic patients are more prone to blood clots, which contributes to their increased risk of cardiovascular complications. Blood clots can cause strokes, heart attacks and other life-threatening problems which is why diabetics are, on average, around four times as expensive in terms of health care resources as nondiabetics. This is bad news for health care costs because diabetes is increasing rapidly, up by one-third during the 1990s alone. There are currently more than 194 million people with diabetes worldwide and if nothing is done to slow the epidemic, the number will exceed 333 million by 2025, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
Long before we get to that point, however, our health care spending will have spiralled out of control and effectively bankrupted many Western governments. Fifty years of pharmaceutical research have done nothing to halt or even slow this pending catastrophe, which is why we desperately need natural treatments, preventive strategies and cures.
Tomato juice and tomato extracts will probably play an important role in this new approach to diabetes, according to recent Australian research(1).
The team from the University of Newcastle (the Australian Newcastle, that is) found that in diabetics who drank 250ml of tomato juice every day for 21 days, platelet aggregation was significantly lowered, thus reducing their risk of clotting.
Tomato juice contains many bio-active substances, not least of which is the anti-cancer compound lycopene; but it looks as if it is not lycopene that reduces the clotting risk, but something else; I think it is very likely to be one or more of the flavonoids found in tomatoes, such as chlorogenic acid.
If the Australian research is corroborated by larger studies, tomato juice will be a must for all diabetics; and it will likely also find a role in protecting other people with increased clotting risks such as smokers, long-distance travellers and patients with existing heart disease.
References
JAMA, 292(7):805-6, Aug 18, 2004