Diabetes Study Examining Traditional Cree Medicine
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 14:54
A University of Montreal professor is looking to traditional medicines to help curb Type 2 diabetes.
Pierre Haddad and his research team of 16 people are working with two Cree communities in northern Quebec.
He says they have spoken to elders about what kinds of traditional plants and herbs have been used to treat symptoms of diabetes.
Haddad says members of his team are currently looking at how to balance eventually publishing their findings with protecting the elders’ traditional knowledge.
He notes the elders want to protect themselves, but they also want the greater good — helping people who are suffering from diabetes in Aboriginal communities across Canada.
He says both modern science and traditional medicine have their strengths and weaknesses. But Haddad believes if the two approaches can be integrated, researchers should come away with a treatment that’s “more than the sum of the two”.
Haddad says, so far, their results have been tested in a laboratory and will now be tested at the community level.
He hopes there will be a product in the next couple of years.