Everyone is busy finding a balance from work, family, and other responsibilities,

that sometimes, they tend to forget about their health. As the Roman poet Virgil said

over 2000 years ago that is mentioned in the UN Environment Programme’s news on

2016, “The greatest wealth is health.” This gives large meaning to our life, as health is

considered the most valuable and precious for every individual. If you're healthy, your

healthy body can give you the strength and energy that can help you to achieve better

results in every aspect of your life and/or you can wish anything because you are

healthy. If you're not healthy, you only wish to have your health back. That's why

health is the foundation, and our greatest wealth and asset. But as the world pace walk

unsteadily, threats to human health emerged as well.

The WHO report says millions of people lead unhealthy lifestyles, and thus it

leads to some health problems, and having high blood sugar levels is one of them.

Having high sugar level can increase risks to develop a serious form of diabetes.

Blood glucose is the main sugar found in your blood. Glucose is a sugar that comes

from the foods we eat, and it's also formed and stored inside the body. It's the main

source of energy for the cells of our body, and it's carried to each cell through the

bloodstream. Having too much glucose in your blood can cause serious problems so it

is best to keep your blood sugar in a target range since it can be a key part of diabetes

self-management and hyperglycemia.

Hyperglycemia is the medical word for high blood sugar levels. High blood

sugar levels happen when the body either can't make insulin (type 1 diabetes) or can't

respond to insulin properly (type 2 diabetes). According to the World Health

Organization (WHO), one of the most leading cause of death worldwide is diabetes.
Between 2000 and 2016, there was a 5% increase in premature mortality from

diabetes; 2.2 million deaths were attributable to high blood glucose (hyperglycemia)

in 2012 (WHO, 2018); and in 2019, diabetes was the ninth leading cause of death

with an estimated 1.5 million deaths directly caused by diabetes. A recent record on

2021, according to IDF Diabetes Atlas, there is approximately 537 million adults (20-

79 years) are living with diabetes. The total number of people living with diabetes is

projected to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045.

In Philippines, a 2008 review in the Philippine Journal of internal Medicine

found that about 14.2% of the population in the Philippines already live with the risk

of pre-diabetes, or have hyperglycemia or high blood sugar levels. With the current

population now over 100 million, local experts estimate that we should have more

than 5 million diagnosed diabetics. A similar number will likely remain undiagnosed

or have prediabetes. In the 2013 National Nutrition Survey (NNS), prevalence of high

fasting blood glucose (FBG) in the Philippines has increased rapidly from 3.4% to

5.6% since 2003 to 2013, while the prevalence of impaired fasting blood glucose

almost doubled from 2.7% to 4.3% since 2003 to 2013 (Castillo, 2018).

In its website, the Handicap International – a co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize –

reported in 2015 that “more than 32,000 residents were screened for diabetes-related

risks using the CVD (Cardiovascular Diseases) Project’s risk assessment tool in their

intervention areas within the Davao Region since 2014.” The data were gathered from

the Davao City Health Office and various municipal health centers in the region.

Around 18,000 or 55% among them were from Davao City while the remaining 45%

or about 14,000 people were residents from the remaining seven intervention areas of
the project. The Philippine Center for Diabetes Education Foundation, Inc. – also

known as Diabetes Center – discloses that 50% of those suffering from diabetes do

not know they have the disease. As what was reported by the Diabetes Philippines

(formerly Philippine Diabetes Association), children as young as 5-years old have

been diagnosed with diabetes. Thus, this alarms experts as Filipinos are diagnosed

with diabetes are getting younger.

Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the efficiency of Makahiya (Mimosa

pudica) extract in lowering the blood sugar level.