 Cree Translation of Home page (with audio)
The CIHR Team in Aboriginal Antidiabetic Medicines is a multipartite project researching the antidiabetic effects of plants used by aboriginals and is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
"The CIHR Team in Aboriginal Antidiabetic Medicines aims to alleviate the devastating effects of Type II diabetes by carrying out the rigorous scientific evaluation of the antidiabetic activity of Cree medicinal plants used by Traditional Healers and identified by a novel ethnobotanical approach. The CIHR Team seeks to develop value-added natural health products (combining traditional knowledge and modern science) for the treatment and prevention of diabetes and its precursor obesity, through an innovative multidisciplinary approach that is culturally adapted to the needs and beliefs of the Canadian Aboriginal populations."
The project is conducted in close collaboration with the Cree of Eeyou Istchee in Northern Quebec ( James Bay area), a population with an adult incidence rate of Type II diabetes that has almost tripled in the last decade (currently approaching 20%).
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"The project involves phytochemistry, cell-based bioassays,animal models of diabetes, toxicological tests, nutritional strategies and clinical research. It also includes a health systems research component aiming to integrate Cree healing ways, such as medicinal plants, into diabetes health care offered to Cree diabetics. All aspects of our research program are community-based such that Elders and other community representatives are directly consulted and involved at every level. A major focus is thus placed on reciprocal knowledge translation. Finally, training of young Cree in Traditional Medicine is an important component of the project, as is networking with other aboriginal initiatives across Canada and abroad. " |
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