A drink to treat diabetes

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At the age of 16, Vivian Guadalupe Badillo Hernández

is a direct witness of her mother’s diabetes . Her experience has led her to develop a project called “Opuntia Ficus Indica,” which consists of a beverage that can aid in the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2 , reducing glucose levels in the bloodstream.

According to a press release, Vivian obtained the 2018 State Youth Award in the State of Mexico for her invention.

In an interview, Vivian Guadalupe told that the person who served as a “guinea pig” to test the beverage was her mother, who helped her experiment with the glucose-lowering drink, which is made out of prickly pears (tunas) and paddle cactus (nopales) .

Badillo Hernández is on her fifth semester of high school at an attached school of the Normal School of Teotihuacán and it was her interest in helping people who suffer from diabetes that inspired her to join a science workshop called “Generando Ciencia.”

Her project’s primary raw materials are prickly pears and paddle cactus, which are grown at the Pyramid region.

The high school student thanked the support provided by the State of Mexico Youth Institute (IMEJ) , which allowed her to participate in the State Youth Award competition , which aims to promote quality education, culture, and art.

“This project brought me closer to many young talents that I never thought I’d meet. I understood that there are no limits to life, and you have to decide how far you want to go,” she commented.

Her mother, Magdalena Hernández Aguilar , works as a lab technician, while her father, Ubaldo Badillo Beltrán , is an elementary school teacher. Her brother, Ulises Guadalupe Badillo Hernández , studies Medicine at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) .

Vivian’s project led her to participate at the Mexican Science and Engineering Fair 2017 , organized by the State Council of Science and Technology (COMECYT) , where she competed against 180 projects and was a finalist.

On November 2017, she participated at Ciencia Joven’s Seventh Science Cup in the state of Puebla , where she won a certification to assist the Congress of Young Researchers in Salamanca, Spain . Unfortunately, she was unable to attend due for reasons of health.