Many Herbs Help Diabetes

Diabetes is a major problem with almost one in ten people in the world having it. An even bigger problem is that almost half of those, 45%, don’t have their diabetes under control. One of the main reasons is because they can’t keep using their medications because of side effects. Safe, natural treatments for diabetes would be a huge solution. Well, there are lots of them.

Researchers recently set out to rank the herbal treatments for diabetes. It was an odd study because they only looked at meta-analyses of herbs to measure their effectiveness. That is odd because many herbs that are used for diabetes have had several studies but no meta-analysis.

None-the-less, this is what they found. HbA1c is the most important marker of long term blood sugar and diabetes control. Of the herbs that had had a meta-analysis, the most effective for lowering HbA1c were aloe vera juice, psyllium and fenugreek. Black seed and astragalus also led to statistically and clinically significant improvements in HbA1c. Other herbs that produced good results included bitter melon, ginger, cinnamon and olive oil.

When it came to reducing fasting blood glucose, the best herbs seemed to be psyllium, aloe vera, cinnamon, nettle, black seed, fenugreek and bitter melon.

The most effective for both HbA1c and fasting blood sugar seem to be aloe vera, psyllium, fenugreek and black seed.

The review also found that the effect of the most promising herbs was similar to the effect of drugs. That means that many of the herbs included in the review are as effective as, and safer than, drugs. Remember that there are many other important diabetes herbs that were not included in this review because the lack a meta-analysis.

All of the herbs were safe with most having no difference from the control group.

Front Pharmacol. 2021; 12: 777561