Simple Cinnamon Improves Diabetes

Cinnamon is one of the most promising treatments for diabetes. And now a new study has added even more weight to the evidence for this surprisingly powerful herb. . . .

This double-blind study gave 173 people with high blood sugar either a placebo or 250mg of cinnamon extract twice a day for two months.

In the group of people taking cinnamon, fasting plasma glucose, 2-hour glucose, fasting insulin, and insulin resistance all went down significantly compared to the placebo group.

Diabetics are at increased risk for heart disease, so it is also important that the cinnamon extract lowered both total and the dangerous LDL cholesterol (the heart healthy HDL cholesterol went down in both groups). In the placebo group, blood pressure also went up during the study.

This study increases the already impressive evidence that cinnamon is an important diabetes herb. Other studies have also shown that cinnamon is superior to a placebo. Research has even shown that adding cinnamon improves the effect of diabetes drugs (Nutr Res 2012;32:408-12), and two meta-analysis of controlled research have shown that cinnamon is as good as the drug metformin ( J Med Food 2011;14:884-9; Ann Fam Med 2013;11:452-9).

 J Tradit Complement Med 2015;doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2015.03.005

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For more on healthy eating for diabetes, see Linda’s newest book, The All-New Vegetarian Passport: a comprehensive health book and cookbook all in one.

For much more on preventing and treating diabetes, see our book, The Family Naturopathic Encyclopedia.