Natural Diabetes Cure

The Chinese mentioned cinnamon in their written work more than 4,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians used cinnamon in their embalming process, and the Roman writer/philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote in the first century AD that cinnamon was worth 15 times more than silver of the same weight.

In Medieval times, physicians used cinnamon for such ailments as sore throats. Later, Portugal, Holland, France and England vied for ownership of the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where the world’s cinnamon was grown. But those rivalries ended in the early 1800s when the cinnamon monopoly dissolved after it was discovered that the spice could be grown in many other areas.

In the West today when most people think of cinnamon they immediately think about that most unhealthy, but delicious, pastry, the cinnamon roll. However, in the past few years cinnamon has been making a comeback in its old “roll” as a medication. Is cinnamon a substance with medicinal properties germane to the treatment of hyperglycemia? If so, is it safe? If it is safe and effective, how and when should it be taken? These aforementioned questions are worth answering.

Cinnamon and Glucose

Several mechanisms by which cinnamon might lower glucose have been proposed. Cinnamon may have an insulin-like effect, causing glucose to be stored in the form of glycogen. In one study of rats, cinnamon reportedly caused an increase in a compound IRS-1, which is responsible for increasing glucose uptake in muscle tissue. Cinnamon has also been reported to cause an increase in the transporter mechanisms (GLUT-4) that take glucose out of the blood stream and into tissue. Cinnamon has also been cited as having a number of other properties that might contribute to any hypoglycemic effect that it might have.

Cinnamon and Diabetes

The most often-cited study on the effects of cinnamon and diabetes was published in the journal Diabetes Care in 2003 by Khan and colleagues. This study evaluated 60 people with type 2 diabetes around the age of 50. They were divided into six groups of 10 patients each. Groups 1 through 3 were treated with 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon daily, respectively. Groups 4 through 6 received a placebo.

Treatment with cinnamon or placebo lasted for 40 days. Researchers analyzed both groups’ fasting glucose, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol. No changes in the placebo group were observed over the 40-day period. However, in the cinnamon groups reductions in fasting glucose (down18 percent to 29 percent), triglycerides (down 23 percent to 30 percent), LDL cholesterol (down 7 percent to 27 percent) and total cholesterol (down 12 percent to 26 percent) were reported. If this were the end of the story, and if high-dose, long-term cinnamon was known to be safe, then perhaps cinnamon therapy would be widely recommended. Unfortunately, the picture is not quite so clear.