Diabetic Dietary Supplements – The Importance of Cinnamon and Huckleberry in Managing Diabetes
Medication, diet, and exercise have long been the main tools for dealing with diabetes. But an increasing number of diabetics are turning to natural supplements to help them stay as healthy as possible. These products contain a number of natural botanical ingredients that work together to enhance blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity. Two ingredients you will often find in a supplement are cinnamon bark and huckleberry.
Diabetes is a condition that is not always taken seriously enough. Many people don’t realize that it can eventually cause heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, nerve damage, and even some forms of cancer. Fortunately, many of these horrific complications can be avoided or minimized if you take the right actions.
As any doctor will tell you, controlling blood glucose is critical. In fact, it’s the primary challenge facing every diabetic. Yet it can be an ongoing struggle, and you may need all the help you can get. A diabetic supplement is something you can add to your recommended diet and exercise routines. When taken as directed, it can support healthy blood sugar and promote better overall health.
Cinnamon bark is rather well known as an aid to managing blood sugar and has been used as medicine for centuries in China and Egypt. Now modern researchers are taking note of cinnamon’s positive effects. It appears to lower blood sugar levels in diabetics. It can also be helpful to persons who have not been diagnosed with diabetes but who have high blood sugar, such as those with metabolic syndrome or pre-diabetes.
Huckleberry is another natural substance that can help decrease blood glucose. It’s been traditionally used by native Americans, but current research is demonstrating its effectiveness.
Of course, there are many other plant extracts that seem to be useful in normalizing sugar levels. For example, juniper berry and banaba leaf extract are attracting a lot of attention for their beneficial properties. You can expect to find several of these botanicals in any good diabetic nutritional supplement. It pays to review the product information before you buy, so you have confidence that you’re getting a variety of effective ingredients.
Frequently Asked Questions
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QUESTION:
~~What natural supplements can I take to for type 2 diabetes?
I am interested in attacking my type 2 diabetes with natural supplements. I currently take cinnamon, red rice yeast, biotin, folic acid as well as prescription meds Lovazza, Actos and Diovan (for high blood pressure). I would like to concentrate more on a holistic approach and get away from the ‘scripts.I’ve heard about turmeric for use as an anti-inflammatory and wonder if anyone has any experience with this for type 2?
Thanks very much!
My medical doctor is clueless about vitamins but has the attitude “if it works, go for it”.
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ANSWER:
The best holistic approach that you can take is a proper diet and regular exercise. A qualified herbalist or naturopathic physician can prescribe a tincture that has a mixture of several different herbs to help balance blood sugar levels, but the first place to start is your diet.If your MD does not know enough about a Low Glycemic Index diet then find a naturopathic physician to help you learn both what to eat and how to eat it. You can get a basic explanation of low glycemic index diets and how they work here: http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20081216/low-glycemic-index-diet-for-diabetes
A healthier diet will also help you to lower both your blood pressure and your weight.
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QUESTION:
I have a family history of Diabetes and I would like to try to avoid it.?
What are some ways I can do so other than diet/exercise? I recently began taking cinnamon supplements because i read that it can help with blood sugar. any other suggestions?-
ANSWER:
That’s a variation of the question I asked my doctor last year.I asked, ‘was there anything I could have done to avoid diabetes, given my strong family history of diabetes?’
He said no. After a while he added, ‘well maybe if you were a professional athlete and ran 100 miles a day, that *might* have prevented it, but the minute you stopped running 100 miles a day, the diabetes would have emerged.’
Up until my diagnosis, I’d had touched sugar in 15 years, was a normal BMI, walked everywhere, and did not eat any type of refined carb.
That wasn’t enough for me to prevent diabetes.
I’m not saying it will be the same for you, but the truth is that diabetes is highly genetic. Don’t beat yourself up for having chosen the wrong grandparents.
No one can say if you can avoid it but it would not be a bad idea to live your life as if you already have diabetes. Regular exercise is good for everybody. As for diet, you will find that a healthy diabetic diet may not be what you have been taught ‘healthy’ means. A healthy diabetic diet is one that does not raise blood sugar levels. Carbs are the food that most raise blood sugar levels, so a diabetic diet should be low in carbs.
BTW, Pa is giving you the wrong information. The glycemic index was tested on non-diabetics, and does not always apply to diabetics. Many diabetics find that it is the total carbohydrate count that is more important than the type of carbohydrate. All carbohydrate becomes pure sugar in the blood in any case. Also, rice is extremely high in carb, doesn’t matter if it is white or brown.
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QUESTION:
Do I have diabetes? Over consumption of white rice,bread and soda?
When I eat foods that contains carbohydrates such as white rice and bread, I do get some tingly sensations and in my feet and sometimes the hands and my body itches. I used to consume a lot of soda but have reduced it ever since I noticed these signs. I have not visited a doctor yet, because I don’t have any health insurance. I have been using Garlic Oil and Cinnamon supplements and it helps but I believe I still need help. Should I stop eating white rice and white bread all out? I am confused. What should I do?
Can anybody recommend any hospital/clinic that I can go for free diabetes or medical check up for treatment if these symptoms are signs that I have the disease?-
ANSWER:
It could be possible that you have diabetes, but it is NOT the food you are eating that has made it develop. Food does NOT cause diabetes. It is caused when the pancreas does not function properly, and the body does not use the insulin correctly. Most of the type diabetes is genetic. Eating rice, which is very high in carbohydrates can make the blood sugars go very high if you are a diabetic. Garlic oil and Cinnamon do nothing significant to control high blood sugars. According to many studies and trials, they do nothing significantly enough to even record the data gathered. All though a few people claimed to have a little lower blood sugar readings, (a few points) they too had no significant changes in their readings. It is mostly hype caused by the manufacturers ….as usual….so people buy the product. Here are some of the more common symptoms of both types of diabetes. If you are having symptoms, please have your doctor test you.
Constant thirst
Frequent urination
Sweet smelling urine
Constant hunger
Blurry vision
Leg cramps
Headaches
Nausea or vomiting
Irritability
Reoccurring yeast infections in women
Itching penis and genital area in men (male yeast infection)
Itching skin with no rash
Frequent boils
Slow healing wounds
Fatigue
Burning, tingling sensations in hands, arms, feet, or legs
If you are a diabetic, you will have to use a diet that is low in carbs. You need to find a doctor at a free clinic and there are also clinics that charge according to income.. There are also drug companies that will help you with the cost of your medications. You cannot take on diabetes without a doctor, so please, even if you have to intitally go to one and pay cash for the visit, see a doctor……..Brown rice still has a lot of carbs in it…it just has a little more fiber and nutrition in it….it is still something that should be eaten in moderation.
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QUESTION:
What are some good things to take for diabetes?
What is something good to take for people that are prediabetic and diabetic????What foods, supplements, or other things help with sugar and fat metabolism???
one example i have is cinnamon,it helps with sugar metabolism
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ANSWER:
excersize.
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