Diabetes: Cinnamon, Insulin, Blood Sugar

Diabetes cinnamon

Diabetes: Cinnamon may be more than a spice -- it may have a medical application in preventing and combating diabetes.

Cinnamon may help by playing the role of an insulin substitute in type II diabetes, according to cellular and molecular studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Cinnamon itself has insulin-like activity and also can potentiate the activity of insulin," said Don Graves of UCSB. "The latter could be quite important in treating those with type II diabetes. Cinnamon has a bio-active component that we believe has the potential to prevent or overcome diabetes."

The researchers have been studying the effects of cinnamon on obese mice, which have been fed water laced with cinnamon at Sansum's lab [Sansum Diabetes Research Institute].

Using nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy, the researchers obtained results which allowed them to describe the chemical structure of a molecule with "insulin-like" activity in cinnamon. Graves and others reported earlier that this [cinnamon] compound, a proanthocyanidin, can affect insulin signaling in fat cells.

Richard Anderson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a former Graves student and the discoverer of the insulin-like activity, recently completed a human study with associates in Pakistan using cinnamon. Promising results were obtained by 30 test subjects with type II diabetes after only 40 days of taking cinnamon. They had a significant decrease in blood glucose [blood sugar], triglycerides, LDL, and cholesterol.

The researchers hope that a human trial may begin in the US, possibly in Santa Barbara, using cinnamon and its water-soluble extract to treat type II diabetes. Source: " Cinnamon May Help to Alleviate Diabetes Says UCSB Researcher," see: http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=1123

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diabetes cinnamon