Doctors may soon turn to the spice rack in an attempt to curb diabetes.
New research shows that cinnamon or cinnamon extract can lower blood glucose in people with Type 2 diabetes and/or prediabetes.
The data - complied through a meta-analysis of eight human clinical trials - also showed that water extracts of cinnamon might help more than whole cinnamon. The extracts, which use only cinnamon, water, heat and pressure, create concentrated levels of specific procyanidins believed to be the active ingredients in promoting healthy glucose levels.
The information was published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods, as the study "Cinnamon Intake Lowers Fasting Blood Glucose: Meta-Analysis." It was conducted by Paul A. Davis, Department of Nutrition, University of California – Davis, and Wallace H. Yokoyama, Western Regional Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Researchers Paul A. Davis and Wallace H. Yokoyama said their results "show that consuming cinnamon, especially cinnamon extract, does produce a modest but statistically significant lowering in Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG)."
Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, according to information from the National Institute of Health.
Davis and Yokoyama said that with 300 million people affected by diabetes globally, "the epidemic of type 2 diabetes worldwide has resulted in a pressing need to explore low-cost therapeutic approaches that reduce diabetes risk."
CinSulin was the cinnamon extract used in three of the four studies evaluated in the meta-analysis. Available in the U.S. since 2004, it is used by several supplement manufacturers including VitaTech International, Inc., a health sciences formulation and manufacturing company with a 57-year history of serving the natural products Industry.
