"This site changed my life...thanks for everything, Steph!" -Olivia, San Diego, CAThe Truth About Cinnamon and Blood Sugar Control
Filed under: Diet | 7 Comments »Last week, my best friend told me that cinnamon can help stabilize blood sugar levels. A quick search on Google revealed pages of claims that backed up her statement, claims like: “Cinnamon spice produces healthier blood!” and “Cinnamon Extract Spices Up Sugar Metabolism!” But before you charge out and start sprinkling cinnamon on your cereal, consider these facts.
A couple of major studies have found cinnamon to be beneficial to type II diabetics: a 2006 Swedish studyand a 2003 Pakistani study. The first study demonstrated a reduction in postprandial blood glucose due to a slight slow down in the stomach’s emptying rate. If the contents of the stomach empty more slowly, that could benefit reactive hypoglycemics. The findings of the second study suggested a small amount (1,3,or 6g of cinnamon per day) reduces blood glucose levels as well.
Unfortunately, several other studies have failed to reproduce the same promising results. One 2006 study from the Netherlands was published in the Journal of Nutrition under the heading “Cinnamon supplementation does not improve glycemic control in postmenopausal type 2 diabetes patients.”
Scientists at the Department of Agriculture are considering patenting their research on cinnamon extracts, which make cells more sensitive to insulin. This could be great news for diabetics, but consider this: while diabetes is caused by insulin resistance, reactive hypoglycemia can be caused by high insulin sensitivity…the exact opposite. Imagine already being insulin sensitive, and then taking a compound that magnifies your hypoglycemia issues!
As of today, The Mayo Clinic’s stance is that cinnamon is an unlikely candidate for having any future promise in the stabilization of blood sugar. I don’t to take a chance that my hard earned blood sugar stabilization with go down in a cloud of cinnamon dust, so for right now, I think I’ll spend my hard earned cash on some good ol’ fresh vegetables.
Related posts:
- Blood Sugar Support Supplements Part One
- Blood Sugar Support Supplements Part Two
- Does Vinegar Lower Blood Sugar?
- Vacation causes low blood sugar!
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Reactive Hypoglycemia
Greetings! I found your site today and I have insulin resistance and reactive hypoglycemia. Thanks for blogging on the topic.
I actually just purchased some cinnamon based on some things I had read about it helping control blood sugar. It was quite timely that you posted on it.
Thanks for visiting! Yes, I must admit I was disappointed about the whole cinnamon thing. I’ll keep an eye out on the research though to see if anything changes on the cinnamon front
Super. I subscribe to your RSS feed so I’ll be reading in the future
[...] 2009 | Author: Steph Kenrose | Filed under: Diet | I wrote a couple of days ago on the role of cinnamon and vinegar in a hypoglycemic diet. The results from my research on vinegar were encouraging, but [...]
There are two insulin phases. The first phase is almost immediately while eating, the second is one hour or more later.
According to a renowed endocrinologist, reactive hypoglycemia might be caused by a “resistant” and “deficient” first phase, generating a powerful second phase. In diabetes the pancreas is too impaired to generate a powerful second insulin phase response, but this is exactly what the body of a diabetic would attempt to do aftern the failing of the first insulin phase. If this is true, it means that reactive hypoglycemia is still a matter of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance, rather than an exaggerated insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.
The way Dr. Brun explained it to me was that RH caused by excess insulin sensitivity. Here’s an excerpt from his email:
” It is true that hypoglycemia can be due to hyperinsulinism… In this case insulin sensitivity is usually low, insulin response delayed and increased, so that glycemia decreases too much. By contrast, hypoglycemia can be the result of high insulin sensitivity, a situation which is on the opposite (lowered risk of diabetes).”
The first situation describes prediabetes (low insulin sensitivity), the second reactive hypoglycemia (high insulin sensitivity).
[...] already written an article on one of the more common supplements, cinnamon, but there are many [...]