Natural Remedies for Diabetes

In my earlier post, I explained that supplemental insulin can cause people who are trying to manage diabetes to gain weight.  Sadly enough, weight gain isn’t the only downside of insulin use.

Another strike against insulin is its tendency to increase your risk of hypertension.

Taiwanese researchers looked at more than 87,000 patients with type 2 diabetes who were treated with either oral drugs or insulin. They found that patients managing diabetes using insulin had a higher prevalence of hypertension (61.3 versus 53.9 percent), and the longer they used it, the greater their risk.

This is not surprising when you consider insulin’s activities beyond nutrient storage.

Injected insulin increases sodium retention and stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. It induces oxidative stress, leading to free-radical damage that impairs the function of the endothelial cells lining the arteries. It also has growth factor–like activity that thickens blood vessels and increases risk of atherosclerosis, which also adversely affects blood pressure health.

Since people living with diabetes are already at dramatically increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, the last thing they need is a treatment that amplifies this risk.

I opt for more natural remedies for diabetes, many of which I’ll be discussing here in my blog. Please stay tuned.

Are you looking for natural remedies for diabetes?  If so, one thing you can do is maintain a healthy weight.

One of the most significant risk factors for type 2 diabetes is obesity. Statistics show that 90 percent of all people with type 2 diabetes are overweight. In fact, the link between diabetes
and obesity is so strong that it’s led to the coining of a new term, diabesity.

Where you store those extra pounds is also an issue. If you’re a person living with diabetes and you carry your weight in the abdominal area, you are at an even greater risk of insulin resistance and diabetes. That’s because abdominal fat is more metabolically active than fat stored in the hips or buttocks. It is more easily broken down into free fatty acids that enter the bloodstream, interfere with the action of insulin, and raise triglyceride and glucose levels.

The good news is, for most people, getting a handle on weight is all it takes to minimize diabetes risk factors.

One of the most significant risk factors for type-2 diabetes is obesity.

Statistics show that 90 percent of all people with type-2 diabetes are overweight. In fact, the link between diabetes and obesity is so strong that it’s led to the coining of a new term, diabesity.

Where you store those extra pounds is also an issue, in terms of your ability to control blood sugar. For example, if you carry the pounds in the abdominal area, you are at an even greater risk of insulin resistance and diabetes. That’s because abdominal fat is more metabolically active than fat stored in the hips or buttocks. It is more easily broken down into free fatty acids that enter the bloodstream, interfere with the action of insulin, and raise triglyceride and glucose levels.

The good news is, for most people, getting a handle on weight is a great way of beating diabetes. Check this blog often for tips on how to lose weight and other natural remedies for diabetes.

Just about anyone can develop type 2 diabetes, but research has shown that certain individuals seem to be more susceptible than others. Let’s take a look at two common type 2 diabetes risk factors.

Genetics

Some research has found that people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes typically have at least one close relative who has the disease. That being said, if you have a family history of diabetes, it is important that you take steps now to manage the risk factors that you can control so you can avoid diabetes and its complications.

Age

According to recent findings published by the CDC, the age bracket with the highest percentage of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes is the 60+ age group.

However, the CDC also found that of the approximate 1.6 million new cases of diabetes that
were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older in 2007, most of them (approx. 819,000)
occurred in those aged 40–59 years.

Furthermore, while there are no firm statistics available, more and more young adults and children are now being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes—a disease that has historically been confined to adults aged 40 years and older.

Additional diabetes risk factors will be discussed in future blog postings.  I’ll also be sharing natural remedies for diabetes.  Stay tuned.

It's always nice to be proven right, particularly when it concerns health advice that actually changes people's lives.

As has happened so often over the years, Dr. Whitaker's core recommendation of supplementing with cinnamon daily as a natural way to control blood sugar continues to rack up additional clinical support, the latest from a recent study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

This study sought to determine whether cinnamon could help lower hemoglobin A1C in patients with type 2 diabetes. The randomized, controlled study followed patients for 90 days, with the cinnamon group using 1g cinnamon daily (curiously, the same amount Dr. Whitaker has been recommending for years...).

The result: Cinnamon users lowered their hemoglobin A1C by .83 percent, compared to .37 percent with standard treatment alone.

Said another way, adding cinnamon doubled the effectiveness of the basic treatment.

This may not sound that significant, but lowering your A1C is critically important for anyone with diabetes. A hemoglobin A1c test measures the level of glycated hemoglobin in the blood, the result of blood sugar (glucose) attaching to hemoglobin. As your A1C rises, so does your likelihood of diabetes complications, like vision problems, cardiovascular or kidney disease, circulatory and nerve imparement, and stroke.

When it comes to natural remedies for diabetes, cinnamon is pretty hard to beat. It's cheap, readily available, safe, and as the research continues to prove, effective.