Q. I am continually intrigued by all the various home remedies I read in your column. As a borderline diabetic, I am especially interested in non-drug approaches to help keep my blood sugar under control. What can you tell me about cinnamon or any other herbs that might be helpful?
A. There are a number of natural products that can help lower blood sugar, and cinnamon is one of them. Several studies have shown improved insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control with this spice.
You can find more details about cinnamon and other non-drug approaches to blood glucose control in our book, The People’s Pharmacy Quick and Handy Home Remedies. Last year a report showed increased improvement when test subjects took a cinnamon extract over a longer period of time (Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Feb., 2009). The overweight volunteers took either 250 mg of a cinnamon extract (Cinnulin PF) or a placebo twice daily.
