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Cinnamon Helps Stop Type 2 Diabetes

By Mike Hodge
The AntiWrinkle Shop


American scientists have claimed that a teaspoon of
cinnamon a day may help prevent the onset of diabetes.

The common spice could help millions of sufferers of
Type II, non-insulin dependent diabetes. This condition
usually develops in middle-age and prematurely kills
100 million people around the world every year. Type II
diabetes causes cells to lose their ability to respond
to insulin, the hormone that tells the body to remove
excess glucose in the bloodstream. If glucose builds up
in the blood, tiredness, weight-loss and blurred vision
are some of the resulting symptoms. In extreme cases
this can lead to blindness, heart disease and premature
death.

Data from the Agricultural Research Unit in Maryland
was first published in the New Scientist in August
2000. The researchers found that cinnamon rekindled the
ability of fat cells in diabetics to respond to insulin
and greatly increased glucose removal. It is believed
that a substance in cinnamon called MHCP is the main
reason for its beneficial results.

When mice were given MHCP, their glucose levels fell
dramatically and tests on humans have begun this year.
The researchers are so confident that cinnamon will
have the same dramatic effect of reducing insulin
tolerance in humans they recommend that type II
diabetics should take a quarter to one full teaspoon of
cinnamon per day.

Many Type II diabetics have already found a new feeling
of well-being and improvement in health by using this
simple cinnamon supplementation in their diet. Cinnamon
has long been known as an "energizing" spice, and it is
likely that increasing the intake of this common and
cheaply available food will benefit even non-diabetics,
if used as a daily energizing tonic.

The insulin resistance that leads to type II diabetes
develops relatively slowly as the body ages and even
those who have not yet experienced severe symptoms may
have some degree of elevated insulin resistance.

Cinnamon is also a rich source of magnesium, which is
essential for maintaining bone density, electrolyte
balance, certain enzyme functions and many other
crucial biochemical processes. Magnesium is also linked
to the more dramatic forms of diabetes that occur
earlier in life.

Much research has been carried out to establish a
metabolic defect in diabetics that prevents the
absorption of magnesium. As cinnamon provides a readily
available source of MHCP, magnesium and possibly other
beneficial substances it seems like a very cost-
effective way of offsetting future health problems
related to glucose/insulin imbalances as we grow older.

Cinnamon can be bought inexpensively in a convenient
powdered form at almost any food shop and taking it
couldn't be easier: just use up to a teaspoon a day in
milkshakes or fruit juice.

I personally take a half-teaspoon daily in this way
every morning and can confirm a distinct energy
benefit. Diabetics should always inform their doctor
before taking cinnamon as it may affect medication
requirements.

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