Herbal Treatment for Diabetes
Are there any herbal treatments for diabetes?
Once a person is diagnosed with diabetes, they must learn to cope with this disease for their entire lives. There are current treatments which improve the capability to metabolize glucose, prevent or help with complications and assure proper nutrition. The overall goals of treatment for diabetes are to prolong life and improve the quality of that life.
Since diabetes needs a lifetime of management, this disease can quickly become very expensive to control. Because of this ever increasing cost of management, there are drug companies which are currently investing millions into the search for a cure for this disease. They are also looking for new and better medications and many of these are herbal treatments that have been used in some cultures for years.
In this search for better medications, studies are being conducted on several root herbs found in the Amazon jungle with reported abilities to lower blood glucose levels, normalize the incidences of urination and the elimination of glucose in the urine of diabetics. In Brazil an herbal root, called Pfaffia has been used to treat symptoms of diabetes for years. Pata-de-vaca is also from Brazil and used as a treatment for diabetes.
In parts of Asia and China there are also herbs currently being studied which help with normalizing levels of blood glucose as well as other herbs which relieve the effects of the narrowing of blood vessels which is a complication that occurs with diabetes.
In traditional Chinese medicine, ginseng is an often used treatment for diabetes. Ginseng has been proven to increase the number of insulin receptors and also improve the release of insulin. It also seems to lower blood sugar. In recent studies, 200 mg per day of ginseng seems to improve the level of blood glucose and the level of energy for Type-2 diabetics.
Also in China, for years the goji berry has been used to also treat Type 2 diabetes. Currently in China, a research project is being conducted where diabetics are drinking a tea which is made from the goji berry. Results show that up to 62% of the diabetics in the study did have a decrease in blood glucose levels as well as over half of the subjects were able to control blood glucose levels with diet alone. Goji helps with the release of oxygen to the cells with an enzyme named 23BPG. This enzyme makes better use of available oxygen which seems to help reduce the symptoms caused by the narrowing of blood vessels in the legs, eyes, and other areas in the body of a diabetic.
Another study out of China is being conducted using the same goji berry with the blood of thousands of patients. Researchers claim that the goji berry makes blood of patients alkaline and this alkalinity changes and reverses all illness. The research claims that this alkalinity reverses cancer, high blood pressure, renal failure and every other illness associated with physical as well as mental health. Of course this is a tremendously huge claim. This claim is not published in any of the medical literature and I mention it here only to show how claims can be made with no medical literature to back it up. If there were any herbal substance that could actually cure and reverse all these diseases, I do believe it would have been front page news. Before you buy any herbal substances that make such claims, please do some research and reading before you spend your money.
There is another intriguing product coming out of China and is currently being used by the Asian Diabetes Association, the Beijing Red Cross Hospital as well as over 50 hospitals in China as a treatment for Type-2 diabetes. This product is an herbal substance called Yu Xiao San 8805.
Scientists believe that this substance restores pancreatic functions and increases beta cells. This substance has been clinically shown to slowly but effectively lower blood glucose levels.
Yu Xiao San 8805 has gone through testing in China and also the United States with fairly good results and is now being used by diabetics in approximately 50 different nations around the world. There has been no report of any allergic reactions or other adverse problems nor have there been any reports of any damage to the kidneys, liver or other organs.
The primary herbs of this new product are currently being patented to be sold in America as a health food supplement. When it is available, before you purchase it please discuss using it with your doctor or your pharmacist as often herbal substances will react adversely with other medications you may be taking.
A lot of drug research is being done in Asia because it is cheaper and it does not take as long to get a new drug to the market when research and clinical trials are held overseas. There is also a larger population to get research subjects from which also brings down the cost of clinical trials.
The studies are a search for the substances in these herbs and to reconstitute these ingredients in the lab. This is where new medications for the treatment of diabetes are designed. Some of these herbs may in the future be the new generation of medications which may be able to help people with disease management at a cheaper price.
Are there herbal cures for diabetes? Not right now but many herbs have been used for years in the treatment of diabetes to help control symptoms of diabetes and may hold the answers for better and cheaper medications to treat diabetes in the future.
