The best natural diabetes treatment and the best herbal diabetes treatment is open to debate. There are many natural treatments for diabetes. Some are mineral and vitamin based and many are herbal treatments. Some are shown to be more effective than others for most diabetes sufferers, however the response to any treatment will depend on the individual. Dramatic results are sometimes claimed by one person while others find minimal, if any, effect.
Use Natural Treatments for Diabetes with Caution
Before looking at specific natural treatments, a word of caution is in order. As a rule, if you intend taking any natural treatment for diabetes, it is recommended that you consult your doctor. This is particularly important if you are taken prescription drugs for diabetes, as certain substances can have unwanted reactions when taken with others. This applies to prescription drugs taken with other prescription drugs, prescription drugs taken with natural treatments, or when multiple natural treatments for diabetes are followed without any pharmaceuticals.
The results of mixing drugs can be serious. If it is not adequately managed and controlled, type 2 diabetes can be a life threatening condition. Mixing incompatible substances can accentuate the seriousness of the disease.
It is wise to keep a record of everything you are taking, even something like vitamins and dietary supplements that are being taken for reasons other than to treat diabetes.
Involving Your Doctor is Essential
You may be reticent about telling your doctor what about your non-prescription treatments and supplements that you are taking. There are still some doctors that don’t approve of anything being taken other prescription drugs, however their numbers are thinning as most medical practitioners these days are aware of the effects, good and bad, of most common natural treatments and supplements. If your doctor behind the times, find another one.
Getting back to specific treatments, although there have been many studies over the years there has never been a broad based study to find the ‘best’ treatment by comparing the effectiveness of all herbal and natural treatments employed to control diabetes.
It the Most Polar Treatment for Diabetes the Best?
The ‘best’ treatment for any individual suffer will depend on that person’s response to the different treatments. However, one way of looking at the issue is to gauge which are the most popular herbal and natural treatments for diabetes. The logic behind that approach is that these types of treatments are not usually prescribed by a health care professional. That is, they are used and continue to be used through personal choice. If a person is not getting desirable results from a particular treatment it won’t be used and, across all diabetics sufferers, ineffective treatments will fall out of favour.
By that logic the most often mentioned natural treatments for diabetes are likely to be the best, most effective, across the population of diabetics as a whole.
The Three Best Natural Treatments for Diabetes
The three most common types of herbal supplements and natural treatments for diabetes based on word of mouth effectiveness appear to be ginseng, magnesium and chromium.
Ginseng
This is perhaps the most commonly used natural treatment for diabetes and has a history of use going back for generations. There is now an ample body of evidence from many studies that ginseng does lower blood sugar levels, particularly if the blood sugar level is at the high end of the scale to begin with.
Ginseng controls the level of glycosylated haemoglobin which is responsible for maintaining blood sugar at normal levels. While there are different types of ginseng and some studies have found some variations in the effectiveness of one type over another, the difference in effect on blood sugar levels between different types of ginseng are not worth worrying about.
You may read reports of studies and scientific evidences that have shown that Panax Quinquefolius ginseng, which is commonly known as American ginseng, is the best ginseng for diabetes treatment. This has been shown in some groups of sufferers but more recent studies are showing that the differences in the level of benefit experienced by diabetics using different types of ginseng is not worth worrying about
One thing clouding the issue is the variation in responsiveness from individual to individual. The main point to remember is that all types of ginseng, if used responsibly, should help treat diabetes.
Magnesium
Magnesium is an important mineral for a vast range of bodily functions. As a natural treatment for diabetes the importance of magnesium is that its effect is felt more by its absence than by increasing consumption beyond normal levels.
It’s when magnesium levels drop below normal that type 2 diabetes can worsen. Maintaining adequate levels of magnesium can help control diabetes both directly and indirectly.
Magnesium aids in controlling blood glucose levels which has a direct effect on diabetes. It also assisting by maintaining general health, thereby preventing other health issue that may accentuate diabetic symptoms. Depending on which source you use, magnesium is required in 280 to 310 biochemical processes in the human body. Everything from heart function, to bone health and the immune system is dependent on maintaining adequate levels of magnesium in the body.
Chromium
The body’s response to insulin requires several agents to take effect. One factor required is a certain level of the trace mineral chromium, which is required by the body to metabolise fats and carbohydrates.
However, not all types of chromium are beneficial. In particular, chromium picolinate should NOT be taken as it is document to have adverse reactions in some persons.
The focus on chromium as a supplement to enhance the metabolism or processing of glucose goes back to the 1950s, after studies of diabetes in animals claimed that brewer’s yeast had a property that prevented diabetes. Further studies isolated this factor as a form of trivalent chromium. These studies showed that supplementing chromium in diabetic mice lowered their blood sugar levels. In humans the studies also showed the same relationship, however, the improvement in blood sugar levels was greater in diabetics that showed a chromium deficiency than for those whose chromium levels were closer to normal.
Key Lifestyle Factors
One of the traps that we fall into in our modern society is that when something is not right with our bodies we generally look to take something for it. The range of prescription drugs we have in our arsenal is extensive. When we add to that all the herbal and other natural treatments at our disposal the numbers are mindboggling.
As with all medical conditions, when we decide to follow a treatment plan, whether that involves prescription medicine or natural treatments, we should not forget about lifestyle factors.
There’s no point in popping a pill or taking a vitamin if our lifestyle sabotages the treatment.
To aid the effectiveness of any natural treatment for diabetes, in our lifestyles there are seven natural ways to reduce blood glucose levels.
There is No Holy Grail
The reason there are so many natural treatments held up as being effective in controlling diabetes highlights how complex the situation is and how variable individual responses are to different substances, whether natural or medicinal.
While we cannot say categorically that there is one single ‘best’ alternative, popular use of a treatment is an indication of widespread effectiveness. So, the three most popular treatments – ginseng, magnesium and chromium – do provide an individual suffering from the condition a starting point in their search for what is the best herbal or natural treatment for diabetes in their particular case.
