Managing Diabetes with Natural Cures

The Prognosis On Natural Cures

Well-timed eating, balanced meals, healthy portion sizes, exercise, stress relief—these are the essential natural solutions to diabetes, but if you need a little something extra there are more natural treatment options.

Keep in mind, these approaches are not as well researched as traditional medications. Weigh the evidence for yourself and discuss with your doctor if you want to try them.

Investigating Herbal Alternatives

Some of the most promising alternative treatments for high blood sugar come from nature’s pharmacy, which isn’t surprising. Plants and herbs have long been part of traditional treatment for diabetes, and they may be the closest thing to “real” medicine in the entire alternative arsenal.

Bitter Melon: A Strong Vegetable

Although it’s a staple of Chinese and Indian cuisine, bitter melon lives up to its name—or names: It’s also known as bitter gourd, bitter apple, and bitter cucumber. Cultivated in tropical areas of Asia, Africa, and South America, it’s been used as a contraceptive, a treatment for psoriasis, and a variety of other purposes. Mainly, though, it’s been hailed for lowering blood sugar, and the fruit and seeds are loaded with chemicals that appear to have an impact on glucose or insulin.

Lab and animal studies suggest that bitter melon may work on several levels, such as boosting insulin secretion, improving the ability of cells to absorb glucose, and hindering the release of glucose from the liver. One of the largest studies of bitter melon in people with Type 2 diabetes lasted only two days, but it caused significant drops in blood sugar for 100 participants within hours of drinking suspended vegetable pulp. A number of smaller but longer trials have had similar results.

If you try it: You can get bitter melon at health food stores or Asian grocery stores in a variety of forms, including powder, extract, juice, and the raw vegetable. Herbalists often suggest taking it in juice (50 ml [2 oz]—is a typical daily dose), but if you don’t like the bitter taste, you may want to consider capsules instead; 3 to 15 g daily is usually recommended. Look for products that are made from the fruit or seeds—the apparent source of bitter melon’s effects—not the leaves or vine.

Bitter melon is widely used in Asia and appears to be safe for most adults, but it’s thought to interfere with fertility, so you shouldn’t take it if you’re pregnant or hoping to become pregnant. Keep it out of the reach of children: A number of reports suggest it’s toxic to young bodies, and at least one child is known to have died from drinking the juice.