Understanding About Diabetes Herbal Medicine | Diabetes is now considered to be an epidemic in the United States. Millions of people suffer from this disease and the various health problems it causes, and many more are being diagnosed with some type of diabetes on a daily basis.
Despite common beliefs, though, diabetes can be treated successfully using herbal, natural, and alternative remedies. Some results are realized quickly, while others will take time. Keep in mind though, that it took time for your body to become diabetic to begin with.
Understanding natural and herbal treatments for diabetes requires you first have an understanding about how insulin works in your body. Insulin is secreted by a primary organ in your body known as the pancreas. When you eat food, carbohydrates enter into the body's blood stream. The pancreas then releases insulin in response to the detected level of glucose, or sugar in the blood.
Eating too much sugar and starch will cause extra insulin to be released very quickly. The extra insulin reduces the blood sugar levels very fast, and this is what makes you start feeling hungry again. The most common response is to actually have sugar cravings, because there is excess insulin in your system and it needs sugar to work on.
This process creates a high and low swing cycle with sugar levels in your body. You eat large amounts of sugar, which spikes your blood sugar, so your body takes immediate action to neutralize and utilize that sugar. This serves to drop your blood sugar levels rapidly.
When your blood sugar is low, the body screams at you that it needs food, and naturally the quickest way to raise your blood sugar is to eat more sugar. By doing this for many years, unfortunately, you can actually wear out your pancreas, and this causes it to stop producing insulin completely, or be unable to produce enough. This is when full fledged diabetes occurs.
The only known treatment for type 1 diabetes is insulin. There are no other agents, nutrients, chemicals, minerals, or elements that can replace insulin. A lot of people have died because they stopped taking their insulin. Herbal remedies can be used as a supplement, but they are recommended mainly for type 2 diabetes.
One self-prescribed nutrient is a combination of herbs called Sweet Eze. Some diabetics have reported that they were able to discontinue their diabetic medications after using Sweet Eze. Recent FDA data, however, suggests that there are some chemicals in Sweet Eze that aren't listed on the product label. In addition, there have been no clinical studies done to show that it is beneficial for treating type 2 diabetes.
There have been several reports on the ability of Fenugreek to lower blood sugar, and there have been studies that have confirmed these reports. Not much is known, however, about how this herbal remedy works to help control diabetes.
Toronto, the city where insulin was discovered, is considered a Mecca for herbal remedies used for treating diabetes. Ginseng is a herb that has been shown to lower blood glucose over an extended period, but researchers say that these findings are too premature to rely only on Ginseng for treating type 2 diabetes.
A significant difference in the effect of Ginseng was noted, depending on where it was purchased. Due to the fact that there is little or no standardization for the majority of herbal remedies, it's hard to be certain exactly what you are buying, and nearly impossible to consistently determine the proper dosages. Also, some of Ginseng's active ingredients have not yet been identified.
It's important to realize that there is no other treatment for type 1 diabetes, besides insulin. In addition, the use of herbal remedies for treating type 2 diabetes is not recommended by the American Diabetes Association, due to the lack of quality control. Certain Chines herbs were recently found to also contain prescription diabetic medications in an attempt to fool patients.
If you do decide to try herbal remedies, you should consult your doctor and a professional herbalist, so they can make appropriate adjustments to your current medications. A lot of people have paid the ultimate price for relying on unfounded remedies, and diabetes has a high mortality rate when not treated properly.
