Research indicates that cinnamon plays a role in promoting healthy glucose metabolism and cardiovascular health*, as well as assisting in weight management. According to a recent study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, a daily dose of Cinnamon can reduce blood sugar levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease in people suffering from type 2 diabetes. Some physicians have suggested a spoonful of cinnamon in your coffee every day.
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.
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