Cinnamon Can Lower Blood Sugar
What It Is
Cinnamomum cassia is the dried bark of evergreen trees cultivated throughout Asia, though we know it best as the powder that flavors apple pie and other goodies.
What Traditional Medicine Says
As early as 2700 BC, Chinese herbalists treated diarrhea and kidney disorders with cinnamon. Later, Greek healers and practitioners of Indian Ayurvedic medicine valued it as a remedy for digestive problems.
What We Know
Cinnamon may help lower cholesterol and triglycerides. Pakistani researchers gave 60 type 2 diabetics with borderline-high lipid levels a daily placebo pill or one with 1 to 6 g of cinnamon. After 40 days, those in the cinnamon group saw their cholesterol levels fall by at least 13% and their triglyceride levels by at least 23%. The placebo had no effect.
What It Is
Cinnamomum cassia is the dried bark of evergreen trees cultivated throughout Asia, though we know it best as the powder that flavors apple pie and other goodies.
What Traditional Medicine Says
As early as 2700 BC, Chinese herbalists treated diarrhea and kidney disorders with cinnamon. Later, Greek healers and practitioners of Indian Ayurvedic medicine valued it as a remedy for digestive problems.
What We Know
Cinnamon may help lower cholesterol and triglycerides. Pakistani researchers gave 60 type 2 diabetics with borderline-high lipid levels a daily placebo pill or one with 1 to 6 g of cinnamon. After 40 days, those in the cinnamon group saw their cholesterol levels fall by at least 13% and their triglyceride levels by at least 23%. The placebo had no effect.
Cinnamon's unique healing abilities come from three basic types of components in the essential oils found in its bark. These oils contain active components called cinnamaldehyde, cinnamyl acetate, and cinnamyl alcohol, plus a wide range of other volatile substances.
Anti-Clotting Actions
Cinnamaldehyde (also called cinnamic aldehyde) has been well-researched for its effects on blood platelets. Platelets are constituents of blood that are meant to clump together under emergency circumstances (like physical injury) as a way to stop bleeding, but under normal circumstances, they can make blood flow inadequate if they clump together too much.
The cinnaldehyde in cinnamon helps prevent unwanted clumping of blood platelets. (The way it accomplishes this health-protective act is by inhibiting the release of an inflammatory fatty acid called arachidonic acid from platelet membranes and reducing the formation of an inflammatory messaging molecule called thromboxane A2.)
Cinnamon's ability to lower the release of arachidonic acid from cell membranes also puts it in the category of an "anti-inflammatory" food that can be helpful in lessening inflammation.
Anti-Microbial Activity
Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and cinnamon has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including the commonly problematic yeast Candida. In laboratory tests, growth of yeasts that were resistant to the commonly used anti-fungal medication fluconazole was often (though not always) stopped by cinnamon extracts.
Cinnamon's antimicrobial properties are so effective that recent research demonstrates this spice can be used as an alternative to traditional food preservatives. In a study, published in the August 2003 issue of the International Journal of Food Microbiology, the addition of just a few drops of cinnamon essential oil to 100 ml (approximately 3 ounces) of carrot broth, which was then refrigerated, inhibited the growth of the foodborne pathogenic Bacillus cereus for at least 60 days.
When the broth was refrigerated without the addition of cinnamon oil, the pathogenic B. cereus flourished despite the cold temperature. In addition, researchers noted that the addition of cinnamon not only acted as an effective preservative but improved the flavor of the broth.(October 1, 2003)
What New Research Shows
Cinnamon can help rein in blood sugar. German researchers collected blood from 65 adults with type 2 diabetes who then took a capsule containing the equivalent of 1 g of cinnamon powder or a placebo three times a day for 4 months. By the end, cinnamon reduced blood sugar by about 10%; the placebo users improved by only 4%. Compounds in cinnamon may activate enzymes that stimulate insulin receptors.
