WHILE MY BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS ARE in the high normal range, I wondered how to bring them down a bit. I began to look for research regarding the use of herbal medicines to fight diabetes.
My clinical literature review turned up this nice trick:
Aloe vera gel is one of the most effective herbal medicines to reduce hemoglobin A1c (a measure of blood sugar) in people with diabetes.
Today, I’ll offer evidence-based natural ways to lower blood sugar levels. First, I need to define hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C).
Measuring Blood Sugar
I remember how friends with diabetes depended on daily finger pricks to track their blood sugar levels.
These tests were accurate, but only in the moment. Our blood sugar levels vary considerably based on activity, hormonal changes, time of day, etc.
At Yale Medical School in the 1980s, A1C tests became available.
HbA1c
A1C levels refer to the amount of hemoglobin in your blood with glucose attached.
The A1C is quite useful to monitor blood sugar levels.
The test measures average blood glucose (sugar) levels over the past two to three months.
Today, we use the A1C test to diagnose and screen diabetes and pre-diabetes.
One bonus: You don’t need to fast for an A1C test.
Other Natural Approaches
As I noted, a systematic clinical literature review discovered that aloe vera gel effectively lowers A1C.
The study authors observed that aloe vera, cinnamon, fenugreek, garlic, and Nigella sativa seed were the most frequently used herbal medicines among patients with type 2 diabetes.
However, only fenugreek and Nigella sativa seed also effectively reduced A1c.
They could find no good evidence that black cohosh, cinnamon, or garlic significantly reduced A1c.
I am glad we have some evidence about what natural medicine approaches work (and what doesn’t) for dropping blood sugar levels.
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