Cinnamon and diabetes.
Did you know that they didn't use cinnamon in the cinnamon and diabetes study?
You know the study I mean:
Khan A, Safdar M, Ali Khan MM, Khattak KN, Anderson RA: Cinnamon improves glucose and lipids of people with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2003 Dec;26(12):3215-8.
And here's the full text.
That's cinnamon in the headline. The abstract says:
"OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether cinnamon improves blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 60 people with type 2 diabetes, 30 men and 30 women aged 52.2 +/- 6.32 years, were divided randomly into six groups. Groups 1, 2, and 3 consumed 1, 3, or 6 g of cinnamon daily, respectively, and groups 4, 5, and 6 were given placebo capsules corresponding to the number of capsules consumed for the three levels of cinnamon. The cinnamon was consumed for 40 days followed by a 20-day washout period.
RESULTS: After 40 days, all three levels of cinnamon reduced the mean fasting serum glucose (18-29%), triglyceride (23-30%), LDL cholesterol (7-27%), and total cholesterol (12-26%) levels; no significant changes were noted in the placebo groups. Changes in HDL cholesterol were not significant.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrate that intake of 1, 3, or 6 g of cinnamon per day reduces serum glucose, triglyceride, LDL cholesterol, and total cholesterol in people with type 2 diabetes and suggest that the inclusion of cinnamon in the diet of people with type 2 diabetes will reduce risk factors associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases."
Nowhere do they state that they didn't actually use cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) in this trial: no, they used cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum, synonym Cinnamomum cassia).
There's a difference: true cinnamon is fairly hard to get hold of, at least up here in Finland. We get cassia as "cinnamon" in most if not all grocery stores. Specialist stores carry true cinnamon, but you have to know to ask for it ...
True cinnamon has layer upon layer of paper thin bark, which makes up the cinnamon sticks, where cassia is a single thickish piece of bark. I've compared the two in an earlier blogpost.
It just goes to show, never trust an abstract.
Yes. Now look at all the
Yes. Now look at all the headlines and all the glossy and newspaper articles about this particular study.
They all talk about true cinnamon. None of them say that cassia cinnamon was the herb used in the study ... because none of the reporters ever read beyond the abstracts, and the abstract doesn't mention that.
It's a spice with aromatic
It's a spice with aromatic oils. It'll help your digestion. Antibacterial, antifungal? Dunno, it's exotic, I use it as a spice.
On the cassia vs. cinnamon:
On the cassia vs. cinnamon: in Finland the stores all carry cassia as cinnamon.
On the citrimax and whatever lean drinks: I have no clue what either are. I do herbs, not lean drinks, not products.
Yes, they said that it's
Yes, they said that it's cassia in the full study. Nobody reads full studies (or at least, no journalists do), and, as is usual with newspaper and journal reports about this research, all the articles were derived from the summary, and the summary alone. The summary says "cinnamon", which is not the same as cassia cinnamon.
Precise language is a must, in the various plant sciences: common names are different on different continents, in different countries, in different counties, in different villages ...
Thanks for the additional data!
Thanks for that, Kent!
Thanks for that, Kent!
The lettuce: that's adding
The lettuce: that's adding insulin, in type I diabetes. It won't help in type II, where too much insulin is the problem. Try magnesium, chromium, zinc, and read the syndrome x posts.
We-eell. Coumarin in itself
We-eell. Coumarin in itself is no problem whatsoever, so if the Germans have indeed banned Cassia cinnamon (which I doubt), based on that, they're extremely silly.
No, it's plants that ferment on drying (= abysmal quality) which form the bleeding dicoumarols.
As to the site you linked to: I'd try to get world+dog to believe that cassia cinnamon is harsh and flat, too, if I were selling Ceylon cinnamon. Anybody else will tell you that both taste of cinnamon, and the cassia is hotter while the ceylon is sweeter.
The problem of coumarins
The problem of coumarins fermenting is documented in leafy herbs like melilot and the like. Seeing that cinnamon is a bark, it's a) cumbersome to strip, and b) fetches a fair price.
Honest, I can't see any cinnamon farmer worth his salt letting his crop go to waste by fermenting.
Cinnamons are tropical.
Cinnamons are tropical. You'll find lots of different cinnamons planted all over the tropics.
Making your own herbal preparations sure weeds out all the overly expensive exotics ... and you get to know what you have in your own back yard. Not everybody can do that, though. So find a good supplier ... the pharmacomed solution of standardizing on random single constituents is WAY off. COMPLETELY off. Doesn't even sit on the same planet as good herbal medicine.
As to "chemical and physiological actions" ... I do wholistic medicine, sorry.
They're, however, not from
They're, however, not from your local forest ... have you tried to ditch the carbs?
You might wish to read the syndrome x series of posts, too.