"The Benefits of Fenugreek for Preventing and Treating Diabetes"
The spice fenugreek is considered to be one of
humanity’s oldest medicinal plants. What can it do?
In my last video on fenugreek, I explored the evidence showing
it can improve sexual function in both men and women,
decrease menstrual pain,
and boost milk production in lactating mothers.
And what are the side effects?
Fifteen randomized controlled trials show, on average,
a significant improvement in cholesterol levels.
And a dozen other studies show significant improvements
in both long- and short-term blood sugar control in diabetics
and prediabetics using an average of about a half teaspoon a day
over a period of an average of two months.
Results clearly indicate that fenugreek is an inexpensive,
low-risk dietary supplement that has potential
to improve blood sugar control in diabetes.
What exactly is the mechanism by which it lowers blood sugars?
There’s a peculiar amino acid in fenugreek
that increases insulin release from the pancreas.
The peculiar 4-hydroxyisoleucine has been described as
an efﬁcient compound in the regulation of insulin secretion.
Due to the fact that it acts as a secretagogue
in the presence of elevated blood glucose concentrations,
it has been proposed for the potential treatment
of insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity.
There’s a class of diabetes drugs that does the same thing:
sulfonylureas, sold as like Glucotrol,
glyburide, Micronase, glipizide.
The problem is that they increase insulin secretion
whether you need it or not,
and so there’s a risk of severe hypoglycemia,
driving your blood sugars too low.
The funky fenugreek amino acid, on the other hand,
only boosts it when you need it.
When your blood sugars are normal, it has no effect.
It only seems to stimulate extra insulin release
when you need it most, when your blood sugars are high.
What these researchers did, was after consent was obtained
from family members, pancreases were obtained
from brain-dead organ donors.
Put the insulin-secreting cells in a petri dish
at a low blood sugar concentration,
and they release a little insulin,
and at high blood sugar levels they release more insulin.
That makes sense. That’s what they’re supposed to do,
since insulin is the hormone your body releases
when trying to bring down your blood sugars.
Add in some of that fenugreek amino acid, though,
and you can boost insulin production. Great!
But if that happened even at the low blood sugar concentration too,
it would be like the drugs and you could dip too low,
but no, when you don’t need extra insulin, no fenugreek effect.
What about the role of fenugreek
in the prevention of type 2 diabetes?
A 3-year randomized controlled study of the efficacy
of fenugreek on men and women diagnosed with prediabetes.
Those randomized to fenugreek were told to take about
one and a third teaspoons of fenugreek powder twice a day
before meals, and both the fenugreek
and the control groups that didn’t get any fenugreek
were both given identical diet and lifestyle advice.
And, by the end of the study, the cumulative incidence rate
of diabetes was reduced significantly in the fenugreek group.
Check it out. Those who didn’t get the fenugreek
had a four times higher chance of developing diabetes,
and you could already see the groups starting to diverge
within six months, and all from just a few cents worth
of a spice, every day.
If you yourself want to intimately support this kind of
amazing research in the future,
be sure to register at organdonor.gov.