More and more diabetics are turning to nature rather than bottled medicine to find ways to relieve their symptoms and improve their health. This week, the hot new item is a chemical extracted from those richly-scented flowers that are resplendent in the South: gardenias.

Scientists found that the gardenia-fruit extract stopped the production of insulin, an achievement that certainly seems as though it could have wide implications. The extract has long been used in Chinese medicine to help treat diabetes.

With medicine and our approaches to health, it so often seems to be East versus West; nature versus artificial substances.

Would you be comfortable trying the natural approach, that, although it seems wild and revolutionary, has been practiced for thousands and thousands of years? Or is 'modern' medicine your thing? Either way, can you ever look at a gardenia the same way again?