Type 1 Diabetics Do not Benefit from Cinnamon

Filed in archive Developments , Diet , Research on April 11, 2007

Cinnamon appeared to help fat cells recognize and respond to insulin thereby resulting in increased sugar breakdown as have been demonstrated in previous test tube experiments and animal studies - significantly impacting those with type 1 diabetes.

Also, previous findings in people with type 2 diabetes, revealed that those who incorporated a small amount of cinnamon each day for 40 days into their normal diets experienced a healthy drop in blood sugar levels.

However, new findings by Dr. Kevin M. Curtis from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in lebanon, New Hampshire and colleagues contradicted all those previous results: cinnamon has no effect on processing of blood sugar in diabetics.

...after 90 days, Curtis and colleagues failed to see any marked differences in blood sugar control, changes in blood sugar levels, total daily insulin requirement, or number of low blood-sugar episodes between cinnamon takers and placebo takers.

In essentially all outcomes...the trend favored the placebo group, although did not achieve statistical significance."

Their findings, recently reported in the journal Diabetes Care, were derived from clinical data of 72 adolescents with type 1 diabetes that took 1 gram of cinnamon per day (or a matching placebo) while they continued with their existing medication, diet and exercise routines.

The study's authors conclude: the current study "introduces significant doubt regarding the efficacy of cinnamon in diabetic subjects."

Read the full report.