Can Special Foods and Expensive Supplements Control Your Diabetes?

Because you can make such a difference in your blood sugar, just by cutting down on carbohydrates, its easy to think that there must be some other foods and supplements you could take which would have an equally powerful effect, and which might even be powerful enough to let you work that fudge sundae back into your food plan.

Sadly, such foods and supplements don't exist. What does exist is a huge industry looking to make a lot of money off you and other people with chronic diseases who profit from selling you worthless remedies at highly inflated prices. Many of them advertise on Google Ads.

If you're newly diagnosed, it's almost a given that you are going to shell out for some of them. You're only human! But before you head down to the health food store and drain your bank account, consider the following:

Why You Need to Be Suspicious of Dietary Research Boosting Specific Foods

Though you may see a lot of media reports for one or other food or supplement that supposedly prevents diabetes or cures it, these reports are almost always based research funded by the companies who sell the food or supplement at obscene markups. Careful scrutiny of this "research" almost always reveals serious flaws.

A huge problem is that of who sponsors the studies about food and health. Medical research is expensive, particularly research involving a lot of subjects and expensive lab tests. So virtually all studies that claim health benefits for a food products is funded by the industry who benefits when the public buys more of that food.

The studies that claim health benefits for soy are funded by huge agricultural conglomerates who grow soybeans. Theywere happy to develop a market that would pay a premium to buy up their excess beans and use them for expensive health food.

These industry groups pay for media blitzes when the research they support makes their product look good and never mention the downside: for example, while you may read articles reported all over the media claiming that soy can help women with menopausal symptoms, you won't read that the same soy products can be toxic to the thyroid glands of those same menopausal women. That's because the soybean companies pay millions to send out PR packages to the media and the media never do any investigative research before publishing this kind of study.

There's one other huge problem with supplements. In the 1980s the United States Congress, paying back lobbying groups and, in particular, one large supplement manufacturer's campaign contributions to a powerful senator, forbade the FDA from regulating supplements. As a result, there is no oversight over what might be in that expensive bottle you buy at the health food store.

What random checks have found is that the products often contain a lot less of whatever it is they are supposed to contain than what is listed on the label, In other cases the bottle may contain other, unlisted substances which may be harmful to you. This makes it very difficult to know if a supplement you have bought simply doesn't work for you, or whether you didn't get the supplement you paid for.


With these caveats in mind, lets look at some of the foods and supplements that might help you control your blood sugar.

Cinnamon

The idea that cinnamon might have an effect in lowering blood sugar was first demonstrated in the lab by researchers at the Human Nutrition Research Center of the FDA in Beltsville Mary land, in 1990, while they were testing foods for an insulin-enhancing effect as part of a series of studies looking into the effect of dietary chromium on blood sugar.

However, cinnamon was only one of several foods described as having such an effect including peanut butter and tuna fish, and the article reporting these results was published in an obscure journal so it pretty much sank without a trace. [Khan A, Bryden NA, Polansky MM, Anderson RA.;Insulin potentiating factor and chromium content of selected foods and spices.Biol Trace Elem Res. 1990 Mar;24(3):183-8]

Next, with the help of Walter F. Schmidt of the USDA's Agricultural Research Station's Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at Beltsville, Dr. Anderson and his team identified the compounds in cinnamon responsible for its activity, a chemical called MHCP which Anderson, his co-workers C. Leigh Broadhurst and Marilyn M. Polansky, and Schmidt patented.

At the end of the decade a series of laboratory experiments conducted at the University of Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames by Karalee Jarvill-Taylor, Graves DJ, in association with Richard A. Anderson f the Human Nutrition Research Center of the FDA who had been part of the team that published the original finding about cinnamon came up with much stronger findings.

The Iowa State researchers working with a line of cultured fat cells and radioactive glucose were able to determine that when MHCP was administered along with glucose, it behaved acted like insulin within these fat cells, activating insulin receptors and causing glucose to be stored as glycogen, though it took between half an hour to an hour for MHCP to do the job that insulin would do in ten minutes. Even more interestingly, after measuring the effect of a given amount of MHCP on the cells and of a small amount of insulin on the same cells, the researchers discovered that when they administered both MHCP and insulin at the same time to those cells, the amount of glucose the cells stored was far more than the sum of how much the cells had stored when exposed to the two substances administered alone. So it appeared that the addition of MHCP to insulin greatly enhanced the power of that insulin--in short the MHCP not only acted as an insulin mimic, it also somehow increased the fat cells' sensitivity to insulin. [Jarvill-Taylor KJ, Anderson PA, Graves DJ: A hydroxychalcone derived from cinnamon functions as a mimetic for insulin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. J Am Coll Nutr 20: 327-336, 2001]

A year later Dr. Anderson and a team of Pakistani researchers from the Department of Human Nutrition, NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan, conducted a small experiment to see what effect a daily intake of cinnamon might have on human subjects with type 2 diabetes. They divided up sixty Pakistanis with type 2 diabetes into six groups. Three of these groups received capsules of an inert placebo. The others received twice daily doses of ground cinnamon, ranging from 1 gram to 6 grams a day which they took for 40 days. The cinnamon used in this study was the everyday kind you buy at the grocery store in the United States, not the rarer form used in earlier research.

The researchers tested the fasting plasma glucose and cholesterol levels of their volunteers every twenty days, with their last sampling being taken 20 days after the volunteers had stopped consuming the cinnamon.

They found significant decreases in fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol which persisted in a weakened form, as long as 20 days after the subjects stopped taking the cinnamon. The blood sugar lowering effect was strongest at the end of the 40 days.

However, what stood out in this study was that the results with the smallest dose, 1 gram a day, were similar or perhaps even better than those achieved with a 6 gram daily dose. The researchers speculate that an even smaller dose might be more effective.

Another separate study done by an unrelated group of researchers from the department of Sports Medicine at Nagoya University in Nagoya Japan led by B. Qin found that feeding cinnamon extract to lab rats for three weeks increased their response to glucose from 17 to 46% depending on the concentration of the extract. [Qin B; Nagasaki M; Ren M; Bajotto G; Oshida Y; Sato Y Cinnamon extract (traditional herb) potentiates in vivo insulin-regulated glucose utilization via enhancing insulin signaling in rats. Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2003 Dec;62(3):139-48] found that feeding cinnamon extract to lab rats.

Putting this research into practical use, several regulars on the alt.support.diabetes newsgroup have report that their post-meal blood sugars and fasting blood sugars have dropped significantly after adding a twice daily dose of 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to their diets. The effect began to be noticeable after meals within a few days at which time blood sugar was observed to drop sharply about 2 hours after taking the cinnamon. After a month some people have reported that the effect appears to last all day and that even after years of being diabetic they are able to achieve normal or near normal blood sugars.

There are several areas of concern with cinnamon. One is that it also contains a substance related to coumarin, a blood thinner. Therefore taking it long term could possibly cause bleeding problems. This can be gotten around by using a water-based cinnamon extract. The coumarin-like chemical is oil soluble and is not found in the extract.

The other area of concern is the effect of cinnamon on blood pressure. Though Dr. Anderson has been quoted in the media as saying that one of his experiments showed that a water extract of cinnamon lowered blood pressure in hypertensive rats [http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul00/cinn0700.htm "Cinnamon Boosts Insulin Sensitivity"] it has been reported that the ground cinnamon raises blood pressure in hypertensive people with type 2 diabetes.

Obviously, since Dr. Anderson has a patent on the compound found to be active in cinnamon, his research is not impartial.

In a May 2007 newsletter, Dr. Ronald Tamler, an endocrinologist and editor of PRESENT Diabetes points out that the small studies that found a favorable effect from cinnamon only measured fasting blood sugar. He also cites a more recent study, whose title says it all:

Cinnamon supplementation does not improve glycemic control in postmenopausal type 2 diabetes patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstract&list_uids=16549460

That study included glucose tolerance tests in its assessment of the efficacy of cinnamon.

Yet another study, not done by someone with a financial stake in cinnamon as a diabetes treatment reinforces this finding. Cinnamon doesn't improve FBG, A1c or lipids.

The Effect of Cinnamon on Glucose Control and Lipid Parameters
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/dc07-1711v1
William L Baker, Pharm.D., BCPS, Gabriela Gutierrez-Williams, Pharm.D,. C. Michael White, Pharm.D., FCP, FCCP, Jeffrey Kluger, MD and Craig I Coleman, Pharm.D..Diabetes Care Publish Ahead of Print published online ahead of print October 1, 2007
DOI: 10.2337/dc07-1711

And Diabetes in Control reports yet another study. Here to quote Diabetes in Control, "researchers at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City randomly assigned type 2 diabetics to take either cinnamon capsules or a placebo every day for three months. The cinnamon group took two capsules a day, each of which contained 500 milligrams of the spice. The placebo group took capsules containing wheat flour.

According to the researchers, led by Dr. Steve M. Blevins, the results of the study showed that there were no differences in the groups' average levels of blood sugar, insulin or cholesterol."

Diabetes in Control 10/03/07

All in all, cinnamon is probably another over-hyped underperforming supplement. But it is one you can test at home safely and cheaply since Dr. Anderson's research, no matter how questionable, was done with plain cinnamon of the type you buy at the grocery store, rather than the expensive patented pure product. So you can make the water-based extract at home on your own and test it.

Keep your dose to 1 tsp a day or less and repeat the Meal Tolerance Test two weeks after you start using it. If you have high blood pressure be sure to monitor your blood sugar.

What you don't need to do is pay $30 for a bottle of cinnamon extract sold by supplement companies. The stuff you buy at the grocery store is what they used in the original research and if you worry about the blood pressure problem, you can make your own extract using the recipe below.

How To Make Cinnamon Extract

3 tablespoons of cinnamon (inexpensive supermarket brands work fine)

2 teaspoons of baking soda

1 quart of boiling water

Mix the dry ingredients above and stir into boiling water in a large pot turning down the heat immediately to avoid boil over. Simmer for 20 minutes. Then strain through cheese cloth into a clean bottle and store in the refrigerator. Makes 6 doses equivalent to 1 gram of powder

Chromium

A series of studies also conducted by the USDA's Richard A. Anderson beginning in the 1980s spurred a flurry of excitement in the population of people with diabetes after Dr. Anderson reported that chromium supplementation could significantly improve glucose tolerance [Anderson RA, Cheng N, Bryden NA, Polansky MM, Chi J, Feng J: Beneficial effects of chromium for people with diabetes. Diabetes 46: 1786?1791, 1997. Review by Anderson defending his findings: Richard A. Anderson, PhD, FACN, Chromium, Glucose Intolerance and Diabetes. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 17, No. 6, 548-555 (1998)]

Studies conducted by Dr. Anderson and his team and other researchers around the world seemed to show that adding chromium to the diets of people with diabetes in India and China lowered their blood sugar significantly. [Ghosh D; Bhattacharya B; Mukherjee B; Manna B; Sinha M; Chowdhury J; Chowdhury S. Role of chromium supplementation in Indians with type 2 diabetes mellitus. J Nutr Biochem 2002 Nov;13(11):690-697]

However, other studies with European and American populations did not show chromium having any such effect.

In his review of the chromium studies published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, published in 1998, Anderson argued that to be effective the doses of chromium given should be Chromium picolinate rather than less active chromium choride, and that the minimum dose must be at least 400 micrograms and up to 1,000 mc. This dose, he said could reduce insulin resistance in people with impaired glucose tolerance and lower the blood sugar of people with type 2 diabetes. Anderson explained that the mechanism behind this improvement was that chromium supplementation increased the number of insulin receptors in cells.

However, despite Anderson's enthusiasm for chromium ( his name was on many of the relevant research papers) none of these studies was particularly impressive. All were small. None of them involved more than 85 people and few involved more than 30.

When the media picked up on this and related research in 1998 and publicized it in a way that suggested that chromium supplementation by reducing insulin resistance could also improve the speed of weight loss for dieters, sales of chromium picolinate skyrocketed.

But few dieters found the supplement to be all that effective, and a subsequent review of the research by NIH statisticians, M.D. Althuis and N.E. Jordan concluded that chromium supplementation had no effect on glucose or insulin levels in non-diabetic people and that the evidence for an effect on people with diabetes was inconclusive. Some researchers speculated that the results seen in the Chinese and Indian studies might have been due to these particular populations subsisting on diets that were in fact deficient in chromium, while the diet of most well-fed westerners supplies more than enough chromium. [Althuis MD; Jordan NE; Ludington EA; Wittes JT. Glucose and insulin responses to dietary chromium supplements: a meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr 2002 Jul;76(1):148-55]

Chromium's role as a supplement was dealt a death blow by the discovery that chromium picolinate caused mutations of the type that lead to cancer in hamsters [Stearns DM, Silveira SM, Wolf KK, et al.Chromium(III) tris(picolinate) is mutagenic at the hypoxanthine (guanine) phosphoribosyltransferase locus in Chinese hamster ovary cells.Mutat Res (Netherlands), Jan 15 2002, 513(1-2) p135-42] and fruit flies. [Hepburn DD, Xiao J, Bindom S, et al.Nutritional supplement chromium picolinate causes sterility and lethal mutations in Drosophila melanogaster. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Apr 1 2003, 100(7) p3766-71]. More recent research has called this result into question and the current belief is that small amounts of the supplement probably are fine.

If you want to test chromium you can buy inexpensive chromium picolinate at the drug store. Try one package and if you don't see a significant change, you'll know it isn't worth investing in.

The safest approach to chromium supplementation is to ensure that you get enough of it in foods. Foods rich in chromium that won't raise your blood sugar include seafood, green beans, broccoli, nuts, and peanut butter, all of which contain other helpful micronutrients. Supplementing with vitamin C may increase the absorption of dietary chromium.

Antioxidants

Many small scale studies have shown that the antioxidant vitamins C and E may have some effect in preventing heart disease. However, a large scale study conducted in England where half of 20,536 people considered high risk for heart disease took vitamin C,E, and beta-carotene supplements and half didn't, has cast a great deal of doubt on this.

Despite the fact that those in the supplemented group had measurably higher levels of the supplemented vitamins, the researchers found no difference at all in the rates of heart attack, other signs of cardiovascular disease, cancer or, indeed, hospitalization for any other cause. [MRC/BHF Heart Protection Study of antioxidant vitamin supplementation in 20,536 high-risk individuals: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Lancet (England), Jul 6 2002, 360(9326) p23-33]
A Feburary 2007 study, in contrast, found that antioxidant supplements actually seemed to raise the risk of death in those who took them.



Mortality in randomized trials of antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention: systematic review and meta-analysis. Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. JAMA. 2007 Feb 28;297(8):842-57.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=17327526



However, there is still some evidence that supplementing with these vitamins might be of some use to people with diabetes.

Studies have certainly shown that the beta cell is uniquely vulnerable to oxidative stress because it is poor in the production of antioxidant substances. So it has seemed reasonable to think that raising the bloodstream concentrations of these antioxidants might help counter this.

A paper published in 2000 that analyzed results of the large scale EPIC-Norfolk study seemed to suggest this was true. It found that the higher the plasma vitamin C level in the 6,458 people they studied, the lower their hba1c seemed to be. [Sargeant LA, Wareham NJ, Bingham S, et al.Vitamin C and hyperglycemia in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer--Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk) study: a population-based study. Diabetes Care (United States), Jun 2000, 23(6) p726-32] Whether of not the vitamin C actually caused the lower blood sugar levels, or whether its presence was a side effect of something else--for example a diet low in junk food--was not addressed by this study.

A further analysis of EPIC Norfolk data published in 2004--after the results were in on the ineffectiveness of vitamin supplementation against heart disease seemed to point to this kind of explanation. The study title says it all: "Occupational social class, educational level and area deprivation independently predict plasma ascorbic acid concentration." [Shohaimi S, Bingham S, Welch A, et al.Occupational social class, educational level and area deprivation independently predict plasma ascorbic acid concentration: a cross-sectional population based study in the Norfolk cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC-Norfolk) Eur J Clin Nutr, Mar 31 2004, e-pub.]

But even though the once widespread enthusiasm for antioxidant supplementation is waning, there are quite a few small scale studies which do suggest that supplementing with vitamin C and Vitamin E can be helpful in protecting against various diabetic complications. [ Peponis V, Papathanasiou M, Kapranou A, et al.Protective role of oral antioxidant supplementation in ocular surface of diabetic patients.Br J Ophthalmol (England), Dec 2002, 86(12) p1369-73, Anderson JW, Gowri MS, Turner J, et al. Antioxidant supplementation effects on low-density lipoprotein oxidation for individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus. J Am Coll Nutr (United States), Oct 1999, 18(5) p451-61, Upritchard JE, Sutherland WH, Mann JI, Effect of supplementation with tomato juice, vitamin E, and vitamin C on LDL oxidation and products of inflammatory activity in type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care (United States), Jun 2000, 23(6) p733-8, Kedziora-Kornatowska K, Szram S, Kornatowski T, et al.Effect of vitamin E and vitamin C supplementation on antioxidative state and renal glomerular basement membrane thickness in diabetic kidney. Nephron Exp Nephrol (Switzerland), 2003, 95(4) pe134-43, and Gaede P, Poulsen HE, Parving HH, et al.Double-blind, randomised study of the effect of combined treatment with vitamin C and E on albuminuria in Type 2 diabetic patients. Diabet Med (England), Sep 2001, 18(9) p756-60].

Vitamin E Appears Effective in Presence of a Certain Gene

One reason for the confusing results described above became clear in November of 2007. A team in Israel discovered that people with one particular gene, the haptoglobin (Hp) 2-2 gene who took 400 iu of Vitamin E, had 40% less heart attacks over an 18 month period than those who did not.

So for now, the safest conclusion seems to be that it can't hurt to take a daily dose of Vitamin E and Vitamin C. Note that Dr. Bernstein warns against doses of vitamin C greater than 500 mg a day, explaining that they can cause erroneous blood sugar readings with some meters. He also says that very high levels of vitamin C can raise blood sugar and impair nerve function. He writes that vitamin E in doses between 400 to 1,200 IU per day may lower insulin resistance, but suggests you use gamma tocopherol or mixed tocopherols, not the common alphatocopherol, which he says can inhibit the absorbtion of gamma tocopherol from food. (Bernstein, R.K, Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, p161.)

To get these vitamins from food, consume foods that are rich in the natural forms of these substances. Nuts and sunflower seeds are an excellent source of vitamin E. If you are controlling your carbohydrate intake, you can still get adequate amounts of vitamin C from green vegetables and low carbohydrate fruits like blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Magnesium

An analysis of data from the Nurses health Study suggests that increased intake of dietary magnesium corresponded with a reduced risk of diabetes. This result was echoed by a similar finding analyzing data from another study, the Women's Health Study. [Lopez-Ridaura R, Willett WC, Rimm EB, Liu S, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, Hu FB: Magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in men and women. Diabetes Care 27:134-140, 2003 and Song Y, Manson ME, Buring JE, Liu S: Dietary magnesium intake in relation to plasma insulin levels and risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Diabetes Care 27:59-65, 2003.]

Adequate blood levels of magnesium have also been found to counter high blood pressure.

However, it is not clear whether here again the high blood magnesium levels truly prevent blood sugar deterioration or are, again, simply a marker that a person does not have the underlying conditions that cause it.

A new concern about minerals, including magnesium, is the finding published in Jan of 2008 that calcium supplementation appears to increase heart attacks in older women.
Vascular events in healthy older women receiving calcium supplementation: randomised controlled trialMark J Bolland, P Alan Barber, Robert N Doughty, associate professor1, Barbara Mason, Anne Horne, Ruth Ames, Gregory D Gamble, Andrew Grey, Ian R Reid.BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39440.525752.BE (published 15 January 2008).

Since magnesium levels are related to calcium levels, it may be a mistake to supplement these vitamins with pills. Get your magnesium from the nuts and leafy green vegetables you should be eating for all the other good things they contain. Plentiful amounts of it are found in premium chocolates with high cocoa content.

Fructose

You may read in books written for diabetics that fructose is preferable to other sugars for people with diabetes because it doesn't raise insulin or blood sugar. Fructose like glucose is a form of simple sugar which is found in fruits, and for this reason it has been promoted as being "natural" and "healthy." However the fructose you find listed in the ingredient panel of supermarket foods does not come from fruit. It is extracted from corn and it is anything but good for you.

This is because while it is true that fructose may not raise your blood glucose concentration, it will raise the levels of fructose in your blood. And once it gets into your bloodstream fructose makes a beeline for the liver where it is immediately turned into fat. Not only that, but fructose also increases insulin resistance, and decreases leptin, a hormone that regulates appetite and body fat levels.

The reason for this probably goes back to our evolutionary primate heritage. Fruits are relatively rare in nature and for an animal who is struggling to put on a bit of fat to get through tough times the discovery of a small store of seasonal fruit is a dietary bonanza which is quickly stored as fat for tough times ahead. It is only when our bodies start encountering this "fruit" sugar in large quantities every day that this becomes a problem.

The average consumption of fructose by Americans rose from 64 grams per day in 1970 to 81 grams per day in 1997--a rise of 26%--and that's just the average. Anyone who starts their day with glass of orange juice and some high fructose corn syrup sweetened cereal, and then has a soda with a lunch and dinner that includes some canned soup or bottle spaghetti sauce, all sweetened with surprising amounts of high fructose corn syrup, and polishes off that meal with a scoop of ice cream or a couple cookies sweetened with high fructose corn syrup is taking in a lot more fructose than that 81 gram average.

There is an accumulating body of research which suggests that because of fructose's ability to deregulate appetite and lead to increased fat storage, the huge increase of fructose in the American diet over the past couple decades has a lot to do with the concomitant increase in obesity within the U.S population. [Sharon S. Elliott, Nancy L. Keim, Judith S. Stern, Karen Teff and Peter J. Havel; Fructose, weight gain, and the insulin resistance syndrome. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 76 No. 5 911-922, 2002.]

And, if that weren't enough to put you off fructose, consider this: fructose causes far more glycation of proteins than does glucose, which if you'll remember means it promotes a lot more of the dangerous bonding of sugar molecules to proteins that clogs up your circulatory system and kidneys. [Sakai M, Oimomi M, Kasuga M. Experimental studies on the role of fructose in the development of diabetic complications. Kobe J Med Sci (Japan), Dec 2002, 48(5-6) p125-36 ]

Unfortunately, you aren't going to see any of this covered in the mass media any time soon. Food manufacturers love high fructose corn syrup because it is much cheaper than other sugars. Since a few large food companies are responsible for buying a large percentage of media advertising, you aren't going to see the damage their products are doing to buyers highlighted in the media any time soon.
But if your blood sugar is anything but rock solid normal, high fructose corn syrup should be at the top of your "do not eat" list.

Selenium may Raise Diabetes Risk

Selenium is a mineral which had been found in some small experiments to appear to lower blood sugar. However, a study published in July of 2007, which attempted to see whether long term supplementation with selenium would prevent Type 2 diabetes discovered that it appeared to do just the opposite. The group taking the selenium supplements developed more diabetes. Not only that, but the more selenium in their blood plasma, the more likely they were to develop diabetes. Strike selenium off your list of supplements for diabetes, unless you want it.

http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/0000605-200708210-00175v1
Effects of Long-Term Selenium Supplementation on the Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes:A Randomized Trial. Saverio Stranges, MD, PhD; James R. Marshall, PhD; Raj Natarajan, MS; Richard P. Donahue, PhD; Maurizio Trevisan, MD; Gerald F. Combs, PhD; Francesco P.Cappuccio, MD; Antonio Ceriello, MD; and Mary E. Reid, PhD. Annals of Internal Medicine, Volume 147 Issue 4.

Many Supplements Manufactured in China

A very troubling discovery is that most of our vitamins are now manufactured in China, which in the light of recent tainted product scandals should make you think twice--especially since unlike foods, no one checks to see what is in an imported vitamin pill. Vitamins and all other supplements, thanks to lobbying from the larger American sellers of supplemets, are by law not regulated.

When people do send them to the lab, expensive vitamin and supplement pills often are found not to contain what the label says they contain. In the worst cases, some supplements made in China and marketed as being for diabetes have turned out to contain cheap sulfonylurea drugs rather than the exotic "natural" contents that supposedly lower your blood sugar. Others may contain the poisons found in China's severely polluted water supply or anything else the people who put antifreeze into children's toothpaste feel like putting in them.

This, rather than any failing of antioxidants, might be one reason why people taking vitamins have a higher mortality than those who do not. (Another explanation, of course, might be that sicker people take vitamins in the hopes of getting well.) It's worth a thought before you plunk down the big bucks for yet another miracle cure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042201163.html
It's Not Just Pet Food!

Other Supplements

Other supplements which you'll see routinely touted as helping diabetes include the herb Gymnema Sylvestre and the Indian spice, Fenugreek. You can try sprinkling fenugreek on your food to see if it helps you. It is sold as a spice and it can be found in fresh form at Indian grocery stores. The fresh leaves are preferable, as with most herbs too much of even a good thing may be toxic.

Don't be tempted to pay for expensive bottles of extracts, or combination supplement products that promise to lower your blood sugar.

Red Yeast Extract

Many people, rightfully concerned about the dangers of taking statin drugs, believe it is safer to take a supposedly "natural" supplement, Red Yeast Extract.

Unfortunately, this extract, when it really is the red yeast extract contains a molecule that chemically is a statin. If you take your statin in the unregulated supplement form you get to play "guess the dosage" as there is no guarantee that the dose of the statin contained in red yeast extract is the same from pill to pill

Even worse, The FDA warned on Aug 10, 2007 that, several brands of Red Yeast Extract illegally contain the prescription statin, Lovastatin. From the Medscape report of this problem:

"FDA testing revealed that several brands of nonprescription "red yeast extract" supplements, marketed as Red Yeast Rice, Red Yeast Rice/Policosonal Complex, and Cholestrix, contained lovastatin, a prescription drug. Not surprisingly, the agent is not named in the list of product ingredients. The products are manufactured by Nature's Value Inc, Kabco Inc, and Sunburst Biorganics, respectively, and sold over the internet by the manufacturers, or in the case of Red Yeast Rice, by Swanson Healthcare Products."

These unregulated Red Yeast Extract and cholesterol supplements may cause serious side effects as can all statin drugs. Avoid them.