By Lilian Anekwe
Cinnamon may have a blood glucose and blood pressure-lowering effect in patients with type 2 diabetes, a small randomised controlled trial in UK patients shows.
The study saw 58 patients with type 2 diabetes randomly assigned to either 2g of cinnamon or placebo daily for 12 weeks. All patients in the study were treated with oral hypoglycaemics only and had an HbA1c of 7% or more.
The mean HbA1c of patients given cinnamon fell from 8.22% to 7.86% after the intervention, but increased in patients given placebo from 8.55% to 8.68%. The change in mean HbA1c was statistically significant, as was the difference between groups.
Mean blood pressures were also significantly reduced after 12 weeks in the cinnamon group, from 132.6 to 129.2 mmHg for systolic blood pressure and 85.2 to 80.2 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure. This was compared with an increase in systolic blood pressure in the placebo group from 134.5 to 134.9 mmHg and a non-significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure from 86.8 to 86.1 mmHg.
A significant reduction in fasting plasma glucose, waist circumference and body mass index was also seen in the intervention group after 12 weeks.
Dr Rajadurai Akilen, a lecturer in nutrition at the Thames Valley University, concluded: ‘Cinnamon supplementation could be considered as an additional dietary supplement option to regulate blood glucose and blood pressure levels along with conventional medications to treat type 2 diabetes.'
Diabetic Medicine 27, 1159-1167 (2010)
Cinnamon may have a blood glucose and blood pressure-lowering effect in patients with type 2 diabetes Cinnamon may have a blood glucose and blood pressure-lowering effect in patients with type 2 diabetes
