Diabetes and Herbs

Herbs for Diabetes

If you’re dealing with the effects of diabetes, you probably wish you could find a better way of treating this disease than just the expensive medications that your doctor prescribes for you. Drugs can have serious side effects especially if you take them for long periods of time.

Herbs and plants have been a source of health for thousands of years. Even most drugs today are based on the chemical properties of plants and then synthetically reproduced. Unfortunately, most doctors don’t study herbs or natural healing in medical school. So it’s unlikely that they’ll tell you about natural ways to control your diabetes. Why? Because they are trained to see medical problems as scientific issues rather than use wholistic, natural approaches.

Anytime you use herbs to treat a problem, you need to be patient and give them at least 90 days to notice an improvement. It’s a slower, gradual remedy. Many times it’s so gradual that you won’t realize they’re working until you remember just how badly you felt when you started using them.

There are times when certain herbs will conflict with medications you’re taking, so it’s always a good idea to let your physician know what you’re using. Diabetes is a very serious condition. Always err on the side of caution and good sense. Never take anything that’s going to affect your blood sugar without consulting your doctor.

If you decide to start an herbal pathway to control your diabetes, do it in conjunction with your standard medical treatment and diet. As you start to improve, you can work out a program with your doctor on gradually reducing your medications. You’re never cured from diabetes, you just have to find the best way to control it.

Here are some herbs that are traditionally used in Chinese Medicine for diabetic conditions:

Mulberry leaf - used for the prevention and treatment of diabetes. Helps to suppress high blood sugar levels. Also used to slow down the build-up of plaque in arteries.

Barbary Wolfberry Fruit - benefits liver, kidneys and eyesight.

Milkvetch Root - helps with tissue regeneration and promotes diuresis (an increased discharge of urine) to keep kidneys functioning efficiently.

Yam Rhizome - promotes fluid secretion from the lungs, strenghtens spleen and kidneys, and helps reduce frequency of urination due to diabetes.

Glehnia Root - associated with the lungs. Used as a diuretic to help generate fluids to clear and moisten lungs.

Falsestarwort Root - helps to strenghten yin by promoting moist lungs - this rids the body of the unproductive cough due to dryness of the lungs.

Ginseng - used for many purposes and may lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

Magnoliavine Fruit - astringes the lung and intestines, helps with heart disease, shortness of breath and constant thirst, used for diabetes caused by internal heat.

Figwort Root - Chinese medicine uses this to nourish yin. It helps with dry eye, dire thirst, constipation, boils and sores.

Atractylodes Rhizome - controls yeast infections, promotes a healthy spleen, digestive tract and liver, reduces edema and improves eyesight.

King Solomonseal Rhizome - strengthens immunity, reduces blood fat and blood sugar, strengthens kidneys and lungs.

Dwarf Lilyturf Tuber - cardioprotective effects, treats coughs and dry mouth, nourishes stomach and pancreas.

Finding these herbs separately can be quite labor intensive. A Canadian company named ‘Bio Life Remedies’ has formulated several natural and organic products that include traditional Chinese Herbal treatments for diabetes. Natural Supplements for Diabetics Complications