Is the Solution for Diabetes a Humble Root?

Billions are spent annually and still there is no conventional cure for diabetes. Or is there a cheap, safe and freely available solution already growing beneath our feet?

Diabetes is a very big business, representing tens of billion of dollars in pharmaceutical drug sales annually. Tragically, while the number of diabetes diagnoses continue to expand globally the drugs themselves, including recombinant (GMO produced) insulin, appear to actually increase mortality. Upton Sinclair nailed the problem on its head when he stated:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

In other words, the resistance within the conventional medical system against finding both the causes and the cures for the diabetes epidemic is institutional, and economically motivated, which is to say fundamentally unethical.

This happens to be why alternative health sites like GreenMedInfo.com continue to enjoy expanding popularity around the world. There is no shortage of research on natural solutions to both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but with the mainstream media's primary funding coming from Big Pharma, the storylines either completely ignore or are pitted against the natural solutions we regularly report on. Back in 2014, for instance, we reported on a truly groundbreaking finding published in the American Diabetes Association's very own journal, Diabetes Care, which found a turmeric extract (curcumin) was 100% effective in preventing the progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes (type 2).

Turmeric possesses a wide range of side benefits, making this finding all the more promising for those under conventional care. Clearly, if these spectacular results had been obtained through an FDA approved drug instead of a plant that grows freely, it would have made global headlines as one of the greatest achievements of modern pharmaceutical medicine history. 

Fortunately, it appears that academic interest in turmeric and diabetes is picking up.

One report, focused on the work of an Indian scientist, Professor Manohar Garg, working out of the University of Newcastle's Nutraceuticals Research Group, suggests that turmeric's anti-diabetic properties are related to its well known anti-inflammatory properties. Professor Garg is presently designing a clinical trial that will look at this connection in depth:

"The root cause of type 2 diabetes is systemic inflammation, which impacts insulin secretion and function" Professor Garg explains. "We want to nip the inflammation in the bud."

Professor Garg is leading a randomized, controlled trial that will test the effects of both turmeric and omega-3 fatty acids:

The anti-inflammatory mechanisms surrounding curcumin and omega-3 fats are different, so we want to test if they complement each other and have treatment synergies beyond their individual effects," Professor Garg added. "Our thinking is that the combination is safe, free of any side- effects and may prove to be as effective as drugs used for management of diabetes."

GreenMedInfo.com already houses a wide range of studies on both turmeric and omega-3 fatty acid's anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties, along with extensive research on over 1,700 other natural substances.

You can view the anti-type 1 diabetes research on turmeric here, and the anti-type 2 diabetes research on turmeric here. Or, take a look at the 120 studies on our database on turmeric's anti-inflammatory properties. You can also explore the role of omega-3 fatty acids in inflammation reduction and blood sugar balancing on our omega-3 database page here.

But don't be mesmerized by magic bullets.

It should be noted that while turmeric and/or omega-3 fatty acids may provide a greatly superior alternative to conventional drug therapy for blood sugar disorders like type 1 and type 2 diabetes, there is a tendency to mistakenly over-identify with the allopathic model of disease by simply reproducing the same assumptions and addressing symptoms palliatively with would-be "nutraceutical magic bullets." It is not our intention to replicate or reinforce these misunderstandings.

A truly sustainable and root-cause-resolution oriented approach to managing and even resolving diabetes would look at factors such as heavy metal and petrochemical accumulations, hormone imbalance, nutritional incompatibilities, deficiencies and excesses, lack of adequate exercise, mind-body stress reduction techniques and mindfulness, etc. It is only through addressing the whole person that you can arrive at a true resolution of the underlying conditions that have led one to a conventional diagnosis. For further research to support you in your task, visit our Blood Sugar Disorders, which collates both the first-hand biomedical research on natural/functional medical interventions, as well as articles aimed to translate in lay person terminology the importance of these studies.