Ayurveda, the ancient healing art of India, holds a great deal of promise as a source of new treatments for Type 2 diabetes. The beauty of Ayurvedic medicine is that it can be individualized to help diabetics feel better and live longer, not just get better lab results.
What is Ayurvedic Medicine? It is a system of traditional medicine which is native to the subcontinent of India, but it is also practiced in many other parts of the world, and used in alternative medicine.
The area of caution with this healing art, however, is that some herbs are so much like their pharmaceutical counterparts that they cause the same side effects. Getting a good healing result without the side effects requires the advice of a knowledgeable practitioner.
Ayurverdic medicine has gained new respect in recent years as the public and to a lesser degree, the medical community, has finally to accept plant-based treatments for what they are; safe, natural and effective remedies for a variety of health challenges, including Type 2 diabetes.
Here are the top five traditional India herbs for helping diabetics control their blood sugar levels without unhealthy side effects:
1. Aloe is the plant that much of the Western world knows as the source of a healing gel which they put on their skin. This same 'slimy' substance slows down the absorption of carbohydrate and can be an important part of getting your blood sugar levels down to normal.
2. Bitter melon is a gourd that is cooked into stews and pressed into juice not just in the traditional herbal medicine of India but that is also used as a cooked vegetable in almost every Asian cuisine. It's potentially very useful, but it's not a cure all by itself.
3. Cinnamon is probably the world's best known herbal treatment for blood glucose problems, but there is more than one kind of cinnamon. The curry cinnamon used in Indian herbal medicine has a different kind of effect on diabetes control than the aromatic cinnamon used in baking.
4. Gurmar, 'slayer of sweetness'... tackles the problems of diabetics by controlling their appetites for sugar. Your own body is the real healer here, but this well-known herb of the Indian subcontinent certainly helps.
5. Indian gooseberry, both the fruit and leaf of this plant... are known as jamun and amla respectively, and help millions of diabetics around the world. Interestingly, this very useful plant appears not just in the medicine of South Asia, but also in the medicine of South America.
Whilst there are a number of herbs that have been shown to help diabetics have lower blood sugar levels, having a healthy diet and lifestyle are the most important factors in preventing or reversing type 2 diabetes.
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