It is important that the physician is kept updated about the natural remedies a diabetic is trying out.
When managing blood sugar levels becomes a daily battle that tests one’s will and wits, a little help on the side certainly helps. Herbs, spices, botanicals, Chinese herbs, fish oil therapy, chromium picolinate — the list can be endless, not to mention the innumerable diabetes “supplements” available over the counter.
Complementary and alternative medicines for diabetes are immensely popular among diabetics. Many of these complementary medicines have proven glycaemic control properties. But often, these are not clinically validated or well documented and some safety concerns remain.
Doctors caution that anything natural is not necessarily safe and not every natural product may produce the same effect in another individual, especially when diabetes patients are on multiple prescription medications for various associated problems.
“It is a fact that most of our patients have a lot of these plant-based medicines on the side such as gooseberry, bitter gourd, neem, cinnamon, fenugreek, kovakka, or aloe vera, many of which have proven blood-sugar lowering properties.
The indiscriminate use of some of these glucose-lowering botanicals, along with prescription diabetes drugs, may produce episodes of hypoglycaemia.
