Despite promising findings in the laboratory, nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that ginseng does not improve insulin sensitivity in diabetics who are overweight.
Ginseng has been used in Eastern medicine for more than 4,000 years. The widely used herbal supplement often is given to people to prevent or treat diabetes, but there have been few controlled studies to determine whether it really works.
The new research, published online in the journal Diabetes Care, followed 15 overweight or obese adults who recently had been diagnosed with diabetes or with impaired glucose tolerance, a condition that often leads to diabetes. The fact that they had a new diagnosis was important because diabetes is most easily stopped, or even reversed, in patients with a recent diagnosis.
Despite promising findings in the laboratory, nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that ginseng does not improve insulin sensitivity in diabetics who are overweight.
Ginseng has been used in Eastern medicine for more than 4,000 years. The widely used herbal supplement often is given to people to prevent or treat diabetes, but there have been few controlled studies to determine whether it really works.
The new research, published online in the journal Diabetes Care, followed 15 overweight or obese adults who recently had been diagnosed with diabetes or with impaired glucose tolerance, a condition that often leads to diabetes. The fact that they had a new diagnosis was important because diabetes is most easily stopped, or even reversed, in patients with a recent diagnosis.