Do you have still high blood sugars despite eating healthy, losing weight, and exercising?  Well, there is hope that type 2 diabetes can be prevented with extracts of curcumin. This article published in Diabetes Care, the official journal of the American Diabetics Association found the curcumin prevented diabetes in a small study. This is great news when you consider we have approximately 21 million diabetics of which 95% are type 2 diabetics.
In the study, 237 individuals with pre-diabetes were treated with either curcumin or placebo for  nine months. At the end of the nine months none of the curcumin treated group developed diabetes. However, in the placebo control group 16.4% developed diabetes.  The dose used in the curcumin group was to 240 mg of curcumin twice a day.
How Curcumin Works to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
Curcumin appears to prevent type 2 diabetes through a couple of mechanisms.
Insulin is made in the beta cells of the pancreas. Insulin is needed to move blood sugar into the cell. In type 2 diabetes insulin resistance develops leading to an excessive release of insulin to adequately move sugar from the blood into the cells. Over the course of time the beta cells burn out. Curcumin protects beta cell function.
As we have stated before in other articles, curcumin inhibits inflammation. In pre-diabetics curcumin increases the production of adiponectin which lowers inflammation. Inflammation is the major cause of beta cell destruction.
The curcumin treated group was associated with a mild reduction in weight and waist circumference. Weight loss improves insulin sensitivity helping to prevent type 2 diabetes
Plus, there were no adverse effects noted in the study from taking curcumin.
Curcumin Supplements
Curcumin is not well absorbed from the GI tract so you need to be selective when buying a supplement. There is patented formula called BCM-95® that is highly absorbable. This formula has been licensed to several nutritional supplement makers. The daily dose of this highly absorbable form of curcumin is 400 to 500 mg. Otherwise, you would need to take 3,600 mg of the more commonly available forms of curcumin that are not readily absorbed.
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