Preventing and Reversing the Symptoms of Diabetes With Chamomile

Drinking chamomile tea daily with meals may help prevent the acidic complications of diabetes, which include loss of vision, nerve damage, and kidney damage. The findings of researchers in Japan could lead to the development of a new chamomile-based supplement for type 2 diabetes, which is spreading worldwide, they note. Their study appears in the Sept. 10 issue of the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.

In the new study, Atsushi Kato and colleagues point out that chamomile, also known as manzanilla, has been used for years as a medicinal cure-all to treat a variety of medical problems including stress, colds, and menstrual cramps. Scientists recently proposed that the herbal alkaline tea might also be beneficial for buffering sugar acids that cause diabetes, but the theory hasn't been scientifically tested until now.

To find out, the researchers fed chamomile extract to a group of diabetic rats for 21 days and compared the results to a group of control animals on a normal diet. The chamomile-supplemented animals showed a significant decrease in blood glucose levels compared with the controls, they say. The extract also showed significant inhibition of both ALR2 enzymes and sorbitol, whose elevated levels are associated with increased acidic diabetic complications.

According to Dr. Robert O. Young, director of research at the pH Miracle Living Center, "chamomile is a highly effective alkaline herb that helps to reduce blood sugar and blood alcohol. This in turn helps to maintain the alkaline design of the body and prevent and/or reverse the symptoms of Type I and Type II diabetes."