A Home Remedy for Diabetes

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Who would win and who would lose if cheap apple cider  vinegar really does cure diabetes II (click here) and (here) and (here)?   Of course, sufferers of the disorder would be ecstatic, especially since medical doctors continue to insist that diabetes II is incurable.  Someone like me would find this news of a cure bitter sweet, having lost a father to complications from a disease that might have had a simple remedy.  The pharmaceutical companies that make diabetic medications would probably go bankrupt.  As for medical researchers who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in diabetes research over the years ( paid for by our tax dollars),  I would place their arrogant refusal even to test simple home remedies such as this as hovering close to criminal negligence.

 Living in Asia taught me something of profound importance as regards normal human eating behavior.  In the U.S., the medical profession manipulates the expectation of patients by saying, "well. . . vinegar might work, but only if you also lose weight and exercise."  It is as if overeating and couchpotato-ing causes diabetes rather than being consequences of the disorder itself.  When a person's blood sugar is out of kilter, cravings occur and thus the individual overeats and eschews exercise because the inevitable weight gain makes physical movement strenuous and uncomfortable.  If this vinegar cure really works, what's meant is that it re-regulates blood sugar levels so that food cravings and compulsive eating disappear and thus one loses weight as a consequence of the cure.  But why did I have to go all the way to Asia to see the proper cause-effect relationship?  Few people in that part of the world are obese. Those of normal weight, the great majority,  don't have 150 times more willpower than overweight Americans.  Nor do they spend their days battling the cookie monster.  The reason is that  craving excess sugar and carbohydrates are integral parts of the diabetic cycle.  If a person is not diabetic or pre-diabetic, the  body does not manufacture the off-kilter biochemical impulses that strips one of control over whether healthy or unhealthy food is put in the mouth.

Rather than wait for an enterprising medical outfit to write a grant proposal, get $10 million funding and then test the efficacy of vinegar as a home remedy for high blood sugar and diabetes II, I have a better idea.  Two friends of mine, who suffer with this disorder to some degree,  have decided to try the vinegar cure.  They will take two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with water (and maybe mix in a sweetener as well) each morning and evening. This is not a scientific study.  They will continue to take their physician prescribed medications until told by a doctor that they are no longer needed.   I will report back each month on this blog  as to whether the apple cider vinegar helped them or not.  I wish them luck.

7 Month Results
March 21, 2013      

GOAL:  Two friends decided that they would try the so-called apple cider vinegar "cure."  

RESULTS:

Friend #1 is pre-diabetic with an A1C* count of 6.1 in August of 2012.

After six months, Friend #1's A1C count had dropped from 6.1. to 5.6.

But she also acknowledged that she had cut certain foods out of her diet, because these foods triggered cravings, which she believed were associated with blood sugar spikes.  The foods she stopped eating were dairy products, all forms of gluten (substituting gluten-free bread, etc.) and pork.   However, Friend #1  did not lose any weight during this period, explaining that she "was not on a diet diet." She also did not increase the amount of exercise she was receiving because of an arthritic hip.

Friend #2 is diabetic with A1C count of 7.1

After four days on the diet, Friend #2 stopped because he said the vinegar burned the inside of his mouth.  He did however suggest that stevia might be preferable to honey, because it is just as sweet but has little if any effect on blood sugar.  

*According to the Mayo Clinic: "When the A1C test is used to diagnose diabetes, an A1C level of 6.5 percent or higher on two separate tests indicates you have diabetes. A result between 5.7 and 6.4 percent is considered prediabetes, which indicates a high risk of developing diabetes."