Restore Healthier Glucose Levels

With age, a sedentary lifestyle, or a diet high in saturated fat or refined carbohydrates and simple sugars, our cells become insulin resistant.

This causes blood glucose levels to remain high.

Chronically elevated fasting blood glucose is a serious danger.

It can lead to long-term consequences such as heart disease and stroke, dementia, cancer, accelerated aging, and premature death.^1-8

Life Extension believes everyone should strive for optimal glucose control, regardless of whether or not they are diabetic.

This means taking action to improve your glycemic control if your fasting glucose is over 85 mg/dL or your HbA1C is higher than 5.0%.

Doctors generally prescribe glucose-lowering drugs only to people who have been diagnosed as diabetic. That leaves millions of Americans at risk.

Scientists have found several nutrients that can safely promote healthy blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity.

The Risks of Elevated Glucose

Insulin resistance occurs when the body’s cells no longer respond efficiently to the hormone insulin. As a result, cells cannot easily take up glucose from the blood and blood sugar levels rise.

Insulin resistance becomes more common as we age. It usually develops without symptoms, allowing blood glucose levels to creep to dangerously high levels over time.

Insulin resistance is considered a causative factor of metabolic syndrome. This condition is defined as the presence of at least three of the following:⁹

• High fasting blood sugar,
• Abdominal obesity,
• High blood pressure,
• Low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and
• High triglycerides.

Epidemic Health Crisis

The results from a nutritional survey in the United States found that, by 2016, over half of adults age 60 and over had metabolic syndrome.¹⁰ These people have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and liver cancer, chronic kidney disease, gout, sleep apnea, cataracts, retinopathy, and other eye pathologies, and premature death.^11-13

Many people with metabolic syndrome have elevated blood sugar levels but their glucose numbers are below the threshold for a diagnosis of diabetes.

Silent Diabetes

Prediabetes is the term to describe higher than normal blood sugar that is lower than the diabetic threshold.¹⁴ It has been estimated that more than 470 million people worldwide will be prediabetic by 2030.^14,15

Up to 70% of people with prediabetes will eventually develop diabetes, according to an expert panel of the American Diabetes Association.^14,15

Diet and other lifestyle interventions can help reduce the risk of progressing to diabetes.¹⁶ But in anyone with high blood sugar, lasting damage can occur on a daily basis.

To meet this challenge, scientists identified several nutrients that work in different ways to lower blood glucose levels:

• Cinnamon,
• Chromium,
• Amla,
• Shilajit, and
• Iodine-rich seaweed.

Cinnamon Reduces Glucose

Cinnamon has been used to help manage conditions including obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

Scientists identified a purified, water-soluble, cinnamon extract that demonstrates glucose-lowering properties.^17-19

In human trials, oral supplementation with a water-soluble cinnamon extract was shown to:^20-23

• Lower fasting blood glucose,
• Enhance insulin sensitivity,
• Decrease systolic blood pressure,
• Reduce total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and
• Improve lean mass body composition.

Cinnamon has been shown to impact these metabolic parameters in more than one way.

In one preclinical model, a water-soluble cinnamon extract increased production of glucose transport molecules known as GLUT4, which enable cells to take up glucose from blood plasma in the presence of insulin.²⁴

Without effective GLUT4 transporters, blood glucose can steadily rise, eventually damaging tissues through a process known as glycation, and also by inducing insulin resistance.^25,26

Preclinical data indicate that cinnamon activates and also increases the production of metabolic sensors called PPARs,²⁷ mirroring a key mechanism of some antidiabetic drugs.²⁸ Increased expression of PPARs helpspromote insulin sensitivity, thereby improving glucose uptake.²⁹

Chromium Fights High Glucose

More than 60 years ago, scientists established that having low levels of the mineral chromium contributes to high blood sugar.³⁰

Studies show that chromium deficiency is associated with insulin resistance and diabetes.^31,32

One study found that chromium deficiency is common in people with prediabetes.^33,34

In type II diabetics, chromium supplementation has been found to significantly:³¹

• Improve blood sugar levels,
• Lower HbA1c,
• Raise HDL cholesterol, and
• Lower triglycerides.

Chromium is believed to work by improving intracellular signaling systems that are critical to cells’ ability to detect and respond to elevated glucose levels in the blood. It does this by activating glucose-transporting GLUT4 molecules.³⁵

Amla and Shilajit Optimize Chromium Benefits

Two organic compounds have been identified that deliver free-radical scavenging activity and provide glucose-lowering effects: amla and shilajit.

Amla is an herb also known as Indian gooseberry. It has been shown to lower blood glucose in diabetic animals and humans.^36,37

Shilajit is a Himalayan nutrient that has been used for centuries. It is rich in fulvic acid, an organic compound that is thought to account for the many medicinal and biological properties of shilajit. It has been used in the management of diabetes and many gastrointestinal conditions like diarrhea, gastritis, ulcers, and more.^38-40

Combining chromium with amla and shilajit promotes removal of glucose from the bloodstream and efficient use of glucose within cells.

In a study of type II diabetics, supplementation with a chromium, amla, and shilajit complex, in addition to current medication, compared to placebo, resulted in:⁴¹

• Better after-meal glucose control,
• Decreases in C-reactive protein (marker of inflammation), and
• Reductions in LDL levels.

Brown Seaweed Stops Conversion of Carbs to Sugars

Another way to improve glucose control is to limit the amount of glucose the body has to process in the first place.

Brown seaweed blunts the conversion of starches into glucose in the gastrointestinal tract by blocking two enzymes needed for this conversion, alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase.^42,43 As a result, less glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream.

Brown seaweed is also rich in iodine, and animal studies show that oral iodine reduces glucose.^44,45

In clinical trials, brown seaweed extracts:^46-48

• Lowered fasting glucose levels,
• Reduced insulin levels and increased insulin sensitivity (when taken before eating carbohydrate-rich bread),
• Lowered A1c readings, and
• Improved after-meal cognitive function.

Seaweed, cinnamon, chromium, amla, and shilajit all help support healthy glucose levels, warding off the damage elevated blood sugar can do.

Summary

Aging is associated with increased insulin resistance and elevated glucose levels and with greater risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and premature death.

The nutrients cinnamon, chromium, amla, shilajit, and seaweed help the body transport and burn glucose, block the conversion of carbohydrates into glucose, and work in other ways to reduce blood glucose levels and optimize energy production.

These innovative compounds can help people maintain healthy blood glucose levels well into older age.

If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension Wellness Specialist at 1-866-864-3027.

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