Curcumin Enhances Blood Sugar Balance

Recent research reports that curcumin supports healthy blood sugar metabolism. Curcumin, a constituent of the botanical Curcuma longa, has traditionally been used for antioxidant and inflammation-balancing properties.

This study evaluated the potential impact of curcumin supplementation in rats fed a high-fat diet for 60 and 75 days. The high-fat diet induced insulin inefficiency and affected blood sugar metabolism in the rats. Some of the rats were supplemented with curcumin at a dose of 80 mg/kg. Other rats received 1 mg/kg of a pharmaceutical blood sugar-balancing agent that acts as an insulin sensitizer. A third group of rats were fed the high-fat diet alone to serve as the control group. The rats received curcumin or the pharmaceutical for the last 15 days of the experiment, after the induction of suboptimal insulin sensitivity and imbalanced blood sugar metabolism.

The study showed that curcumin supplementation supported healthy blood sugar and balanced insulin sensitivity. The researchers suggest that this may be due to the inflammation-balancing properties of curcumin, as the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha was balanced in the rats supplemented with curcumin. They also showed that curcumin had anti-lipolytic (breakdown of fats) activity, as demonstrated by a reduction in plasma free fatty acids.

The researchers concluded that curcumin could be a beneficial adjuvant therapy in supporting healthy blood sugar metabolism.

Reference:

El-Moselhy MA, Taye A, Sharkawi SS, El-Sisi SF, Ahmed AF. The antihyperglycemic effect of curcumin in high fat diet fed rats. Role of TNF-α and free fatty acids. Food Chem Toxicol. 2011 May;49(5):1129-40.