A Surprisingly Simple Way to Help Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is where our modern lifestyle that leads to obesity, heart disease and diabetes puts it all together. It affects an unbelievable 25% of all adults in the world, and it increases their risk of diabetes and heart disease. A surprisingly simple spice that you know very well can help.
If you have any three of abdominal obesity, elevated triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol, high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar, then you have metabolic syndrome.
You probably also have cinnamon: in your kitchen. Try getting it in a capsule. Supplementing cinnamon can actually help treat your metabolic syndrome.
It is not completely surprising that cinnamon should help metabolic syndrome, since it is a remarkable herb for diabetes. Two meta-analyses of the controlled research have shown that its reduction in blood glucose is comparable to the drug metformin (J Med Food 2011;14:884-9; Ann Fam Med 2013;11:452-59).
In 2017, researchers set out to see if cinnamon could help people with metabolic syndrome. There were 105 of them in their study, and each was given either a placebo or 3g of cinnamon powder a day for 16 weeks. Compared to placebo, the cinnamon group had significant improvements in weight, BMI, body fat and waist circumference; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; blood sugar and diabetes control; and total, LDL and HDL cholesterol. Incidence of metabolic syndrome were reduced by 34.5% on cinnamon versus 5.2% on placebo (Lipids Health Dis 2017;16:113).
Now, a just published systematic review and meta-analysis has firmly established that result. It included 35 studies, and it found that cinnamon significantly improves total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, serum glucose and insulin and waist circumference. In people with metabolic syndrome, cinnamon also significantly improved HDL-cholesterol and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
This meta-analysis shows that cinnamon significantly improves all five components of metabolic syndrome, making it a simple, perfect herb for helping your health if you have, or are on your way to, metabolic syndrome.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022;62(22):6113-6131
Astaxanthin for Blood Pressure & Cholesterol
Still little known, the carotene astaxanthin is 54 times more powerful as an antioxidant than its more famous cousin, beta-carotene.
Metabolic syndrome is the dangerous combination of 3 or more of high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, obesity and high blood sugar. It increases the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and sudden cardiac death.
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of 7 studies found that when adults at risk of metabolic syndrome supplement astaxanthin they significantly lower their systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, harmful LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and, perhaps, waist circumference.
Nutrients. 2022 May; 14(10): 2050