Prediabetes, which affects an estimated 38% of Americans, is a precursor to Type 2 diabetes, and its progression can be prevented through a number of lifestyle modificaitons, anti-diabetic drugs, and other weight loss measures. Research suggests that nutraceutical solutions may serve an adjunctive role in prediabetes prevention efforts, with a recent study making the case for cinnamon.
 
A recent clinical trial which was published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society found that cinnamon was able to improve blood sugar control in a group of 27 people with prediabetes, and potentially slow the progression of prediabetes to type 2 diabetes. A randomized clinical trial studied the effects of daily cinnamon supplementation at 500 mg, three times daily, versus a placebo over a period of 12 weeks.
 
The authors of the study hypothesized that cinnamon could improve blood glucose control in prediabetes patients due to its propensity to increase GLUT4 membrane translocation, stimulate post-prandial levels of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), inhibition of alpha-glucosidase activity, and antioxidant properties.
 
The researchers evaluated participants to see if supplementation resulted in any improvements to fasting glucose, glucose tolerance, and glycated hemoglobin.  
 
Cinnamon supplementation resulted in a significant reduction in plasma glucose from baseline to 12 weeks, while no changes were observed in the placebo group. Additionally, cinnamon, but not the placebo, resulted in a significant decrease in plasma glucose two hours after an oral glucose tolerance test was administered over the 12-week period.
 
Additionally, the authors observed that cinnamon supplementation raised fasting insulin levels compared to placebo.
 
“Although the lack of information on insulin concentrations during the [oral glucose tolerance test] prevents any statement regarding the effect of cinnamon on insulin release in response to a glucose load, cinnamon-treated participants displayed higher fasting insulin levels and an ample increase in HOMA-B% at 12 weeks, when compared to the respective baseline,” the authors wrote. “Notwithstanding limitations of static models, our findings point to an effect on cinnamon on beta-cell function that should be further investigated with more mechanistic studies.”

The authors concluded that the preliminary, short-term trial laid the groundwork for further studies evaluating cinnamon’s effect on insulin resistance, and long-term impact on prediabetes treatment, the potential for cinnamon to induce prediabetes remission, and the direct impact of cinnamon on type 2 diabetes incidences in a larger-scale trial over a longer time period.