“Looks like it’s breakfast at the Savoy tomorrow for some of their plate size cinnamon rolls.”
Which would be completely counterproductive. The value of the cinnamon is in shocking the beta cells of the pancreas back into producing insulin, a part of the homeostasis that is failing in the patient with Type 2 diabetes. Part of the body cells have become insulin-resistant, because of excessive conversion of glucose into fat stores, rather than energy. The body systems react to the excess insulin produced, by signaling to the beta cells, to produce less. Then when the body again gets a surge of blood glucose, there is not enough insulin to properly metabolize this surge of glucose, and the individual cells of the body CONTINUE to store the excess glucose as fat. It becomes a tightening spiral, and eventually, the beta cells produce less and less.
Diet and exercise go far to reverse this progressive failure, by forcing the entire body to go to fat-burn, once the blood glucose is taken to relatively low levels. There is the distinct possibility that the individual may then become hypo-glycemic (low blood sugar, less than 50 mg/dL), at which point, the patient is stumbling, weak, sweating profusely, and shows signs of going into shock.
Cinnamon rolls, by their very nature (sugary, white-flour relatively high-fat pastries) have a high glycemic index, that is, they put one helluva surge of glucose in the bloodstream within minutes of consumption. The person with Type 2 diabetes, with the sluggish insulin production from dysfunctional beta cells, may experience an increase of blood glucose up to hyper-glycemic levels (250+ mg/dL), at which point there may be a “sugar high”, giddiness, hyperactivity, and strangely enough, signs of shock. To the casual observer, this looks almost exactly like the kind of shock that accompanies hypo-glycemia. But the two different situations are treated quite differently.
For hypoglycemia, the patient is administered glucose tablets. For hyperglycemia, injectable insulin is the emergency treatment of choice. Administering the wrong one only accentuates the condition of shock, and have been known to lead to death.
The cinnamon is only effective if taken in the absence of high-glycemic carbohydrates. Put it in your artificially sweetened tea. (Apple cider has a very high ratio of sugar, and consequently, a relatively high glycemic number.)
ping
Thank you very much for this informative response. It is much appreciated.
Samantha
Folks with Type II diabetes should never drink juice of any kind ~ NEVER NEVER NEVER.
Most newer references seem to stress insulin resistance.
Those are the only mechanisms for cinnamon's effect on blood glucose that I've come across. Enter cinnamon and type II diabetes into PubMed's query box in the third link. You'll get 11 titles, most with abstracts.