| Summary: | Introduction: One in three adults in the United States 20 years of age or older has prediabetes mellitus (pre-DM), and many pre-DM patients will develop type 2 diabetes mellitus within 5 years. Cinnamon is used to lower blood sugar levels; however, results on its effectiveness are mixed. Diabetic blood glucose control is mainly monitored by either fasting blood glucose or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). The HbA1c test reflects the average blood glucose levels over the past 2?3 months. In this study, we investigated whether cinnamon supplements would influence HbA1c levels in prediabetic subjects.
Methods: Fifty-two prediabetic subjects 18?70 years old qualified for this study. The treatment (TX) group (n?=?30) received two 500?mg capsules of cinnamon daily, while the CON group (n?=?22) did not receive any cinnamon supplement. Thirty-three subjects completed this study in 10 weeks (TX, n?=?20; CON, n?=?13). At the beginning and end of the study, HbA1c levels, body mass index (BMI), and percent body fat (PBF) of the subjects were also determined.
Results: The Mann-Whitney U test for use with two independent groups indicated no statistically significant difference between the TX and CON groups based on HbA1c levels U?=?123.50, p?=?0.810; BMI U?=?112, p?=?0.507; and PBF U?=?119, p?=?0.685.
Conclusion: The results of this pilot study showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the TX group taking the cinnamon supplements versus the CON group not taking cinnamon supplements in regard to HbA1c levels, BMI, or PBF. Future studies with longer study duration for HbA1c testing are warranted to determine the effects of cinnamon on lowering HbA1c in prediabetics.
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