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American Ginseng has demonstrated potent glucose-lowering properties in two published clinical studies, one published in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
1. Vuksan V et al. Arch Intern Med 2000;160:1009-1013.
2. Vuksan V et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;753-758.
It does exactly what people are trying to do with R-lipoic acid, but at a significant cost savings. In the studies I mentioned, both non-diabetic and diabetic subjects took American Ginseng at various time points before or at the same time as a glucose challenge.
In the non-diabetic subjects (relevant to us), AG administered 40 minutes prior to the glucose challenge lowered the area under the glucose curve by 18% in one study and 15% in the other.
I wanted to point out these studies because of the high cost associated with lipoic acid, especially R-LA, and because of the fact that lipoic acid has not yet been clinically demonstrated to produce acute glucose-lowering effects in healthy humans when administered before or during a meal, although I suspect that this will be the case at high enough doses (and anecdotal evidence on this forum and elsewhere supports this).
BTW, American Ginseng also contains powerful lipid- and water-soluble antioxidants:
Kitts DD et al. Antioxidant properties of a North American ginseng extract. Mol Cell Biochem 2000;203:1-10.
Hope this helps!!
1. Vuksan V et al. Arch Intern Med 2000;160:1009-1013.
2. Vuksan V et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;753-758.
It does exactly what people are trying to do with R-lipoic acid, but at a significant cost savings. In the studies I mentioned, both non-diabetic and diabetic subjects took American Ginseng at various time points before or at the same time as a glucose challenge.
In the non-diabetic subjects (relevant to us), AG administered 40 minutes prior to the glucose challenge lowered the area under the glucose curve by 18% in one study and 15% in the other.
I wanted to point out these studies because of the high cost associated with lipoic acid, especially R-LA, and because of the fact that lipoic acid has not yet been clinically demonstrated to produce acute glucose-lowering effects in healthy humans when administered before or during a meal, although I suspect that this will be the case at high enough doses (and anecdotal evidence on this forum and elsewhere supports this).
BTW, American Ginseng also contains powerful lipid- and water-soluble antioxidants:
Kitts DD et al. Antioxidant properties of a North American ginseng extract. Mol Cell Biochem 2000;203:1-10.
Hope this helps!!
