The great thing about moving to a Training and Doctrine Command such as Fort Benning, is that the possibility of meeting old friends, people that you have served with in past locations, and have gone to combat with, are found in large numbers all over post. Another of the great meeting points are the schools that one must endure to be promoted while in the service of the country.
I met and now work with a friend of mine from Germany, who is my Platoon Sergeant, and he kept telling me how his vision was getting worse and worse. Now, as time goes by for us old soldiers, so does the eyesight, an inevitable fact of life, but, with this guy things were much different, his eyesight was leaving him day by day, not year after year. When he had a medical professional check him out, he also had the surprise of a lifetime, he had diabetes. Now, he has to check his blood three times a day, and the future of his career is not so laid out in black and white, as it was six months ago.
My input for him, as his friend, was to take cinnamon as a supplement. He must have looked at me like I had grown antlers and a headlight look on my face, because he did not believe that cinnamon could help him in any way, so I pulled out the facts.
According to Livingstrong.com, probably best known as an alternative treatment for diabetes, cinnamon has been found by some studies to lower blood sugar levels. However, research has produced mixed results, meaning not every study found this benefit. A study that appeared in a December 2003 issue of "Diabetes Care" looked at the effects of cinnamon consumption by type 2 diabetics. Participants were divided into six groups, with three taking various dosages of cinnamon -- 1 g, 3 g or 6 g-- and three groups taking a placebo. After 40 days, subjects using the cinnamon extract lowered their fasting glucose levels by 18 to 29 percent, while the placebo group did not demonstrate any statistically significant drop. A study in the December 2006 issue of "The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition" found cinnamon supplementation helped reduce fasting glucose levels in pre-diabetic obese subjects. For 12 weeks, participants either took 250 mg of cinnamon extract twice a day with meals or used a placebo. Those using the supplement also experienced an increase in lean body mass and a small but statistically significant decrease in body fat. Healthy weight plays a central role in preventing and controlling diabetes.
My buddy is now taking a blood sugar vitamin that helps him control his fasting glucose level, while at the same time working hand in hand with his insulin regime, and has been given the green light to continue working and leading soldiers.
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