GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…DIABETES #13: Drinking Kombucha Tea MAY Reduce Blood Sugar Levels!

For the first times since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

August 1, 2023 saw this statement in the research journal, FRONTIERS IN NUTRITION: “People with type-II diabetes who drank the fermented tea drink kombucha for four weeks had lower fasting blood glucose levels compared to when they consumed a similar-tasting placebo beverage, according to results from a clinical trial conducted by researchers at Georgetown University's School of Health, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and MedStar Health. This finding, from a pilot 12-person feasibility trial, points to the potential for a dietary intervention that could help lower blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and also establishes the basis for a larger trial to confirm and expand upon these results.”

Now, before you run out or do an internet search for your nearest Kombucha supplier, note the sentence: “This finding, [is] from a pilot 12-person feasibility trial”. 

What THAT means is that someone had the idea that drinking Kombucha might be a good way to reduce blood sugars in people with Type 2 diabetes. So they gathered a dozen people, made sure they drank Kombucha for four weeks – about eight ounces a day (your average diet Pepsi, Cherry Coke, Mountain Dew, Bubly flavored, carbonated water, and any other standard aluminum can of soda is TWELVE ounces of liquid.)

The study went like this: “one group of people [drank] about eight ounces of kombucha or placebo beverage daily for four weeks and then after a two-month period to 'wash out' the biological effects of the beverages, the kombucha and placebo were swapped between groups with another four weeks of drinking the beverages. Neither group was told which drink they were receiving at the time.”

The result was what you read above – six of the twelve people had a significant change in their blood sugars over the period of the test. What is significant? If you test your blood sugars daily as I do now, you know that the “ideal” number on your glucose monitor should be between 70 and 130.

During this test, the group that was drinking the Kombucha tea, 8 ounces every day for the four week study, saw their glucose monitor numbers go from 164 down to 116! Mine this morning was 184.

So…what do YOU suppose I’m going to do?

Well, keep taking my Metformin for one thing. Then it looks like (according to the site that provided the photo, who ranked each of the types of Kombucha drinks, did so based on multiple factors. They also showed how to get hold of the drink, so next time we’re at Target, I’m gonna pick me up some Kombucha bottles and see what all the excitement’s about…

On the other hand, I’m not going to just “drink the Kool-Aid so-to-speak! I’d also like to find out if there’s a LONG-TERM effect, in other words, is there an effect on the subject’s A1c – which we all know is an indicator of long-term changes in the individual’s blood sugar. I already keep track DAILY of my own blood pressure, weight, blood glucose, and one of three: steps, miles biked, or amount of yardwork/snow shoveling. I’ve got a pretty good baseline here (in case you were wondering, I was a science teacher for 41 years; and I continue to teach a science-based class for two or three weeks in the summer called Alien Worlds because I’m both a science fiction writer and I want young people to know that George Lucas created STAR WARS “aliens” by snapping his fingers and saying, “O! wouldn’t it be cool if we had an alien who looked like an easily sympathizable alien who looks like a humanoid Briard (a dog breed) – what did Leia call Chewbacca that one time? Oh, yeah: “Would someone get this walking carpet out of my way?”…(and if you want to learn more about THAT part of me, you can visit my other blogsite, POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS at https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/)

Source:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230801105026.htm#google_vignette

THE ACTUAL STUDY (very…sciencey, just so you know!): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1190248/full
Image: https://sporked.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/RANKING_KOMBUCHA_HEADER-UPDATE.jpg,
https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg