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The anti-diabetic effect of 600 milligrams of D-pinitol per day
D-Pinitol supplementation can help type 2 diabetics increase their sensitivity to insulin. This is evident from a small human study that South Korean scientists published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Study
In 2005, researchers from South Korea's Inje University published a small trial in which 30 people with type 2 diabetes participated. The test subjects used oral medications, but did not yet inject insulin.
Half of the test subjects received a placebo every day for 13 weeks, the other half took 600 milligrams of D-pinitol daily. The researchers used a product from Amicogen, a Korean company that extracts D-pinitol from soy.
D-Pinitol
D-Pinitol is also called 3-O-methyl-D-chiro-inositol. It's actually D-chiro-inositol with an extra methyl group. You can see the structural formula below. According to a Washington University patent from the 1990s, part of D-pinitol converts into D-chiro-inositol after ingestion in the body. [United States Patent 5,550,166.]
Substances such as D-pinitol and D-chiro-inositol function as second messengers in cells. Cells attach phosphate groups to them and then use them to transmit signals. According to in vitro research and animal studies, this also happens when insulin tells cells to absorb glucose.
Results
In the D-pinitol group, the way the body dealt with glucose improved in the subjects. After the supplementation period, the researchers found less insulin and less glucose in the blood of the test subjects early in the morning. Markers for insulin resistance such as HbA1C and HOMA decreased.
Conventional cardiovascular markers also improved in the D-pinitol group. In the group, blood pressure dropped, the concentration of LDL increased and that of HDL decreased.
Click on the table for a larger version.
Sponsor
The research was paid for by the South Korean government, not Amicogen.
Source:
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Mar;59(3):456-8.
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Insulin & Glucose
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