Transitioning from Prescriptions to Herbs

Medication side effects are scary. Prescription drugs save lives, but they come with so many unwanted side effects. With large numbers of people suffering or dying as a result of prescription drug side effects, it makes you wonder why medications that are considered dangerous are allowed on the market. Truth be told most medications, (over-the-counter and prescription) have undesirable and sometimes dangerous aftereffects. The side effects range from gastrointestinal issues, such as nausea, constipation, and diarrhea, muscle aches, drowsiness, pain, skin reactions to death.

This being said, most people want to leave prescription drugs behind and go all natural. Most don’t have a herbalist background and have to depend on friends and urban legends. An example would be taking garlic to lower blood pressure or taking niacin to lower cholesterol. On my website, I have a recipe for reversing diabetes. It consists of milk thistle, dandelion root, turmeric root, licorice root, and cinnamon. There are other herbs or spices that can be used also. There is the goldenseal root; shown to regenerate pancreatic beta cells in lab rats. There is flaxseed; found to improve the glucose utilization in the liver, normalize glucose forming activity in the liver and muscle tissue, reduce post-meal blood sugar elevations and normalizes plasma insulin and the amount of insulin produced by the beta cells in the body. And let’s not forget the ginseng of the west, garlic; proven in university studies to reduce blood sugar level and increase insulin production. 

Now let us say, you start the research process and want to get rid of your diabetes medications. The very first thing you should remember that herbs are medications also and should not be taken within two hours of your diabetes medications. Some diabetic medication is time released and you must be careful that you do not bottom out your glucose level and end up in the emergency room. Second, side effects are not just confined to those chemically produced in a laboratory but include all forms of medications, even those herbal infused teas that are considered “all natural”.

Nothing makes you feel more defeated than feeling the herbal solution is not working. An example would be one that I experienced: I was having extremely high morning blood sugars (300-400). My doctor told me it was because I was not taking my medication and proceeded to give me even more medications. I talked to an endocrinologist that I work with and found out about dawn phenomenon.  This happens early in the morning usually between 2 am and 8 am. Your liver uses its stores of starch and fatty acids to produce glucose to keep blood glucose from going too low at night or other times of fasting. The majority of people’s bodies produce hormones, such as cortisol, glucagon, and epinephrine. These hormones increase insulin resistance and tell the liver to make more glucose. Your body wants you to get enough glucose to get out of bed and start the day.