How kombucha can lower blood sugar in type-2 diabetes

A small pilot study shows that fermented tea can benefit health in more extensive trials.

Type 2 diabetes diagnosis

There are several ways to diagnose diabetes. Each course must usually be repeated on a different day to diagnose diabetes. Health care providers should perform tests (such as in a doctor’s office or laboratory) (1).

You may not need another test for diabetes if your doctor determines that your blood sugar (blood sugar) level is very high, or if you have classic symptoms of high blood sugar along with one positive test.

Learn more about tests such as AIC, FPG, OGT and Plasma Glucose Test from American Diabetes Association.

What is kombucha

A fresh and bubbly fermented tea rich in probiotics, antioxidants and enzymes, kombucha supports detoxification and can contribute to the well-being of the liver and digestive system.

It is believed that kombucha originated in China or Japan. Black or green tea is fermented for a week or more after adding bacteria, yeast and sugar strains (2).

Kombucha for T2D?

According to a clinical trial conducted by Georgetown University, Nebraska-Lincoln and MedStar Health, people with T2D diabetes who drank the fermented tea beverage kombucha for four weeks had lower fasting blood sugar levels than those who consumed a similarly flavored placebo drink (3).

Recently reported in Limits in nutrition, this finding from a 12-person pilot trial points to the potential for a dietary intervention to help lower blood sugar levels in people with diabetes, and also establishes the basis for a larger trial to confirm and extend these findings.

The effects of kombucha on people with diabetes have been studied in laboratory and rodent models. Still, as far as they know, this is the first clinical trial to examine the effects of kombucha in people with diabetes, says study author Dan Merenstein, MD, professor of human sciences at Georgetown University School of Medicine and family medicine.

The crossover design involved a group of people drinking about eight ounces of kombucha or a placebo drink daily for four weeks. After two months to “wash out” the biological effects, kombucha and placebo were switched between groups for another four weeks. Neither group was told which drink they were given at that time.

Promising results

After four weeks, kombucha appeared to lower average fasting blood sugar levels from 164 to 116 milligrams per day. deciliters, while the difference with placebo was not statistically significant (4). The American Diabetes Association recommends blood sugar levels between 70 and 130 milligrams per day. deciliters before meals.

Researchers also examined the composition of fermenting microorganisms in kombucha to determine which ingredients might be the most active. An RNA gene sequencing analysis confirmed that the beverage contained approximately equal amounts of lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria and a yeast called Cover up.

Craft Kombucha, a commercial producer in Washington, DC, provided the kombucha used in this study. The product has been renamed Brindle Boxer Kombucha.

According to Robert Hutkins, PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the study’s senior author, microbial mixes and amounts in different kombucha brands vary slightly between producers (3).

Many Americans have pre-diabetes, and diabetes is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. It also increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney failure, according to Chagai Mendelson, MD, who completed his residency at MedStar Health while working in Merenstein’s lab in Georgetown (3).

The study provided preliminary evidence that a typical drink could affect diabetes. As a result of the lessons learned from this trial, a more comprehensive test can be conducted to determine whether kombucha effectively reduces blood sugar levels, which may help prevent or treat T2D.

Learn more information about the use of kombucha tea as an antihyperglycemic agent in diabetics by reading this article on clinical trials.

(1) https://diabetes.org/diabetes/type-2
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26796581
(3) https://health.georgetown.edu/news-release/drinking-kombucha-may-reduce-blood-sugar-levels-in-people-with-type-2-diabetes/
(4) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1190248/full

Photo: iloli/Envato