Supplements as a Type 1 Diabetic

Hi! This is Elizabeth Hanawalt coming to you again, and I am wanting to talk about supplements. Several people have asked me, “Do you take supplements? If you do, which ones? Why?” 

I won’t tell you everything I take, but for supplements, I like to address the inflammation of diabetes. The fact that I’ve got type 1 puts me in the autoimmune segment of society. It’s not the only autoimmune disease that I have, so it’s why I take these. 

There’s two of them: one is berberine, and the other is the active form of turmeric, or curcumin. Curcumin is an actual herb that has been found and proven to stop the inflammatory process. It works to stop it at a certain point. Berberine, though – it’s been proven over and over again that it actually works in two different places in the inflammatory process. Now this process is long, tedious, and I couldn’t explain it and I don’t understand every single part of it! But the fact that it does do that is the reason I take it. Now, there’s studies showing how it benefits cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer – anything that has anything to do with inflammation. 

Well, I’m sure y’all have heard this before, that a lot of these diseases are going way up in occurrence because of inflammation, and we can blame it on different things, but you can do this and it’s not going to hurt you. A lot of people say, like when cinnamon came out, “well, should I take it?” and it’s like… well, take it, and see if you get a benefit from it! 

And that’s with any over-the-counter supplement. Do you get a benefit from it? Does your doctor know you’re taking it? Because let’s face it, people go “yeah, but it’s natural,” and my answer is “well, so is arsenic, but would you take it?” No, you wouldn’t! Nature’s where we get the basis of a lot of our medicines, and so just because it’s natural does not mean it’s safe. So always check with your doctor first! 

But these – the berberine and the turmeric – are things you can take. If you get a benefit from it, great! If you don’t, quit taking it! But it’s not going to hurt anything, even if you don’t get a benefit from it. I am a person that doesn’t see a whole lot of difference with much of anything that I take, but I know scientifically that these two work, and so I’m going to keep taking it even though I don’t feel any different. Now, I will say though, a lot of people do feel different – it’s just me, it’s just my body and that’s the way it works. But there are a lot of people who get a physical benefit out of it. So that’s why I keep taking them!