
This content originally appeared on On a regular basis Health. Republished with permission.
By Don Rauf
The favored fermented tea called kombucha may help individuals with type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugar levels.
Findings reported August 1 within the journal Frontiers in Nutrition revealed that individuals with type 2 diabetes who consumed kombucha recurrently for 4 weeks had lower fasting blood glucose levels than once they drank a similar-tasting (although barely less sour) placebo beverage.
“The study is promising and interesting, because a drink that truly has sugar in it could potentially lower blood sugar,” says one study creator, Dan Merenstein, MD, a professor of human sciences in Georgetown’s School of Health and of family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC.
“When participants took a placebo [drink], their blood sugar went down but not that significantly. But after we gave kombucha to the identical people — with the identical microbiome, the identical genetics, and same eating regimen — their blood sugar levels went down impressively,” adds Dr. Merenstein, who collaborated with scientists from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and MedStar Health, a nonprofit healthcare organization.
Blood Sugar Drops in Relation to Kombucha Consumption
For the study, researchers recruited 12 adults with type 2 diabetes with a median age of 57. Nine were female, and half the group were African American and the opposite half white. Each participant was instructed to eat 8 ounces of a study drink with dinner day by day for 4 weeks.
During one four-week period, they drank only either kombucha or placebo, after which after an eight-week break to “wash out” the biological effects of the beverages, they switched to drinking the opposite beverage for 4 weeks.
Neither group knew which beverage they were receiving on the time.
Each week, participants reported their every day fasting blood glucose levels, which they measured using a house finger-stick testing glucose meter before breakfast. Morning fasting blood glucose levels were chosen because that is probably the most common time when individuals with diabetes check their sugars.
After 4 weeks of drinking kombucha, participants’ average fasting blood glucose levels dropped from 164 to 116 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). After 4 weeks of drinking the placebo, average fasting blood glucose levels dipped from 162 to 141 mg/dL, which was not a statistically significant drop.
For adults with diabetes, the fasting blood glucose level (measured before a meal) should ideally be between 80 to 130 mg/dL, in line with the American Diabetes Association.
Kombucha Cannot Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
While the study suggests a link between kombucha consumption and improved fasting blood sugars, Marilyn Tan, MD, an endocrinologist at Stanford Medicine in California who was not involved within the research, stresses that the outcomes didn’t show diabetes reversal or resolution in any patients.
“This was a really small study, and though it showed an encouraging improvement in fasting blood sugars, we don’t have data on glucose levels throughout the remaining of the day [only at one time during the day],” says Dr. Tan, whose essential clinical interests are outpatient and inpatient diabetes management. “Diabetes is difficult to reverse, and it is determined by the form of diabetes and other contributing aspects — for instance, other medications which will raise glucoses or the chance of other health conditions like pancreatic disease.”
Exploring the Lively Ingredients of Kombucha
Along with measuring kombucha’s effect on blood sugar, the researchers also checked out the makeup of the fermenting microorganisms within the drink to find out which ingredients could be probably the most lively. They found that the beverage included mostly lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, and a type of yeast called Dekkera.
Although the mechanism which will result in lower blood sugar is unclear, Tan says these ingredients could also be linked to changes within the gut microbiome or other metabolic changes on the cellular level.
The study authors speculate that the useful mechanism of motion could also be driven by microbes, but additionally metabolites present in kombucha, which include ethanol, lactic and acetic acids, tea constituents, and flavoring ingredients.
The Long History of Kombucha as a Health-Promoting Beverage
Kombucha is comprised of brewed black or green tea and sugar in a process that resembles vinegar fermentation. As with a sourdough starter, the addition of a SCOBY — or symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, which forms on the surface of the liquid because the tea ferments — could make the method quicker.
Its production involves yeast fermentation of sugar to alcohol, followed by a bacterial fermentation of alcohol to acetic acid. Vinegar is a mixture of acetic acid and water. The alcohol and acetic acid content of kombucha is lower than 1 percent, in line with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Believed to originate hundreds of years ago in China, kombucha has long been valued for its potential healing properties.
Research published within the May 2020 issue of Antioxidants suggests that the fermented tea has strong antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are compounds present in food which will reduce inflammation and protect the body.
While the study was limited, with only 12 participants, Merenstein and his team imagine the investigation provides a basis for follow-up studies with more participants over an extended time period.
Tan adds that the research drinks (each kombucha and placebo) were donated by Craft Kombucha, a industrial manufacturer within the Washington, DC area, so there could also be some bias. Merenstein stresses, nevertheless, that not one of the scientists received payment from this company.
Until more research could be conducted, the true advantage of kombucha stays to be seen, Tan says.
“Kombucha shouldn’t be a substitute for diabetes treatments advisable by your healthcare provider,” she adds.
Merenstein says that someday kombucha could possibly be an adjunct to assist individuals with prediabetes or diabetes. “Hopefully in the longer term, but we’re not there yet,” he says.