By: Elinor Emesz and Igor Klibanov
Do you have diabetes? Do you prefer all-natural treatment alternatives? Are you considering the CuraLin supplement? Are you aware of what it contains?
Based on my clients’ experiences, I know that finding a high-quality supplement that’s effective and helps you achieve and maintain healthy blood sugar levels can be difficult and confusing for diabetics worldwide. In this article, I’ll talk about:
● Pros and cons of CuraLin
● Amount of each ingredient in CuraLin
● What research says about ingredients in CuraLin
● Overall conclusions about CuraLin: Is it effective? Is it safe? Are there risks?
● An alternative to CuraLin
But before we jump in, I’d like to introduce myself.
Hi, I’m Igor. I am a proud 8-time fitness and nutrition author and personal trainer with a variety of diabetic clients. I help many clients reverse their diabetes, like Mandy, John, and others. I am also the author of the bestselling book Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Secrets.
Now that you know a bit more about me, let’s jump right in.
Pros and Cons of CuraLin
In CuraLin, there are a number of exotic-sounding herbs and ingredients. And it gives you that nice, fuzzy, warm feeling that because it’s exotic it MUST be effective, or at least safe. But natural doesn’t automatically mean healthy, as I talk about in that article. Let’s look at the pros and cons of taking CuraLin:
Pros:
● It might work
● Some people report fast results
Cons:
● Expensive
● Only available to purchase online
● Could have negative effects
● The product lacks real reviews
● A warning letter was released by the FDA
As I briefly touched on earlier, there are many supplements like CuraLin, that have numerous technical-sounding ingredients. The question is: how do you know they work?
CuraLin Ingredients And Their Doses
Before you look at specific studies that use the ingredients I previously mentioned, first you should take a look at their names and doses below:
| Ingredient Momordica charantia | Dose 300mg |
| Syzygium cumini | 100mg |
| Trigonella foenum graecum | 100mg |
| Gymnema sylvestre | 80mg |
| Phyllanthus emblica officinalis | 100mg |
| Curcuma longa | 100mg |
| Cinnamomum verum/zeylanicum | 40mg |
| Swertia chirayita Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora kurroa | 80mg 100mg |
What Does Research Say About The Ingredients In CuraLin?
Now that you know the ingredients and doses, let’s dig a little deeper and see if and how these ingredients have worked in past studies. After looking at the studies, you will then know whether the CuraLin supplement is genuinely effective, or simply pretentious.
First, let’s go ahead and look at results from human-based studies that use Momordica charantia, otherwise known as bitter melon.
In one particular meta-analysis, 2-6 grams per day were orally taken for 4 weeks, however, the specifics of the effect that the bitter melon had on Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), the indicator of “long-term glycemic control”, weren’t included.
In another study, the Momordica charantia was injected, so you can’t generalize the effects from injections to capsules, which is what CuraLin is. The reason you can’t generalize is because as soon as you inject something, it has 100% absorption. Oral delivery does not have 100% absorption, because it must go through the digestive process before ending up in the bloodstream. An injection goes straight to the bloodstream.
In yet another meta-analysis, a dose of 2-6 grams lowered HbA1C by only 0.2%. Nothing to write home about.
These studies used a few grams and barely reduced the blood sugar levels. Since CuraLin only has 300mg of Momordica Charantia, it’s even less likely to reduce glucose levels at all. You can probably guess that this ingredient does almost nothing to improve HbA1C levels.
The second ingredient we will look at is Syzygium cumini, also known as Java plum. In one study, where a dose of 5 grams was used twice a day, HbA1C was lowered by only 0.68%. This, of course, is a very trivial change, even though 10 grams were taken per day, which is quite a lot. On the other hand, in CuraLin, there are only 100mg.
According to the CuraLife website, the recommendation for the number of capsules to take per day is “1-2 capsules after each meal, breakfast, lunch, and after dinner but before going to sleep”, which amounts to a maximum of 6 capsules per day. So, say you took the maximum, 6 capsules, which in total would include 600mg of Syzygium cumini.
Compared to the 10 grams that were taken in the study, 600mg is very little. So if 10 grams of Syzygium cumini lowered HbA1C by only 0.68%, you can bet that 600mg would do practically nothing. Just like Momordica charantia, the Syzygium cumini in the capsules isn’t exactly effective when it comes to lowering HbA1C.
The next ingredient is Trigonella foenum graecum, often referred to as fenugreek. In one study, people received 10 grams of fenugreek powder twice a day. This dropped HbA1C by just 0.69%. Like Syzygium cumini, there is only 100mg of fenugreek in CuraLin, which is 0.1grams, which is 1% of the 10 grams that were taken in the study.
The drastic difference between the two doses makes it obvious that the effect on HbA1C levels will be next to nothing. It should also be taken into consideration that a fenugreek powder is used in the study, whereas CuraLin is a capsule, so you shouldn’t generalize between the two.
Gymnema sylvestre, also known as gurmar, is another ingredient in a CuraLin capsule. There are 80mg of it in one capsule of CuraLin, whereas in a systematic review, people were given 400mg twice a day, meaning 800mg per day in total. According to the study, it only dropped HbA1C levels by 0.6%. As I’ve mentioned time and time again, 800mg were taken in the study, whereas in a CuraLin capsule there are only 80mg, which as we know is 10 times less than in the study.
From this we can deduce that the effect on HbA1c levels will also likely be 10 times less, which would mean that based on only the Gymnema sylvestre in one capsule, the HbA1C levels would drop by only about 0.06% which, again, is next to nothing.
The supplement also includes an ingredient called Phyllanthus emblica officinalis, more commonly known as Indian gooseberry. In one study, people were split into two groups:
● Group 1: given 250mg of Phyllanthus emblica officinalis twice a day.
● Group 2: given 500mg twice a day.
The HbA1C levels of those that got 250mg twice a day dropped by 0.22%, while the HbA1C levels of those that got 500mg twice a day dropped by 0.47%. In one CuraLin capsule, there are 100mg of
Phyllanthus emblica officinalis, which is 2.5 times less than the first group of people that received 250mg, and 5 times less than the second group of people that got 500mg.
The effects of Phyllanthus emblica officinalis in the study are already low, so the fact that the dose in one CuraLin capsule is either 2.5 or 5 times less, shows that the effect of Phyllanthus emblica officinalis on HbA1C levels will be that much lower, if anything at all. Again, just like almost all the previous ingredients I talked about, the effect of Phyllanthus emblica officinalis on HbA1C is extremely insignificant and pretty much useless.
The next ingredient is Curcuma longa, mostly referred to as curcumin (which is a part of turmeric), of which there are 100mg in one CuraLin capsule. In a meta-analysis of 14 studies, the average reduction in HbA1C from curcuma longa was only 0.4%, which again, is not a lot, and will most likely be even lower because there are only 100mg in one capsule.
Next, there is an ingredient called Cinnamomum verum/zeylanicum, more commonly referred to as True cinnamon tree.
In one capsule of CuraLin, there are 40mg of Cinnamomum verum/zeylanicum, whereas in one study, participants were given 1.5g of cinnamon cassia powder once a day. Their HbA1C dropped by only 0.38%. 1.5g is a lot higher than 40mg. If the higher dose was ineffective to begin with, how effective do you think that a fraction of that dose would be?
The last two ingredients in Curalin are Swertia chirayita and Neopicrorhiza Scrophulariiflora Kurroa, which shockingly have not been tested in humans at all, and are missing research. Why they are included in CuraLin – I have no idea. To look fancy? Who knows?��
Overall Conclusions About CuraLin
Based on what I’ve gone over above, about each of the ingredients in CuraLin supplements, it is obvious that some of the ingredients have no research behind them whatsoever about whether or not they improve blood sugar levels in humans – there is no research on their safety, doses, nor the interactions with other medications and ingredients.
It is also safe to say that based on the studies, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews we discussed, none of the ingredients have a significant effect on HbA1C levels in humans.
However, it is also important to keep in mind that we don’t know any specifics about how they work and interact together, because of a lack of clinical trials/research. There are already very few studies on each ingredient alone. To create studies about the combinations of 2 or more ingredients would be very difficult, and therefore, unlikely.
A few more conclusions we can make about CuraLin based on the information above are:
● Every ingredient that has research behind it used a much higher dose (80-1000% higher – yes that’s 1000%, that’s not a typo) than what’s in the supplement.
● None of the ingredients have really impressive drops in blood glucose levels, even at high doses.
● Some of the ingredients in Curalin were researched with a different delivery mechanism (powder vs. capsule) and you can’t generalize from one to the other.
● There is absolutely no research about what happens when you combine various ingredients.
You might be wondering “does CuraLin work?” Unfortunately, we don’t know. The overall effectiveness of CuraLin supplements is very questionable considering the fact that based on the studies we looked at earlier, the individual ingredients in the supplement are not that effective. There is the possibility that together they’d be more effective or less effective. The ultimate answer to which of these possibilities will occur is that we don’t know. There is no research, clinical trial, or study where the ingredients are combined, and as I previously mentioned, there is also research missing on two of the ingredients.
In terms of safety, there is a big lack of safety information. However, we know that when the ingredients are combined, there are three possible scenarios:
1. There can be a synergistic effect: the combination of different ingredients would lower blood sugar levels more than the sum of their parts. For example, if one ingredient lowers HbA1C levels by 0.5%, and another lowers it by the same amount, together they might lower it by 2%, rather than the expected 1%.
2. There can also be an additive effect: when the ingredients are combined, they lower blood sugar as much as would be expected if their values were added up.
3. The final possible scenario is a negative effect when two ingredients negate each other or possibly cause an adverse reaction. For example, two ingredients might lower blood glucose levels by 0.5%, but together they might lower it by only 0.2%, or not at all.
There are also potential risks when using CuraLin such as low blood sugar and blood thinning.
Alternatives To CuraLin
Ultimately, there is a lack of research when it comes to the ingredients within CuraLin as well as how they react together. Because of this, taking the supplement is potentially risky, and could have negative effects, especially considering there was an FDA warning letter issued. It is up to you whether you want to take the risk of using the supplement.
If yes, that’s up to you. If not, I talk about 4 super simple natural dietary supplements in one of my books that lower HbA1C by 1% or more. They’re safer, cheaper, more effective as well as more thoroughly studied, and help lower and maintain healthy glucose levels. One of the four is milk thistle. In one meta-analysis, it lowered HbA1C by 1.07%. It does this by bettering insulin sensitivity, which in turn can help lower and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
Although Curalin is a powder, I also talk about Ensure Drinks and Glucerna Shakes in their respective articles.
And if you want to delve into other areas of nutrition and supplementation for diabetics, check out my articles on pre-workouts for diabetics, whey protein for diabetics, and electrolyte drinks for diabetes.
