Last year my dear friend of over 30 years confessed to me that her weight had increased to over 200 pounds and her height had decreased to 4’11” from 5’3” and that she had type-2 diabetes in addition to several other physical problems that is, unfortunately, frequently experienced with obesity. Wanting to be helpful and encouraging her to continue to follow her doctors advice, I suggested she might add alpha lipoid acid and cinnamon to her regimes to help with the diabetes and follow a low glycemic diet, which would help lower her weight as well as her blood sugar.

My friend came to this country from Mexico in the early 70’s determined to become an American. She is an American citizen now and owns a company with over 200 employees. This is a very intelligent woman. But when she told me she had stopped all medications and was eating nopal or prickly pear cactus for her diabetes, I was beginning to question her sanity. I live in the southwest where this cactus grows wild everywhere. The First Americans eat it and they have the worst percentage of diabetes in their culture of anyone, anywhere. How could she be so foolish?

However, further investigation shows that the First Americans desperately need to re-learn the medicinal uses of desert plants. They are no longer following their native diets. Fast food has become their meals of choice and obesity has claimed their torso‘s to prove it. If nopal were widely harvested and used to help regulate blood sugar in First Americans, the diabetes rate would fall sharply. But, regrettably, they are now under the influence of “white man’s medicine and corporate diet”. It seems they have been isolated from their land and their medicinal wisdom as well.

Here is what my research uncovered about the mighty nopal cactus:

The ability for the prickly pear cactus (nopal) to lower blood sugar has been well documented by many studies. In traditional Mexican medicine nopal is used for treating type-2 diabetes.

Mexican researchers found that people with non-insulin-dependent diabetes given broiled nopal stems experienced a large drop in blood sugar levels.

It has been shown that daily consumption of 250mg of this plant will lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels, according to a recent study. HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels were not affected.

In India, the cactus has been used to treat whooping cough and asthma.

The cactus is naturally found in Arizona, Mexico and other parts of the American Southwest; it is commercially grown in California and also has been exported to Europe and India.

In the Sonoran Desert, growing a new prickly pear is easy: the cactus grows in a linked "pad" setup, and each pad can be cut off, replanted and in most cases will take root, making a new cactus.

For many diabetics or prediabetics, nopal is a complete replacement for prescription blood sugar drugs. It regulates blood sugar with no negative side effects and no liver damage (which is one of the primary side effects of blood sugar prescriptions).

Nopal is a key ingredient in many highly effective (and safe) blood sugar regulating nutritional supplements.

Conventional medicine, including drug companies and the FDA, do not want the public to learn about nopal because it would cost Big Pharma hundreds of millions of dollars in annual profits from diabetes drug sales. The public is intentionally kept ignorant about natural treatments for diabetes as a way to maximize corporate profits.

Most doctors have never heard of nopal, or its blood sugar balancing effects, because the use of medicinal herbs is simply not taught in medical school. Virtually all M.D.s are nutritionally illiterate when it comes to herbs, food supplements and what exactly constitutes a healthful diet.

But please, if you have diabetes and are taking medication don’t stop taking your medication without first seeking the guidance of a holistic or naturopathic physician. Diabetes is a serious disease and you should not attempt to treat it by yourself.

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