Herbs to Avoid With Diabetic Medicines

Diabetes mellitus is an endocrine and metabolic disorder that causes a high level of blood glucose to circulate in the blood stream, causing damage to body tissues and organs. Patients with diabetes often take prescription medications to regulate their blood-sugar levels. Herbal supplements such as glucosamine and aloe vera may interfere with these medications.

Diabetes Medications

• Type 1 diabetics cannot produce any insulin from the pancreatic cells, so they must take injections of insulin daily, usually from a bovine source.

  Type 2 diabetics either do not produce enough insulin and must take medication that boosts insulin production, or they suffer from insulin resistance, where the insulin transport system cannot efficiently deliver the glucose out of the blood stream and into the body's cells. These diabetics may be taking medications that stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin, medications that increase the insulin's ability to transport the glucose into the blood, and drugs that inhibit certain digestive processes, such as slowing gastric emptying to reduce carbohydrate load into the blood, thereby lowering blood sugar.

Hyperglycemic Herbs

• Because the goal of diabetes medications is to reduce the amount of glucose circulating in the blood, taking an herbal supplement that raises blood sugar is contraindicated. These herbs include celery seed, bupleurum, gotu kola and rosemary. They inhibit the pancreatic cells' ability to release insulin, resulting in high blood sugar. Glucosamine, often used for arthritis inflammation and pain, is also known to raise blood-sugar levels and worsen insulin resistance.

Hypoglycemic Herbs

• Some herbs are recommended for diabetic patients as a natural method of lowering blood sugar. They work by a variety of methods, including increasing insulin secretion, enhancing the uptake of glucose by body tissue, and inhibiting glucose from being absorbed in the intestine. Patients who are already taking prescribed medications should not use these herbal supplements without being monitored by a doctor because of the risk of hypoglycemia (dangerously low blood sugar). These herbs include all forms of ginseng, ginger, bitter melon, aloe vera and prickly pear.

Anti-Coagulant Herbs

• Any herb that thins the blood is not recommended for patients taking common types of diabetic medications known as sulfonylureas, which includes Glucotrol, Glyburide and Amaryl. Examples of blood-thinning herbs include horse chestnut seed, visnaga, sweet woodruff, bedstraw, sweet clover and red clover. The compounds in these herbs, particularly coumarin, increase the metabolism of the sulfonylurea medications in the liver, making them less effective at lowering blood sugar.

Salicylate Herbs

• Salicylates are compounds used in anti-inflammatory medications such as aspirin. Some herbal products act like salicylates and can interfere with the action of diabetic medications by disrupting the chemical structure of the drug. Salicylate-containing herbs include sweet birch, white birch, meadowsweet, wintergreen, balsam poplar, black poplar, balm of Gilead, white willow and black haw.