Use of Herbal Products for Diabetes by Latinos

Diabetes is an epidemic of crisis proportion. In the United States, cases have increased fivefold since 1958.1 The focus of therapy management is tightly controlling blood glucose levels in order to reduce related health complications. Toward this end, health care professionals need to know whether patients are using natural products that could affect these values. Certain ethnic groups have a higher incidence of diabetes, and 24% of Mexican Americans aged 45 to 74 years have diabetes.2 Across all age groups, Latinos, defined here as patients from Mexico and Central and South America, are twice as likely to develop diabetes as non-Latino white Americans.3 This patient population has traditionally used medicinal plants to control a variety of illnesses, including hyperglycemia.4