Xiao Ke Ling Pian for Diabetes control….
This is a formulated herbal pill which contains the following herbs:

Xian Di Huang (Radix Rehmanniae Glutinosae fresh)
http://www.mdidea.com/products/new/new086.html
Mai Men Dong (Tuber Ophiopogonis Japonici)
http://www.tcmtreatment.com/herbs/0-maimendong.htm
Huang Qi (Radix Astragali Membranacei)
http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/herbal/huangqi.html
Fu Ling (Sclerotium Poriae Cocos)
http://www.healthcareherb.com/fuling.html
Tian Hua Fen (Radix Trichosanthis Kirilowii)
http://members.shaw.ca/panclinic/pa.../tianhuafen.htm
Gou Qi Zi (Fructus Lycii)
http://www.tcmtreatment.com/herbs/0-gouqizi.htm
Wu Wei Zi (Fructus Schisandrae Chinensis)
http://www.herballove.com/library/herbal/schizandra.asp
Mu Dan Pi (Cortex Moutan Radicis)
http://content.nhiondemand.com/shp/...sp?objID=100763
Huang Lian (Rhizoma Coptidis Recens)
http://www.tcmtreatment.com/herbs/0-huanglian.htm
Hong Shen(Radix Ginseng Rubra)
http://www.healthkingenterprise.com...llerFormula.htm
Shi Gao (Gypsum Fibrosum)
http://www.tcmtreatment.com/herbs/00-shigao.htm
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It is being sold here in Xi'an, China in most pharmacies for use by diabetic patients. The claims are many, but I only bought one bottle. It comes in a bottle of 100 and not sure of the dosage, but one website said 8 pills, 3 times daily, so that would mean one bottle would only last about 4 days. Here, it cost about $1.30 a bottle, so in the states, it probably will sell for $12 or more (that is just my guess).

For those that know my success with huang lian su, note that this new pill contains a small amount of it. I'll probably start up with this in the next day or so and I'll post my results. If I don't see a direct impact (immediate results), I'll discontinue it. Not that I don't think continued use might bring about good results, just that I'm not that herb dependent lately.

I've known one thing for a while now and kind of don't allow myself to follow through on this on a daily basis, but the most effective control of blood sugar is a consistent low-carb diet in combination with regular daily exercise done at intervals throughout the day. Herbs have been my "drug of choice", but really, I am convinced that eating proper nutritionally balanced meals and being moderate about carbs/fats/proteins and avoiding processed foods and refined sugars and then getting some exercise between meals does alot more to control diabetes T2 in and of itself than anything else. For me, the herbs sort of tweak my control, but without dietary & exercise considerations, the herbs don't nearly have the same effectiveness......... That's not scientific information I'm spouting, just my own experience and observations....

Also, for those who are on metformin, I've observed that metformin also is not effective for me at all when not eating and exercising properly, but when I am exercising consistently and keeping my diet properly, the metformin worked just fine.

Anyway, I'll post the results and if it works, I'll try to post websites in the USA that carries this...

Metformin does me no good whatsoever.I dropped it about 6 months ago.Huang lian su along with medium carb diet and
exercise is a good solution for me.I actually alternate Huang
Lian Su with Bitter Melon(I switch every 4 months).I also
use Gymnema Sylvestre.Gymnema does not help my BG but
it keeps my sweet tooth in check.If I know I am going to
eat more carbs than normal,I take a Glipizide 5 mg pill 30 minutes before mealtime.My FBG and A1C numbers are ok.
That's what works for me these days
Eddie

I also have tried many herbs, supplements etc along the way and like you, Ron, I find that diet and exercise are what works the best for me. I've never found anything that helps more than these 2 things.

Good luck with your experiment though. I'll be looking forward to seeing the results.

Eddie,
Since you've been on huang lian su a while now, I'd be interested in knowing if you've noticed any improvement in blood pressure and cholesterol, also triglycerides. I see your weight is down to almost goal and hope that's a good spot for you. I attribute all these improvements to the huang lian su, and pretty much, that is my herb of choice when not experimenting for another alternative that gives as good a result.

I get the impression you take the gymnema still. I do too. With only the gymnema, I don't see much effect on lowering my numbers on the down side, but to me, it might be helping with keeping my up side lower. Example: After a meal with noodles, or dumplings and followed with a little bit of fruit, I rarely go over 140... Last night, I wasn't hungry for dinner again, as we've been eating these huge lunches lately, so I ate a banana and a pear and some different nuts over a 3 hour period. At bedtime, my bg was 94. Then, after taking my reading, I took my nightly regimen of vitamins and herbs and went to bed....

Ron

I wish this worked for me. I sometimes wonder if I have type I but at my age it's doubtful. And my numbers are not high (because of very low carbing) but unless I take a supplement they won't go below 100 either.

Ron
My TG and cholesterol are good.They seem to not depend on
huang lian su.I recently stayed away from huang lian su for 3
months but TG and cholesterol remained good.I think huang lian
su does help keep my BP in the good range.I take huang lian su
mainly for BG enhancement.
Bye for now
Eddie

Saturday 06/06/09

I took 8 pills this morning as directed on the bottle of Xiao ke Ling Pian.

Before though, I checked my blood sugar an hour after breakfast. I purposely drank whole milk and ate a large piece of fried bread at breakfast time. My reasoning is that my BG is always in range and I wanted to push it up a bit to test the effect of this new herb.

An hour and 15 minutes after breakfast, my BG: 156

I then took the herbal pill. At 1 hour and 30 minutes after taking the herbal pill, my BG: 98

After a light lunch of noodles and vegetables, I tested again at an hour and 30 minutes after and my blood sugar was 82.

I was supposed to take a dose at noon time, but decided not to do so.

at 4pm, I drank 3 glasses of white wine with friends.

I went out to dinner at 7pm and ate:

about 8 varieties of meat served on skewers, about 6 vegetable dishes, 4 pieces of cakes (dry, no icing). I drank about 5 - 6 oz beers (not low carb)

and at 9pm my BG: 134

I'm currently eating 2 very small nectarines and soon, I'll take the herbal medicine, take a shower and go to bed... It is almost half past 10pm here now....

Just knowing what I ate today, which was a little more carby than normal, just to test this herb out, it seemed to have kept things in check in spite of my only taking the one dose, so my initial evaluation is-----------Hopeful!

Sunday 06/07/09

I took my new herbal pills at bedtime and this morning,

FBG: 96

Considering my evening mill, the beer and the fruits at bed time, I believe the 96 is a very good FBG. I feel that without the herbal my FBG this morning would have been about 110.

Also, yesterday, I think with what I ate and without the morning dose of herbal pills, my BG would have run at least 10-20 points higher on any of my reported readings.

So, on the morning of day 2, with having only taken 2 of the 3 recommended doses the first day, I consider I had good results and I had even upped my carbs to challenge the effect of the herbal pill. My estimate of my carbs for yesterday is about 40-50%... My protein was about 10% for the day, even though my night meal sounded high in protein.

Today, I will take all 3 doses regardless of readings. Since the pills are herbal, I'm not concerned and know that I won't have any hypos. I will try to keep my carbs today close to 30%, which is about normal for me. I'll be out most of the day, but I'm interested in what my readings will be throughout the day, so I'll plan on bringing my meter with me, something I never do....

Monday 06/08/09

FBG: 102

I didn't do a good job with my herbal intake yesterday.

Breakfast was scrambled egg with garlic bolts, onions and tomatoes, and a cucumber salad, with a good sprinkling of garlic and peppers dosed in vinegar, and about 8 bayberries.

I took my morning herbal supplements after breakfast.

We were out shopping and I forgot not only my test kit at home, but my new herbal medicine, so I didn't take my 2nd dose in a timely manner.

I ate lunch at 1pm. My meal was Lamb soup with noodles with a chunk of dry bread, a cucumber/bamboo/edible black fungus salad, a dish of bitter melon with a strange pasty tasting bean.

I arrived home and tested at 3pm. BG: 154

I took my Xiao Ke Ling Pian pills with a gymnema sylvestre pill (which I almost always take in conjunction with any other diabetic herbal pill) at 3pm

I tested at 4pm and my BG: 92

Dinner was at 7pm and I ate 2 vegetable dishes, almost all greens and included bitter melon (about 15 different vegetables). An hour after dinner, I ate a large apricot and at two hours after dinner I ate another large apricot.

At bedtime, I tested my BG: 104

After testing I took my evening herbal pills at bedtime

I am not disappointed in my BG readings with this new herbal pill, but I expected a little better today. I find they taste a little sweet as soon as I put them in my mouth. I'm not crazy about taking so many of them and I doubt I'd continue taking 3 times a day if I chose to use these. I'd probably make do with 2 doses a day of it. I don't like noon doses of anything. I also had been drinking a special tea that helps metabolism and I skipped drinking that yesterday and that might have contributed to my slightly disappointing results.

The cost of these pills in China is about $1.30 a bottle which is a 4 day supply with 4 pills left over, so roughly, about 7 bottles a month would do it. Monthly cost: $9.10

I could not find information or a source for this on the internet, but accessing American websites from China is not a sure thing that it is a complete search.

Additional comments for Monday 06/08/09

I did take my morning herbs. We went out shopping at mid-morning and I brought my new herbal pills with me so I could keep the experiment going, but at lunch time, I forgot to take them. The funny thing is I thought I had, but before dinner, I checked in the little spare bottle I was carrying and they were still in there. OH well, goofed again.

Lunch ~ 1:30pm

My wife and I shared a bowl of lamb noodle soup and a pork sandwich along with a cool dish of mixed greens

Arrived home ~ 2:30pm and checked BG: 129

Took a nap then checked my my BG at 5:30pm.. BG: 160

I was shocked, then checked and realized I had not taken the noon dose, but what concerned me more is the long time it took to get to that spike, as I've skipped meds before and usually at 2 hours, my BG is coming down...

Took my new pills at 5:40pm

Dinner got delayed till 7:30pm, but I did eat half of a Chinese pancake on the streets while walking to the massage parlor for a massage, which we had decided to do before dinner. Then we went to an outdoor BBQ restaurant and I think that was one of my best meals in China. We had Chinese style BBQ beef, pork, lamb, fish and then a chicken stew (for lack of knowing what to call that dish) and a pork stew and the seasoning in these two dishes were excellent. We had a dish of boiled and spicy peanuts and soy beans in a pod and these were an excellent flavor. I washed it all down with 2 "Hans" beers (almost qt size)...

We walked home from the restaurant, a brisk 45 minute walk. At 1 hour after I had finished my dinner, my BG: 92

We sat around, talked a while, then brewed a batch of our special tea that supposed to help metabolism and such.

At 11:30pm, my BG: 91

I was going to take my third dose of the day at bed time, but I don't think it is necessary. With what I ate and drank tonight, I expect I might have another delayed spike during the night, so I'm predicting an FBG of about 105 in the morning.

Hi Cajunboy,

Wow that sounds pretty good.

Keep testing.

The most important thing here is can we get this state side?

Lets see how your test and experiment continue.

I am dropping weight finally; albeit up temporarily from a really great vacation.

Back to basics.

I have stopped my basal insulin completely. I use Novolog to keep my highs from going over 140.

Perhaps as I move downward on the scale I can once again try some herbal remedies.

However, I also agree that low carbing and exercise is the real control factor for T2 diabetics.

Best wishes,

Ralph

Tuesday 06/09/09

FBG: 95

Just up 4 points in 7 hours, so I'd say things are ok...

I'm going to try something a little different this morning.

I'm taking the morning dose of Xiao Ke Ling Pian prior to eating and I'm going to drink the same herbal tea and try to wait until an hour after I finish drinking the tea to eat and test my BG and then eat..........

I will then edit this post to add the results.....
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Took herbs, drank tea, waited one hour, BG: 97

my thoughts: possibly the length of time since my last meal could be causing my BG to want to rise and the herbal pills and tea counteracted the rise and kept my BG almost constant.............

going to eat breakfast now.
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breakfast:

egg w/garlic bolts, bell peppers and tomatoes
Cucumber, tofu and black edible fungus salad in vinegar
Dried bread from XinJiang, near Pakistan border

1 hour after Brkfst BG: 120

2 hours after Brkfst BG: 103

I think this shows tight control with this new herbal pill, plus that tea I'm drinking. I have to give credit to both. By the way, I discontinued all other supplements (vitamins, minerals, etc..) during this test phase. I'm only taking the Xiaokelingpian, gymnema sylvestre and drinking an herbal tea. Note, that I'm posting my meals to show I'm not cutting out carbs. Actually, I've been trying to keep my total daily carbs above 30% for this experiment.

My only hope is I can find this herb in the USA. I did find a Chinese link that perhaps I could buy bulk from, but I'll need someone here to make a contact for me to get more information as it is all written in Chinese.

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snacked for lunch: Plum, apricot, watermelon, pear, cashews and later a Chinese crepe loaded with vegetables.

I took my noon herbal dose prior to the crepe and after the fruit.

1 hour after eating, BG: 107

Afternoon snack: cashews, pistachios, pecans, watermelon, lychee fruit

Took herbal dose about 6pm

Dinner at 8-830pm, we ate at a local hot-pot restaurant. We had beef & vegetables & noodles and hot & spicy is an incomplete description, as I was soaking wet after dinner from all the hot spices, but it was good anyway!

At 1 1/4 hrs after dinner, BG: 114

I did not drink any tea this afternoon. I will test my BG again in an hour or so, but tonight is the end of my testing this new herbal pill. I've decided I'll be buying a year or two supply of it before leaving.

For those who've had good restults with herbs, especially Huang lian su, or by the English name, Berberine HCL, I'd say that if you can get your hands on this Xiao Ke Ling Pian, give it a try. I find it was pretty effective, especially since I was upping my carbs and slacking on the dosage timing and even had a couple of skipped doses. I feel like this new herbal in combination with the gymnema sylvestre did a good job of keeping my numbers low after meals. I've not had a lot of readings in the 80s' in these past few months, but I'm comfortable with my BG dropping into the low 90s' quite often. I feel that I now have a good herbal pill to rotate out with my Berberine...

Also, the herbal tea I've been drinking is Pu'er Tea. There are two types of Pu'er. It comes in black (dark) or green (light). Both help with metabolism and both are helpful with cholesterol. I prefer the dark and it is considered the one with the most benefit as it is aged a long time. However, the light Pu'er is excellent on a hot day to cool the body temperature down. In the winter months, the dark is good at warming the body temperature.

Pu'er is just coming into notariety in the USA, read about it, you'll see a gain in popularity within the next year or so, I'm sure. Also, brace yourself, it is not cheap, if you buy the good quality stuff....

Thanks for the information about Pu' er. I have done a little bit of research since you mentioned it and was wondering if you got the green or the dark. I drink a lot of green tea but this tea sounds different.

I got plenty of both. They are both great teas... Since my experiment with the Xiao Ke Ling Pian ended, I started drinking dark Pu'er in the morning and light Pu'er at night. My blood sugar has been getting down into the low 70s'. Also, my FBGs' have been no higher than 82.

For the rest of my time in China, I'm taking my metformin morning and night and drinking Pu'er (Pooh Air is the pronunciation, by the way) both morning and night.

I think the Pu'er, when enough is consumed, works very well. I'm now drinking about the euqivalent of about 3- 8 ounce glasses, twice daily. But, we do a tea ceremony and drink it in the traditional tea cups which only hold about an ounce. It sort of forces you to relax and enjoy conversation and the ritual of making it in a method that's been around for 1,000 years or more. For the person doing the tea ceremony, when serving 4 people, I can assure you, it keeps them very busy making small pots and pouring... It is fun to watch also... I've taken a turn doing it and it is actually fun to do it. We went out and bought all the traditional accessories to do this and can't wait to introduce this back home.....

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by the way:

I went out and bought a supply of Xiao Ke Ling Pian. I got it in bottles of 120 pills. I plan on taking 5 pills at one time, twice daily, so one bottle will last 12 days. I bought a year's supply, 30 bottles. My wife knows the herbal formula and by the time I run out, she'll have time to buy the separate ingredients and make me some capsules for me, so this is a one time purchase for me. I will try to find it on the internet when I return home, as I can't find it here, other than I know in China, there are about 20 companies that produce this formula for sale here....

I'm going to buy another 30 bottles of Xiao Ke Ling Pian before leaving. The more I think about it, the more I realize that this is as effective as the berberine for me.

This and all herbs need to be rotated out. Herbs are subtle and it takes a few days or weeks to get into your system to get maximum benefits, but overtime, either through toxicity or the body adapting and not responding the same to the herb, it loses its effectiveness. To keep an herb effective and safe, it needs to be rotated out now and again.

The only herb I don't rotate out is gymnema sylvestre because I truly believe it does not have any side effect and I'm only taking it at half the level of what some testing has been done with it that was declared as a very safe level.

I'm also not going to be rotating out the Pu'er herbal tea. That will be a mainstay for me as long as I keep seeing these great results from it.

If anyone finds Xiao Ke Ling Pian anywhere in the USA, please let me know. It is difficult to search from China, but I plan to hunt this herb down in the states, if it exists there.

My wife knows the formula and can make it for me, but I'd like to offer a source for others as I feel it is a very good pill to control blood sugar.