Re: The herbs aren't helping...Is it time to give up on them?

I am glad you mentioned having your gallbladder removed as that answers which herb is causing the diarrhea. Bitters, as in bitter melon, stimulate the vagus nerve. This in turn increases bile secretion, which is caustic. This is why people get chronic diarrhea after having their gallbladders removed. The bile dumps in to the intestines rather than being squirted in small amounts like it should be. The bile being caustic burns the intestinal wall, which causes water to enter the intestines and peristalsis causing the diarrhea.

Gymnema is a great herb, but remember that it needs to be taken at least 20 minutes before meals to allow the gymnemic acid to lock up the Sugar receptors.

I don't care much for cinnamon for this purpose. Most of the cinnamon commonly sold in stores is old, oxidized poor quality.

Prickly pear cactus (nopales) is hypoglycemic, but it is not sure why. We had nopales analyzed about 15 years ago looking for compounds that may give it the hypoglycemic effects, but nothing came up. It contains virtually no chromium, which is the most important. It could be the extremely high fiber content of nopales, which slows glucose absorption.

I have never heard of milagro de la selva tea.

Other good choices include bilberry leaf, and the mineral supplement vanadyl sulfate (VS). VS not only works like insulin, but unlike insulin it can move glucose in to cells without requiring insulin receptors. And VS has been found to help reopen closed insulin receptors in the process.

As I already mentioned chromium is the most important nutrient. It is chromium deficiencies that lead to the closing of insulin receptors that leads to type 2 diabetes. Chromium polynicotinate is the best form of chromium. Do not confuse polynicotinate with chromium picolinate, which is 300 times weaker. Recommended dose is 200mcg 3 to 4 times daily with meals. A bottle of chromium polynicotinate should run around $6 in a health food store.