Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Insulin resistance (IR) is the main pathogenic factor in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and its complications. Ceylon cinnamon (CC) is an herb with an insulin-sensitizing effect reported in diabetic patients.The aim of our study was to assess the efficiency of CC on the parameters of the IR in patients with (PCOS).

Methods: We conducted a prospective interventional study, we included 13 patients with PCOS diagnosed according to the Rotterdam criteria, having received neither dietetic education nor metformin, and diabetic patients were excluded. At T0, all of our patients had a food survey, anthropometric measurements: weight, height, waist size (WS), to calculate the WS/height ratio (IR indicator), and a biological assessment: Insulinemia and fasting blood sugar to calculate the HOMA-IR index. During the intervention, our patients received a 500 mg capsule of CC (designed and prepared for the study) three times a day, without changing their eating habits and physical activity.

Results: After 8 weeks (T1), we found a significant reduction in the WS/height ratio (Delta = –0.22 ± 0.03 and P = 0.02), a non-significant decrease in the average fasting blood sugar, going from 5.35 ± 0.54 to 5.26 ± 0.4 mmol/l (P ± NS), the average insulinemia decreased from 20.25 ± 11.93 to 18.91 ± 10.54 µ IU/ml, (P ± NS), the average HOMA-IR index was reduced from 4.96 ± 3.22 to 2.75 ± 1.88 (Delta of –0.46 ± 2.85 and P ± NS).the reduction in the HOMA-IR index was greater but not significant in patients with IR (Homa-IR index ≥ 2.5) at T0, in this group, the HOMA-IR index fell from 6.25 ± 3.08 to 5.51 ± 2.73 (Delta at –0.74 ± 3.44).

Conclusion: These findings can be attributed to the ability of CC to stimulate the translocation and synthesis of GLUT4 at the cellular level, which improves the cellular response to insulin at its target cell level. Further studies are needed to suggest the therapeutic impact of CC in PCOS.