The focus of my internship (HRB 690c) with Suzanne Tabert at Cedar Mountain Herb School was writing this book chapter on herbal medicine and diabetes. This chapter is the cornerstone of the book on Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Diabetes that I am writing to publish in 2022. My target audience is people who have recently been diagnosed with prediabetes or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus(T2DM). The chapter includes a brief introduction to herbal medicine, monographs on every day and advanced herbs for diabetes, and a discussion on bitter herbs and hormone homeostasis. I feel it is a fitting end to my time in the Therapeutic Herbalism master’s program at MUIH as it allows me to demonstrate my knowledge of Materia Medica as it pertains to T2DM. It also allows me to articulate the latest research on the topic of T2DM and herbal medicine, such as the ability of bitter herbs to attenuate the incretin hormone secretion in the digestive system.
I started out this journey with a broad book outline containing topics that I think will practical in nature for someone living with chronic T2DM. As part of my journey writing this book chapter, I produced “mini-monographs” for herbs (for example: Garlic Monograph) that I wanted to include in this chapter. I selected a subset of both everyday kitchen herbs and more advanced herbs for managing T2DM. I pulled in research from Suzanne, Glen Nagel, Dr. Wen-ling Chou for a section on bitter herbs. I created dosage tables for each of the monographs included and I tested recipes to be included. Finally, I spent about a week thinking about the design of the chapter included: format/size, design elements, reading level, images, and other factors that contribute to the potential for self-publication or submission to a publisher.