Deborah Washington

Don't make the same mistake I did.

“Fuck this product.” ㅤ That was the caption I wrote on Facebook six months ago. Photo of the bottle in the bin. Primal Remedies True Ceylon Cinnamon, label facing up in the rubbish, six weeks of nothing to show for it. ㅤ I meant it. ㅤ I was also completely wrong about what I had bought. ㅤ If you have Type 2 diabetes and have written off Ceylon cinnamon because something you ordered online did nothing, you could have made the same mistake I made. ㅤ I am sixty-three. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes four years ago. At first, I thought if I followed every instruction, I would be okay. But by sixty-one, I was taking Metformin every morning, cutting out the foods I loved, and walking after dinner even when my feet were burning. And I was still waking up to fasting glucose readings around 168. ㅤ My doctor said to watch my diet. He said to keep taking my Metformin. He told me to exercise more and moved on to the next patient. ㅤ I followed every instruction. My blood sugar didn't seem to care. ㅤ Then a colleague mentioned True Ceylon Cinnamon. She was a few years older and had been living with Type 2 diabetes longer than I had. Something about her energy had changed in a way I couldn't ignore. She wasn't exhausted every afternoon, and she seemed genuinely pleased with the glucose readings she was recording. ㅤ I ordered Primal Remedies True Ceylon Cinnamon that night. ㅤ From Amazon. ㅤ Same Primal Remedies branding. Same cinnamon claims. Cheaper than the official website. Four stars. ㅤ I took one capsule with breakfast every morning. ㅤ Nothing. ㅤ No change in my afternoon exhaustion. My feet still burned when I walked after dinner. I still woke up to fasting glucose readings around 168. Nothing suggested those capsules were doing anything to help my blood sugar. ㅤ Week two. Nothing. Week four. Nothing. Week six. Done. ㅤ I opened the bottle over the kitchen sink and emptied a capsule onto a white plate. ㅤ Dry brown powder spilled across it. ㅤ Then I turned the bottle over and read the small print. ㅤ Generic cinnamon extract. No Cinnamomum verum. No Sri Lankan origin. No 12:1 concentration. No organic MCT oil. Nothing showing that the formula was a softgel. ㅤ I looked up the differences. ㅤ Most supermarket cinnamon is Cassia. It isn't the same species as True Ceylon Cinnamon, which is Cinnamomum verum. And not every cinnamon supplement uses a concentrated extract. Some contain ordinary cinnamon powder in dry capsules. ㅤ Not only was the cinnamon species unclear. The concentration was missing. And the delivery system itself was different. Primal Remedies uses a 12:1 concentrated True Ceylon Cinnamon extract suspended in organic MCT oil inside a softgel. A dry capsule filled with generic cinnamon powder isn't the same formulation. ㅤ I threw the bottle in the bin. Took the photo. Wrote the caption. ㅤ Two words. Called bullshit. Warned other people with Type 2 diabetes. Moved on. ㅤ Six months later my colleague asked how I was getting on. ㅤ I told her what had happened. ㅤ She went quiet. Then, “Did you buy it from their actual website?” ㅤ She pulled up her Primal Remedies order next to the Amazon listing I'd bought from. ㅤ Her label said Cinnamomum verum, Sri Lankan True Ceylon Cinnamon, 12:1 concentrated extract, and organic MCT oil. Mine said generic cinnamon extract in a dry capsule. ㅤ Then she turned both product listings over. ㅤ Hers had the full Primal Remedies formulation and company information. Mine did not. ㅤ She looked at me. “Deborah, that's a counterfeit. You haven't been taking the real Primal Remedies.” ㅤ She sent me the official website link that evening. ㅤ The cinnamon. True Ceylon Cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum, sourced from Sri Lanka. Not generic cinnamon powder with no clearly identified species. ㅤ The concentration. A 12:1 concentrated extract. Ceylon cinnamon contains naturally occurring compounds including cinnamaldehyde and polyphenols, which researchers have investigated for their potential roles in metabolic health. ㅤ And the delivery. Primal Remedies suspends its concentrated extract in organic MCT oil inside a softgel, rather than putting dry cinnamon powder into an ordinary capsule. ㅤ Wrong cinnamon. Wrong concentration. Wrong delivery. For six weeks. ㅤ It was not a fair test of Primal Remedies. ㅤ I ordered from the official website that night. ㅤ The package arrived. True Ceylon Cinnamon. Cinnamomum verum. 12:1 concentrated extract. Organic MCT oil softgel. ㅤ I took one with breakfast. ㅤ The second I opened the package, I knew the first bottle had been fake. ㅤ The capsules from Amazon had been filled with dry brown powder. These were softgels containing an oil-based formulation. It did not prove my blood sugar would change. But it proved one thing for certain. The product I had thrown in the bin and attacked on Facebook was not the product in my hand. ㅤ Week one I noticed something I hadn't felt in months. Not in my glucose readings. In the afternoon. I looked at the clock and realised it was nearly four, and I hadn't needed to lie down on the sofa. ㅤ Week two I went outside to do some gardening. I'd been putting it off because I never seemed to have the energy. But that afternoon, I pulled weeds, watered the flowers, and stayed outside until my husband called me in for dinner. ㅤ Week three I noticed the buzzing in my feet wasn't bothering me as much at night. I wasn't lying awake thinking about every little tingle and wondering whether my diabetes was getting worse. ㅤ Week four I went shopping with my daughter and grandchildren. No making excuses. No cutting the trip short. No spending the rest of the afternoon recovering on the sofa. ㅤ I had not told my husband I was taking anything. I had told him too many times about too many things that had not worked. ㅤ Week six I checked my fasting glucose before breakfast. ㅤ The meter said 104. ㅤ Six weeks earlier, I'd been recording readings around 168. I opened my notebook and checked again. The number was still there. My fasting glucose had gone from around 168 to 104. ㅤ By week eight, I was recording fasting readings around 92. Numbers I hadn't seen in years. ㅤ Week nine my husband stopped me halfway up the stairs and looked at the laundry basket in my arms. ㅤ “You're not stopping to catch your breath anymore.” ㅤ He did not have to say what he meant. He did not have to. ㅤ Week twelve I went back to my doctor for my A1C review. ㅤ My previous A1C was 8.2. This time, the result was 5.6. I'd gone from an A1C of 8.2 to 5.6. ㅤ “What changed?” ㅤ I showed him my glucose notebook and told him about Primal Remedies. He reviewed my medication, the readings I'd been recording, and the changes I'd made to my routine. We discussed continuing to monitor my blood sugar and keeping my treatment under review. ㅤ I went back to the Facebook post. ㅤ “Fuck this product.” ㅤ Photo of the bottle in the bin. Hundreds of likes. People with Type 2 diabetes in the comments thanking me for the warning. ㅤ I did not delete it. ㅤ I added an update. ㅤ “Update: I was wrong, but not about what I felt. The bottle in this photo came from a counterfeit Amazon listing. It contained generic cinnamon extract in dry capsules, with no Cinnamomum verum, no 12:1 concentration, and no organic MCT oil softgel formulation shown on the label. I have since tried the real Primal Remedies True Ceylon Cinnamon from the official website. Sri Lankan Cinnamomum verum, 12:1 concentrated extract, and organic MCT oil softgels. By week six, my fasting glucose had gone from around 168 to 104. By week eight, I was recording readings around 92. And at my twelve-week appointment, my A1C had gone from 8.2 to 5.6. My doctor reviewed my glucose records and we discussed continuing to monitor my diabetes. If you bought Ceylon cinnamon for Type 2 diabetes and felt nothing, check the species, the concentration, the formulation, and where you bought it. A dry capsule with generic cinnamon powder is not Primal Remedies.” ㅤ The label and where you bought it are the confirmation. ㅤ True Ceylon Cinnamon. Cinnamomum verum from Sri Lanka. 12:1 concentrated extract. Organic MCT oil softgel. Purchased from the official Primal Remedies website. ㅤ If you have those details, you have the formulation I was looking for. ㅤ Ninety days. Money back. ㅤ Primal Remedies True Ceylon Cinnamon. ㅤ — Deborah Washington