Shilajit for Diabetes: Does It Help Control Blood Sugar?

Bring up salajeet at a Pakistani family gathering and you’ll usually hear two opinions. One relative swears it keeps his sugar in check. Another insists it’s risky for diabetics. Neither is entirely wrong.

This guide sets out what the research shows, where it falls short, and how to use shilajit safely if you’re living with diabetes.

Does Shilajit Lower Blood Sugar?

It might, but the proof isn’t there yet. In animal studies, shilajit has lowered blood glucose clearly and consistently, and a few small human studies point the same way. What’s missing is a large clinical trial. For now, shilajit is best seen as a possible support alongside diabetes treatment, not a replacement for medicine.

Why This Question Matters So Much in Pakistan

Few countries have more riding on the answer. In 2024, Pakistan had the highest age-adjusted rate of adult diabetes anywhere in the world, at 31.4%. Around 34.5 million adults here have diabetes, and over 9.3 million of them haven’t been diagnosed.

That second figure is easy to skim past. It means millions of people are walking around with high sugar and no idea.

Shilajit, meanwhile, has been part of life in the north for generations. Families in Gilgit-Baltistan, Chitral and upper KPK have gathered it from mountain rock for centuries, and hakeems have long given it for weakness and low energy. Ayurvedic texts even list it for madhumeha, loosely “honey urine”, an old name for diabetes.

So people aren’t asking out of idle curiosity. They want to know whether the remedy their elders trusted actually holds up.

What’s in Shilajit That Could Affect Blood Sugar?

Shilajit is a dark, tar-like resin that forms slowly as plant matter breaks down beneath layers of rock. Once purified, it contains a few compounds researchers keep returning to.

The headline one is fulvic acid, an organic acid that acts as an antioxidant and helps carry minerals into cells. It’s normally the first figure on any lab report, and our explainer on what fulvic acid is covers why it matters.

Alongside it sit dibenzo-alpha-pyrones (DBPs), smaller compounds linked to energy production in cells, and a range of trace minerals such as zinc, magnesium and iron. Zinc and magnesium both play a part in how the body uses insulin, and low magnesium is common in people with type 2 diabetes.

If you’d like the full background first, start with what shilajit is and how it forms. Here, the focus is on what these compounds might do to your blood sugar.

How Might Shilajit Help With Blood Sugar?

There are four main theories. Most of them come from lab and animal work, so read each one as “might”, not “does”.

By helping cells respond to insulin

In type 2 diabetes, the pancreas usually still produces insulin. The problem is that cells stop responding to it properly, which is known as insulin resistance. Inflammation and oxidative stress make it worse, and fulvic acid’s antioxidant effect may take some of that pressure off.

By protecting the cells that make insulin

Insulin is made by beta cells in the pancreas, and years of high sugar gradually wear them down. In a 1995 rat study, Bhattacharya found that shilajit reduced chemically induced diabetes and helped preserve superoxide dismutase, one of the body’s own antioxidant enzymes, inside the pancreas.

By supporting energy inside cells

Ask someone with poorly controlled diabetes how they feel, and “tired” is usually the first word. Mitochondria, the energy centres of cells, struggle when glucose stays high. Fulvic acid and DBPs are thought to support them, which may be why people often say they feel more energetic on shilajit before their readings change at all.

By improving cholesterol

Diabetes rarely turns up alone. Raised cholesterol and triglycerides often come with it, and heart disease is the leading cause of death in people with diabetes. Shilajit studies have repeatedly reported better lipid profiles, which counts for as much as the glucose number.

All of this sounds convincing on paper. The real question is what the studies actually found.

Less than many websites suggest. But it isn’t nothing.

The animal evidence

What Does the Research Actually Show?

The study you’ll see quoted most often appeared in the Indian Journal of Pharmacology in 2004. Diabetic rats were given shilajit at three different doses, and every dose brought blood glucose down significantly and improved lipids, with 100 mg/kg per day working best.

The same team also gave shilajit alongside metformin and glibenclamide, and it appeared to strengthen the glucose-lowering effect of both. That’s promising. It’s also a reason for caution, which we’ll come back to.

The human evidence

This is where things get thin.

In one preliminary study, 32 people with type 2 diabetes took 250 mg of shilajit extract with 250 mg of ashwagandha extract for a month, and both their blood sugar and cholesterol markers improved. It’s a useful signal, but with two herbs in the mix, there’s no way to say how much was down to shilajit.

A later study by Niranjan and colleagues gave people with type 2 diabetes 250 mg of shilajit twice a day for 12 weeks, and found healthier blood vessel function along with lower markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. That’s relevant to complications such as heart and nerve damage. It tells us very little about blood sugar itself.

What we still don’t know

No one has yet run a large, placebo-controlled trial showing that shilajit lowers HbA1c, the three-month sugar average your doctor watches. There’s no long-term safety data in diabetics either.

You’ll find sites quoting larger trials with striking results. If the original paper can’t be found, those numbers deserve very little weight.

The evidence in one table

Study	Who took part	What happened	How strong is it?
Bhattacharya, 1995	Diabetic rats	Lower glucose; pancreatic antioxidants protected	Early, animal only
Trivedi et al., 2004	Diabetic rats	Lower glucose, better lipids; boosted metformin and glibenclamide	Early, animal only
Upadhyay et al.	32 adults with type 2 diabetes	Lower fasting sugar and lipids after a month	Preliminary; mixed with ashwagandha
Niranjan et al., 2016	Adults with type 2 diabetes	Better blood vessel function, less inflammation over 12 weeks	Preliminary; indirect

Which raises the obvious next question: who is any of this actually relevant to?

Is Shilajit Suitable for Type 1, Type 2 or Prediabetes?

The answer changes a lot depending on the type.

Type 1 diabetes happens when the immune system destroys the beta cells, so the body makes little or no insulin. Nothing replaces insulin here. Shilajit hasn’t been studied in type 1 and shouldn’t be treated as a remedy for it.

Type 2 diabetes is where almost all the research, and nearly all the interest, lies. Because the underlying problem is mostly insulin resistance, a supplement that may support insulin response and reduce oxidative stress is a reasonable add-on to discuss with your doctor. Discuss it first, though, especially if you’re on tablets or insulin.

Prediabetes means your sugar is raised but not yet in the diabetic range. Food, weight and daily movement do the heavy lifting at this stage. Some people add shilajit for energy, but there’s no evidence it stops diabetes developing by itself.

Most readers fall into the type 2 group. For them, the bigger concern is how shilajit sits alongside their medicine.

Is It Safe to Take Shilajit With Diabetes Medicine?

It can be, with your doctor’s go-ahead and more frequent sugar checks. The worry is straightforward: your medicine already lowers glucose, and if shilajit does too, the combination could take you too low.

How careful you need to be depends on what you take:

• Metformin (sold as Glucophage and other brands) rarely causes low sugar by itself, so the risk is smaller. The rat findings suggest the effects can add up, though.
• Sulfonylureas such as gliclazide, glimepiride and glibenclamide push the pancreas to release more insulin. They already carry a risk of lows, so extra care is needed.
• Insulin carries the highest risk. Any change in how your body handles glucose can affect the dose you need.
• Combination tablets are common in Pakistan, with two medicines in one pill. If you’re unsure what’s in yours, ask your pharmacist.

Know the signs of low blood sugar

Hypoglycaemia often starts with shakiness, sweating, a racing heart, sudden hunger, dizziness or blurred vision. Some people just turn irritable or muddled, and family members spot it before they do.

If it happens, check your sugar. Anything below 70 mg/dL is low. Have juice or glucose tablets straight away, then test again after 15 minutes.

Tell your doctor before you start

Your doctor adjusts your medicine based on your readings. If your sugar suddenly drops and they don’t know about the shilajit, they may draw the wrong conclusion. Mention it, and take the jar or its lab report along to your next appointment.

Once your doctor is on board, the way you take it makes a real difference.

How Should a Diabetic Take Shilajit?

Start with a small dose

Studies have mostly used about 250 mg, once or twice a day. In practice, that means starting with a piece roughly the size of a grain of rice for the first two weeks. Move towards pea-size only if your readings stay steady and your doctor is happy. Our shilajit dosage guide has more on safe daily amounts.

Take it with food

A lot of general shilajit advice, ours included, suggests taking it in the morning on an empty stomach. You’ll find that approach in our guide to the best time to take shilajit. If you’re on diabetes medicine, though, take it with a meal or just after one. Food softens any sudden dip.

Leave out the honey

The traditional way to take salajeet is with shehad, sweet doodh, or stirred into halwa or panjiri. For a diabetic, that defeats the purpose. The sugar in any of those will push your glucose up far more than shilajit is likely to bring it down.

Warm water or unsweetened herbal tea works well. If you prefer milk, the method in our guide to taking shilajit with milk is fine, as long as you skip any sugar or honey.

Keep track of your numbers

Note your fasting sugar for a week before you begin, so you have something to compare against. Keep checking fasting and two-hour post-meal readings, and write them down. After three months, an HbA1c test will show whether anything has really shifted.

Don’t adjust your medicine yourself based on those numbers. Take them to your doctor.

For many readers, there’s one more situation that needs planning ahead.

Can Diabetics Take Shilajit During Ramadan?

Fasting already changes how blood sugar behaves. The late afternoon, a few hours before iftar, is when people on diabetes medicine are most likely to go low. Adding a supplement that might lower glucose makes that window riskier.

If you want to continue shilajit while fasting:

• See your doctor a few weeks before Ramadan, so your medicine timings can be adjusted.
• Take shilajit with or after iftar rather than at sehri, so any effect happens while you’re eating.
• Keep checking your sugar during the day. A finger-prick test doesn’t break the fast.
• Open your fast if your reading falls below 70 mg/dL. Scholars and diabetes guidelines agree that your health comes first.

Who Should Avoid Shilajit?

Some people with diabetes are better off avoiding shilajit, or using it only under close medical supervision.

Kidney disease tops the list. Long-standing diabetes is one of the most common causes of kidney damage, and weaker kidneys are slower to clear minerals and any contaminants. Caution is also sensible if you have high uric acid or gout, as shilajit may raise uric acid in some people, or iron overload (haemochromatosis), since shilajit contains iron.

It isn’t recommended during pregnancy or breastfeeding, where there’s no safety data and gestational diabetes needs tight control, or for children. If you take blood pressure tablets, keep an eye on your readings, as shilajit may lower blood pressure slightly. And if you already get regular lows, get those sorted with your doctor before adding anything new.

Our full guide to shilajit side effects covers the wider picture.

Why Does Purity Matter More If You’re Diabetic?

Heavy metals and your kidneys

Shilajit forms inside rock, so in its raw state it can carry heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and mercury. Raw, unprocessed shilajit isn’t considered safe, and only purified, lab-tested products should be used. With diabetes already putting strain on the kidneys, this matters more for you than for most people.

Fake shilajit can contain sugar

There’s no shortage of cheap “salajeet” in Pakistani markets, and a fair amount of it is partly or fully fake. Some is bulked out with tar, clay or sweet fillers such as gur. If you check your sugar every morning, a fake jar could quietly push your readings up.

Real shilajit dissolves completely in warm water without leaving grit. It softens when warm and turns hard when cold, and it smells smoky and earthy rather than sweet. Our guide to pure vs fake shilajit walks through these checks in more detail.

What a proper lab report shows

A report from an independent lab should give you the fulvic acid percentage, heavy metal results for lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury against safe limits, microbial testing, and a batch number that matches your jar. If a seller can’t show you one, keep looking.

Ours comes from Gilgit-Baltistan, harvested above 16,000 feet, and every batch is tested by accredited labs in the UK and Pakistan. The latest UK report shows 75.8% fulvic acid, with heavy metals within safe limits. You can read more about where our shilajit comes from, and certificates are available with any order on request. If you’re still weighing up options, our guide to the best shilajit brand in Pakistan explains what to compare.

Shilajit Is One Small Part of the Plan

Even at its best, shilajit plays a supporting role. The things that move blood sugar most are still the everyday ones.

Smaller portions of rice and roti, more daal, vegetables and salad, and less sugar in your chai make a bigger difference than any supplement. A 10 to 15 minute walk after dinner can noticeably lower your post-meal reading. Poor sleep makes insulin resistance worse. And regular testing matters: HbA1c every three to six months, with kidney, eye and foot checks once a year.

Above all, keep taking your medicine as prescribed.

If shilajit gives you a bit more energy and makes it easier to stay active, that alone is worth something.

The Bottom Line

Shilajit is one of the more interesting natural options for people with type 2 diabetes, and the early research is encouraging. It isn’t proven, and it isn’t a substitute for treatment. If you’d like to try it, talk to your doctor first, choose a product with a real lab report, leave the honey out, and let your readings tell you whether it’s helping. If you decide to go ahead, you can find our lab-tested Himalayan shilajit here.

This article is for general information and isn’t medical advice. If you have diabetes or take any regular medicine, speak to your doctor before starting a supplement.

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