Bitter Melon Good for Diabetics, Lowers Blood Sugar
| Introduction Nature, over time, has created many remedies for incurable diseases ( or impossible to cure even for the latest discoveries in medicine). There are plants or fruits (among them we find the bitter melon) containing different substances to have a massive impact or having a major role in curing even HIV ( substance Q ). There are plants or fruits that cure hypertension, cancer or cirrhosis. Used alone or in mixtures, with other fruit or plants – like teas or infusions -, applied locally or swallowed, they are considered a real natural pharmacy, and does not cost so much as you might expect. We present you the advantages of one of these fruits, that can bring support for the patients with diabetes. Medicinal Properties of Bitter Melon – Good for Diabetics |
| by: Junji Takano |
Bitter Melon is the English name of Momordica charantia, a climbing vine whose leaves and green fruits, although bitter, has been used to fight cancer, diabetes and many infectious diseases. It is also a powerful weapon against HIV/AIDS since some reports claim that bitter melon has substance Q. It is one of the most favorite vegetables among the Chinese and the most popular herbal tea as well.The fruits and leaves of bitter melon are a good source of minerals and vitamins, such as iron, calcium, phosphorus and Vitamin B. However, it is not known how much nutritional contents can actually be absorbed by the body’s digestive system of the plant become some of these substances exist in unabsorbable form. Does bitter melon have medicinal properties?Yes. Books and articles about bitter melon states that the extract from the leaves or roots shrinks hemorrhoids. The juice from the leaves is also good to prevent and lessen cough, for fever and against roundworms. Reportedly, it is also used to treat sterility in women and alleviate liver problems. Likewise, bitter melon has some antimicrobial activity and can help infected wounds.However, none of the medicinal uses of bitter melon has been proven scientifically, although they have not been disproved, either. It’s just that it has not been studied enough.
Is it true that bitter melon tea and capsules are effective in lowering blood sugar of diabetics? There is one case where it is proven that it can lower blood sugar levels from people suffering from Type 2 Diabetes. Results of these scientific studies that determine the effect of drinking of bitter melon extract on blood sugar level of Type 2 Diabetes have consistently shown that bitter melon lowers blood sugar level. The effect on blood sugar is due to momordicin, a substance that is also responsible for it’s bitter taste. The effect of the bitter melon leaves lowering blood sugar level among diabetics is evident regardless of how it is prepared – boiled then eaten, in the form of tea, capsule or tablet. But diabetics should be cautioned about replacing their proprietary medicines with bitter melon teas, capsules or tablets. So far, studies were done only on a very limited number of human subjects so bitter melon and diabetes cannot be labeled conclusive. In fact, no large clinical trial has yet been published on the preparation of Momordica charantia (bitter melon). The manufacturers of bitter melon teas, capsules and tablets themselves are not claiming healing benefits for their products. They market them only as supplements. Are they really good substitutes for the anti-diabetic drugs that are available in the market? Bitter melon should be considered an addition in the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. It could probably reduce the patients intake of antidiabetic drugs. It should not however, be regarded as a stand-alone medicine. Also, diabetics who want to try bitter melon need not to spend money on the teas, tablets or capsules. They can cultivate or buy the plant from the market and prepare it themselves. To prepare bitter melon extract, the following steps should be followed: 1. Wash and finely chop the leaves. Alternately, bitter melon tops can be steamed and eaten (1/2 cup 2x a day). |
Bitter Melon
Laura Shane-McWhorter, PharmD, BCPS, FASCP, BC-ADM, CDE
Feb 1, 2005
Consult your diabetes care team before starting any nutritional supplement. Blood glucose levels should be checked more often to determine the effectiveness of the supplement or if a medication change is needed.
Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) is also known as bitter gourd, bitter cucumber, bitter apple, karolla and karela.
Bitter melon is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family and is related to honeydew and Persian melon, cantaloupe, muskmelon and casaba. Bitter melon is a vegetable cultivated and eaten in many parts of the world, including India, Asia, Africa and South America.
Bitter melon grows on a vine with green leaves and yellow flowers. The fruit has a bumpy exterior, resembling a cucumber, and the interior is yellow-orange. There are many varieties of bitter melon, ranging in color from creamy white, golden, pale green to very dark green. Green melons are the ones most often seen in the United States. Some varieties are only a few inches long with very pronounced bumps; others are much larger with smoother, less-defined bumps.
The fruit and seeds of bitter melon are thought to be useful for diabetes.
Some Ingredients May Lower Blood Glucose
Bitter melon contains several chemical ingredients, including the glycosides momordin and charantin. Polypeptide P, charantin and vicine are the specific components thought to have blood glucose-lowering effects.
Other possible mechanisms in diabetes include increased tissue glucose uptake, liver and muscle glycogen synthesis, inhibition of enzymes involved in glucose production and enhanced glucose oxidation.
Cautions About Bitter Melon
Bitter melon should be used with caution by young women of childbearing age since it may induce menstruation and inadvertently cause abortion if the woman is pregnant.
There is no information about its use in lactating women, so it should be avoided.
Children should not use bitter melon because serious adverse effects have occurred, including hypoglycemic coma.
There is no traditional dose of bitter melon since different forms are in use, including juice, powder, vegetable pulp suspensions and injectable forms.
Few studies have evaluated using bitter melon in the treatment of diabetes.
The largest study, published in a 1999 issue of the Bangladesh Medical Research Council Bulletin, used an aqueous suspension of bitter melon vegetable pulp in 100 patients with type 2. The authors evaluated the effect at one hour after bitter melon was administered and then two hours after a 75-gram oral glucose tolerance test.
The average blood glucose was 222 mg/dl, which was lower than the previous day’s two-hour value of 257 mg/dl.
In another study, published in a 1981 issue of the Journal of Natural Products, bitter melon was prepared as an injectable “plant insulin” and injected into five patients with type 1 and six patients with type 2. There was a control group of six patients 6 with type 1 and two patients with type 2 who did not receive any bitter melon.
In type 1s, average glucose decreased from 304 to 169 mg/dl four hours after injection; this effect was maintained at six and eight hours after injection.
In the type 2 patients, there was no significant decline in blood glucose from baseline.
Side Effects of Bitter Melon
The major side effect of bitter melon is gastrointestinal discomfort.
A syndrome called favism, or hemolytic anemia, has occurred in people taking bitter melon. It is characterized by headache, fever, abdominal pain and coma. The red coating around the seeds have been reported to cause vomiting, diarrhea and death in one child.
When bitter melon is combined with sulfonylureas, hypoglycemia can occur.
A Ton Of Bitter Melon Produces Sweet Results For Diabetes
ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2008) — Scientists have uncovered the therapeutic properties of bitter melon, a vegetable and traditional Chinese medicine, that make it a powerful treatment for Type 2 diabetes.
Teams from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica pulped roughly a tonne of fresh bitter melon and extracted four very promising bioactive components. These four compounds all appear to activate the enzyme AMPK, a protein well known for regulating fuel metabolism and enabling glucose uptake.
“We can now understand at a molecular level why bitter melon works as a treatment for diabetes,” said Professor David James, Director of the Diabetes and Obesity Program at Garvan. “By isolating the compounds we believe to be therapeutic, we can investigate how they work together in our cells.”
People with Type 2 diabetes have an impaired ability to convert the sugar in their blood into energy in their muscles. This is partly because they don’t produce enough insulin, and partly because their fat and muscle cells don’t use insulin effectively, a phenomenon known as ‘insulin resistance’.
Exercise activates AMPK in muscle, which in turn mediates the movement of glucose transporters to the cell surface, a very important step in the uptake of glucose from the circulation into tissues in the body. This is a major reason that exercise is recommended as part of the normal treatment program for someone with Type 2 diabetes.
The four compounds isolated in bitter melon perform a very similar action to that of exercise, in that they activate AMPK.
Garvan scientists involved in the project, Drs Jiming Ye and Nigel Turner, both stress that while there are well known diabetes drugs on the market that also activate AMPK, they can have side effects.
“The advantage of bitter melon is that there are no known side effects,” said Dr Ye. “Practitioners of Chinese medicine have used it for hundreds of years to good effect.”
Garvan has a formal collaborative arrangement with the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica. In addition to continuing to work together on the therapeutic potential of bitter melon, we will be exploring other Chinese medicines.
Professor Yang Ye, from the Shanghai Institute and a specialist in natural products chemistry, isolated the different fractions from bitter melon and identified the compounds of interest.
“Bitter melon was described as “bitter in taste, non-toxic, expelling evil heat, relieving fatigue and illuminating” in the famous Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen (1518-1593), one of the greatest physicians, pharmacologists and naturalists in China’s history,” said Professor Ye. “It is interesting, now that we have the technology, to analyse why it has been so effective.”
“Some of the compounds we have identified are completely novel. We have elucidated the molecular structures of these compounds and will be working with our colleagues at Garvan to decipher their actions at a molecular level. We assume it’s working through a novel pathway inside cells, and finding that pathway is going to be very interesting.”
The results are published online March 27 in the international journal Chemistry & Biology.
Bitter Melon for Diabetes
By: Dr. Loretta Lanphier, ND, CN, HHP, CH
Bitter melon is one of those natural foods and herbal remedies that are really fun to learn about. Bitter melon is very useful for many health applications. It is used in some cultures as a food source, and researchers have only begun to fully understand how and why it is so beneficial. All of these factors make bitter melon a wonderful gift from our Creator. Its positive effects on treating and preventing diabetes is probably the most well-known benefit of bitter melon, but, as with most natural substances, new uses are cropping up all the time as we begin to understand better the ins and outs of the interplay between its various components.
The bitter melon plant (momordica charantia) has a long history of use in Eastern cultures, and its virtues have become more popular worldwide in recent decades. Also known as bitter gourd or balsam pear, this vegetable was originally native to Asia and today grows wild or is cultivated in tropical regions around the globe. It is similar in appearance to a cucumber with a bumpy skin, has a bitter taste as the name indicates, and most of its medicinal value is concentrated in the extract of the unripe fruit, interestingly enough. In a Chinese medical book from the 16th century, bitter melon is described as “bitter in taste, non-toxic, expelling evil heat, relieving fatigue, and illuminating.” Supplemental forms of bitter melon capitalize on its qualities that have been known in traditional medicine for many years.
Bitter Melon and Diabetes
Diabetes is growing at epidemic rates throughout the West and around the world, with 50 million cases currently worldwide, and that number projected to reach 300 million by 2025. Big Pharma has jumped on this crisis and developed drugs that help manage insulin and regulate blood sugar. However, the catch is that they have potentially hazardous side effects including buildup of fluids, weight gain, and heart failure.
The exciting thing about bitter melon is that it functions to counteract diabetes in similar ways to these drugs, but without any known side effects. Researchers have identified at least four distinct components of bitter melon that stimulate an enzyme called AMPK, which is a protein that plays a key role in the progressing of fuel in the body, especially glucose. The action of bitter melon on AMPK is just like that of physical exercise on the body. For diabetics, or to prevent diabetes, taking a bitter melon supplement along with exercising is a powerful one-two punch.
Bitter melon is effective on both type 1 (insulin dependant) and type 2 (maturity onset) diabetes. Certain compounds in bitter melon help lower and maintain proper levels of blood sugar in the body. Of particular benefit to type 2 diabetes, bitter melon also reduces a phenomenon known as insulin resistance by which diabetics cannot properly absorb and use insulin. Even beyond that, scientists studying the effects of bitter melon have discovered that it can actually increase the number of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, thereby helping the body to naturally help itself.
Not only do components of the Bitter Melon plant act to lower blood sugar levels in diabetes, but they also have beneficial effects on conditions associated with this disease. These include prevention of the development of diabetes-related cataracts, a result that has been demonstrated in preliminary studies thus far in humans and mice. Reductions in diabetes-related nerve damage (neuropathy) and also stomach conditions (gastropathy) have been demonstrated in experimental rats fed Bitter Melon as well.(1)
Bitter melon is an excellent example of a natural substance that has numerous bioactive components that work together synergistically to produce health benefits that could not occur if the ingredients were isolated. (This is why consuming organic fruits and vegetables, especially if raw, is better for us than just drinking the juice, for example.) To date, about 32 different components of bitter melon have been identified that have various bioactive properties. Some are unique to bitter melon, but others that you probably recognize include lycopene, vitamins B and C, beta-carotene, potassium, calcium, and iron.
Other Uses for Bitter Melon
Bitter melon has been used over the centuries for many health applications. It has proven itself beneficial as a preventative measure and a treatment for digestive disorders, respiratory ailments such as bronchitis and asthma, and diarrhea, to name a few.
Weight loss. In India, Bitter Melon has traditionally been used as a weight-loss aid. A number of studies Bitter Melon fruit and/or seeds have been shown to reduce blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, both in the presence and absence of dietary fats. University of Hong King researchers have demonstrated that Bitter Melon reduces adiposity (the ability to store fat or create adipose tissue) in rats fed a high-fat diet. The Bitter Melon powder used in this study did not work by blocking fat absorption within the gastrointestinal tract; rather it appeared to regulate fat metabolism within the rat’s tissues.
Cancer. A phytochemical isolated from Bitter Melon has clinically demonstrated the ability to inhibit an enzyme, guanylate cyclase, that is thought to be linked to the pathogenesis of cancer. MAP30, a Bitter Melon derivative, also inhibits prostate tumor growth.
Herpes/AIDS. Bitter melon is also a versatile anti-viral substance, with experiments studying its effectiveness on the herpes-1 virus being very promising. One of the most exciting areas of research regarding bitter melon has been about using it to fight HIV/AIDS. The protein MAP 30 inhibits new growth of the HIV virus in white blood cells, and slows down the duplication of the virus in infected cells as well. Perhaps the potential of bitter melon as a wellness tool is far greater than we even know at this point in time.
Bitter Melon Contraindications(2)
If taken in capsules, power or liquid form, I highly suggest being monitored by a qualified healthcare practitioner. Bitter Melon may have additive effects when taken with other drugs whose action is to lower blood glucose levels. Bitter Melon should never be taken in combination with these therapies, especially in addition to insulin.
Since the fruit and seed of Bitter Melon have proven to be effective in lowering blood cholesterol levels in animal studies, those taking medication to lower blood cholesterol should avoid using Bitter Melon.
Bitter Melon has been used to promote uterine contractions so its use should be avoided during pregnancy. Nursing mothers should also avoid using Bitter Melon both as a food and as an herbal remedy.
Avoid Bitter Melon if one has a known allergy or an allergy to any member of the Curcurbitaceae plant families.
Reference
Bitter Melon — Nature’s Anti-Diabetic by W. G. Goreja. (1)(2)
Bitter melon good for diabetics lowers blood sugar.. Super
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