Studies Natural blood sugar lowering bitter melon counteracts diabetes type II

Helps with diabetes: bitter melons act against high blood sugar

The number of diabetes patients has been increasing worldwide for years. Researchers have recently reported that one in eight people will be affected by the disease by 2045. With the right diet, diabetes can be controlled in many cases. The bitter melon can help those affected. The vegetables can positively affect the blood sugar.

Get diabetes under control in a natural way

There are around seven million people with diabetes in Germany. Worldwide, about 350 million people are affected by the so-called diabetes. According to health experts, the disease can often be cured naturally, especially in the early stages. What is needed is a healthy lifestyle with adequate exercise and proper nutrition with fewer calories. Often already losing weight can normalize insulin levels. Certain foods are obviously of particular benefit to diabetics. Researchers have now discovered that eating bitter melons (also known as bitter cucumbers) can positively affect blood sugar levels.

The bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon) can help people with diabetes. Because, as researchers have now found, an extract from the vegetables can lower the blood sugar level. (Image: Silvia Bogdanski / fotolia.com)

Hypoglycemic effect of bitter melon studied

As the Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) reports in a communication, a bitter cucumber extract can significantly reduce fasting blood sugar in people with early stage diabetes mellitus type 2 - so-called prediabetic.

Nutritionists were able to demonstrate this positive effect of the bitter cucumber in a randomized double blind trial in which the subjects were assigned to different groups using a random mechanism.

The results of the study have recently been published in the International Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

They are building on joint research in Giessen, Taiwan and Tanzania, where the blood sugar lowering effect of the bitter cucumber (Momordica charantia) has been studied over the past decade.

Of particular importance to people in poorer countries

Like the leader of the study, Prof. i.R. Dr. Michael Krawinkel from the Institute of Nutritional Science of the Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) explained that for ethical reasons, only subjects in the study who were in the early stages of diabetes mellitus and who did not require any drug therapy were included in the study.

The choice of this study group inevitably entails that the deviations measured are not very large. The more difficult it was to prove the effect. However, this was definitely achieved.

The study found that the effect on fasting blood glucose is greater the higher the baseline is.

For the scientists involved, this means that an even stronger effect can be expected for the group of diabetics than was observed in the prediabetic.

Since the dietary approach is of particular importance to people who do not have secure access to adequate drug treatment, the study was conducted in the city of Moshi, Tanzania, at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center.

Several components responsible for the effect of bitter cucumber

According to the university's announcement, chronic non-infectious diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, have become more prevalent worldwide over the last few decades because dietary habits have changed.

This poses enormous challenges not only to individuals and their families, but also to decision makers in low-income countries.

This indicates the importance of prevention and treatment through a diet that prevents diabetes and its consequences. In addition to general rules, special vegetables can play a special role in this diet.

Although the bitter cucumber (English 'karela' or 'bitter melon') affects the blood sugar, has been known for some time, but so far there was no study that could scientifically prove the effect as significant.

For comparison, the research material from bitter cucumber and cucumber was produced at the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, where preliminary studies were also carried out in cooperation with the International Nutrition Working Group of the Giessen Institute of Nutrition Science.

These showed that it is not a single active substance but several components that are responsible for the effect of the bitter cucumber. (Ad)