Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia), aka ampalaya or parya, is a squash/gourd-family vegetable favored particularly among Filipinos as a flavoring in stir-fry dishes; it adds some intense bitter flavor, somewhat like that of strong beer. It has also been widely used for both cooking and traditional medicinal purposes in India, China, Africa, and the Caribbean area. Some Asian breweries actually do use it in their beer, as a flavoring alternative to hops.
Health Benefits of Bitter-Melon
It has lots of trace vitamins and minerals, and considerable amounts of Vitamin C. Some controlled studies have shown that bitter-melon extracts can lower blood-glucose levels in humans and in laboratory animals, and thus can aid in controlling Diabetes. They have been studied at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a possible treatment for diverse human ailments — cancer, Diabetes, fever, and even HIV/AIDS. Historically, bitter melon has often been used as an aid to digestion.
Cancer Cells and Bitter-Melon
Recent research studies at the University of Colorado have demonstrated that bitter-melon extracts can kill pancreatic cancer cells in mice, and in vitro. Pancreatic cancer is considered particularly hard to treat because it often isn’t detected until it has become relatively advanced. It’s a subject for future research to see if these same results continue to hold for human beings, and for other types of cancers.
How to Use Bitter Melon to Lower Blood Sugar
Because Diabetes may originate as a malfunction of the pancreas, and also may lead to pancreatic cancer, researchers have hypothesized that bitter-melon extracts might also be useful in Diabetes treatments; and there have been a number of clinical trials of this hypothesis. One such trial, during 2011, demonstrated modest effects in lowering blood glucose and a derivative of fructose. An earlier study found that bitter-melon extract improved glucose tolerance, control, and absorption by body cells. Further research is recommended. In any case, the bitter-melon extract is best thought of as a supplement, and not as a total replacement for insulin, when treating Diabetes.
Bitter-melon uses in Traditional Medicine
In traditional medicine, bitter-melon extracts have been used to treat quite a diverse list of human maladies: fevers, burns, infant colic, chronic coughing, menstrual problems, and skin ailments.
Okinawans have historically eaten more bitter melon than other Japanese — and they live slightly longer, according to Japanese statistics. Some folks have claimed that there is a direct connection between these two circumstances.
Try Naavudi by CLE Holistic Health
CLE Holistic Health offers Naavudi accurately-premeasured 550-milligram vegetarian capsules, containing bitter-melon extract as one of its nine components traditional herbal extracts; these extracts have been used for thousands of years by Indian Ayurvedic and Chinese natural-medicine healers. Like other CLE Holistic Health products, Naavudi is produced entirely by CLE Holistic Health, from its own organically-grown herbs, harvested just from its own farmland plots, and processed using its own proprietary methods, thus assuring very good control of its quality and uniformity. As far as CLE Holistic Health knows, Naavudi doesn’t interact with any prescription drugs; so folks worried about their blood-glucose levels (‘blood sugar’) can try it out without changing any of their other medications. If you are one of those folks, why don’t you give Naavudi a try?