The natural way to control diabetes

My grandmother loved candy. Growing up, she was always good for a chocolate bar or a mouthful of toffee when the need arose. Even though she ate all that candy my grandmother was also very healthy with the exception of being mildly diabetic. She attributed her good health to 'bush.' No, not the George W. variety. "Bush" is Caribbean speak for herbs grown in your garden or found in the wild. She was particularly fond of a bush that she simply called 'bitters'. Trust me when I say this stuff was bitter! She would buy this stuff, boil it in water, let it cool and then make us kids drink it under pain of being cut off from our candy supplier. We drank it.Now that I am older with my own kids I started looking a little bit closer at this bitters that she used to drink. I found out the proper name for it is bitter melon (Momordica charantia). In other parts of the world it is known by different names like cerasse in the Caribbean or Karela. This cerasse or bitters has been known as a cheap insulin alternative for a long long time among Indians, Asians and Latin Americans. Several in vivo rat, feline, canine and human studies have been documented to prove this fact. It's pretty wild that a relatively common vegetable that doesn't cost too much (about USD5/lb) can help regulate blood sugar levels. It is being used more and more to combat late onset diabetes.In 1999, a Bangladeshi clinical trial was conducted to examine the effect of Momordica charantia on 100 patients with Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) or Type 2 Diabetes. The researchers recorded the patients’ sugar levels both without food intake for 12-24 hours and after taking 75g of glucose. They then administered a bitter melon pulp suspension to diabetic patients and 86 out of the 100 responded to the vegetable intake, showing a significant 14% reduction in fasting and post-meal serum glucose levels. Several rat and hamster trials taking bitter melon have also yielded very positive results in regulating glucose levels.A more up to date study conducted in India at the Ahilya University in 2004 gave similar positive results. Fifteen men and women with Type 2 diabetes between the ages of 52 and 65 took 200mg extracted constituents of bitter melon together with half doses of Metformin and Glibenclamide or a combination of both. The result was a blood glucose level lower than what patients may acquire from taking full doses of Metformin or Glibenclamide.If you are looking to purchase some bitters why not head to your neighborhood Caribbean or Chinese store. A lot of Mexican stores also carry the product. You owe it to yourself to reduce your risk of developing glucose intolerance, eventually diabetes, and costly insulin shots. For more information on diabetes check out my website. Watch for more articles on other 'bushes' my grandma used to use. She just died a couple of weeks ago at the grand old age of 86 so there must be something to those 'bushes.'http://diabetes-control.info