Bitter Melon — A Chinese Herbal Remedy to Help Type 2 Diabetics
Monday, May 5th, 2008I’m always looking around for different herbal remedies and food cures. I ran across something very interesting about the vegetable bitter melon. Bitter melon has been used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine for centuries and has demonstrated a variety of therapeutic properties. It has been used for conditions that range from hypertension to constipation.
Bitter melon has also been known widely to be a beneficial agent against type 2 diabetes. We do know that bitter melon has beneficial effect on lowering blood sugars. However, no one seems to know what properties of this seeming cure all herb helps diabetics. Now a team of scientists in Australia and China believe that they have unlocked at least one of the secrets of bitter melon. They have found four compounds in bitter melon known as cucurbitane glycosides. These compounds are what seem to help type 2 diabetics in particular.
People suffering from type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance seem to always be looking for a natural way to help themselves with their condition. If you are one of these people, why not take look into bitter melon and put it into your herbal medicine cabinet.
Tags: bitter melon, food cures, glycosides, Herbal Remedies, insulin resistance, traditional chinese herbal medicine, type 2 diabetes
This study was done with men at 50 years of age. They underwent glucose (blood sugar) tolerance testing. The men were followed-up at an average of 32 years later and found that men with insulin resistance were nearly one and a half times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other mental impairments.
Sleep deprivation can disrupt normal brain function and lead to short term memory loss, anxiety and even 
While researchers are hesitant to directly link smoking to the onset of diabetes, they do theorize that smoking may lead to insulin resistance. Another possible explanation, people that smoke tend not to have the healthiest lifestyle. These unhealthy behaviors include lack of exercise, poor diet, and in some cases large consumption of alcohol.
There is a “French paradox” – The French have relatively low incidences of coronary heart disease, despite having a diet relatively rich in saturated fats. The French love their food as well as their wine. Have they known the secrets of this miracle drink and just didn’t want to share?
Reduce your fat intake – Surprisingly, fat intake is a major predictor of insulin resistance not carbohydrates. So you should eat no more than 30 percent of your calories form fat (50-60 grams per day). Saturated fat needs to be less than 10 percent of total calories. This can be a hard goal for some people to reach considering 2 slices of cheese is 12 grams.
In response to this epidemic, there is a new web site to assist people living with diabetes. At 
In a study, a chemical in green tea, epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG, has been found to help moderately diabetic mice tolerate sugar and produce insulin. After 10 weeks of treatment, moderately diabetic mice fared as well on green tea extract as they did on Avandia. However, mice that were severely diabetic did not have as much success.
Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling — crucial for memory formation — would stop working in Alzheimer’s disease. In your brain insulin and insulin receptors are vital to learning and memory. Insulin binds to a receptor and a memory is formed. A toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons 
The Chinese people have used 
