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Bitter Gourd—The Unsung Hero of Fenuplex
by Charles Poliquin
7/13/2010 10:08:02 AM
Everyone that’s ever used
Fenuplex knows how incredibly well it works for insulin and blood sugar issues. For anyone with an insulin Biosignature, Fenuplex and
Insulinomics are the manadatory products, but I’ve found that if I ask people what’s in Fenuplex, they only remember the fenugreek. Besides having a unique fenugreek formulation with a 1:1 ratio of galactose to mannose which provides benefits at lower doses, it also contains two more key herbs—bitter gourd fruit and gymnema leaf. In fact, bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon or momordica charantia) may prove to be the most powerful of the three herbs based on recent research. And by recent, I mean that there have been seven studies published in the last two months!
Before I jump into the most recent studies on bitter gourd, a brief review will help to demonstrate the power of this interesting fruit. Historically, bitter gourd has been used by traditional medicine practitioners across China and India for blood sugar issues and a whole host of other maladies ranging from dysmennorhea to gout to leprosy. While I’ll be focusing on the blood sugar side, it’s a good reminder of the power of these natural agents and how our bodily systems can’t truly be divided into specialties due to their interconnectedness. To drive that point home, the most impressive scientific research from the West has shown promising uses of bitter gourd in diabetes, cancer and HIV/AIDS. The blood sugar and diabetes research for years has consistently shown the hypoglycemic effect of bitter gourd, but only recently have the scientists begun to explain the fat-burning and the “how it works” part of the equation.
In looking at the more recent research, the real value of bitter gourd as it relates to insulin, blood sugar, and obesity has become more and more exciting. In 2003, the Journal Nutrition reported research out of Hong Kong that showed that bitter gourd could reduce serum insulin and leptin. Although we’re still building our understanding of leptin, it’s accepted that the amount of circulating leptin is proportional to total body fat.1 In the same study, the rats that were fed a high-fat diet with bitter gourd gained less weight and had less fat than those that were just fed a high-fat diet.2 Two years later, the same group of researchers showed that bitter gourd reduced triglycerides and showed better glucose uptake into the cells. They also noted that bitter gourd increased in adiponectin. Higher adiponectin is associated with increased fat burning, decreased muscle catabolism and less risk for diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The study also revealed that bitter gourd increased thermogenesis via upregulated activity of uncoupling protein or UCP1 (also known as Thermogenin).3
In 2008, the British Journal of Nutrition published research out of Taiwan that showed that bitter gourd not only reduced insulin resistance but also reduced adipocyte hypertrophy (fat gain) by downregulating the genes responsible for fat accumulation.4 In the same year, Chinese scientists showed that bitter gourd increased activation of the AMPK pathway which is a key kinase in the signal for the body to increase fat burning.5 Finally, on June 29 of 2010, a new study was released that showed that bitter gourd increased fat burning and also reduced resistin and perilipin, both of which are associated with obesity.6 The summary of the research is that bitter gourd helps to keep you from gaining fat, helps you burn the fat you already have, and helps balance your blood sugar and insulin. And this is just the tip of the iceberg for the existing research. There have been 50 papers published in the just the last year involving bitter gourd; some on obesity and blood sugar, some on its role as an antibiotic, some for its cancer protection, and others just to study its structure.
All this research is advancing our understanding of what myself and many, many of my clients and students have known for a long time, Fenuplex works incredibly well for improving blood sugar and insulin levels while increasing the body’s ability to burn fat—and one of the key ingredients is the unsung hero; bitter gourd.
1 Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2002 Nov;26(11):1407-33. Leptin: a review of its peripheral actions and interactions. Margetic S, Gazzola C, Pegg GG, Hill RA. Central Queensland University, School of Chemical and Biomedical Sciences, Queensland, Australia.
2 J Nutr. 2003 Apr;133(4):1088-93. Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) reduces adiposity, lowers serum insulin and normalizes glucose tolerance in rats fed a high fat diet. Chen Q, Chan LL, Li ET. Food and Nutritional Science Program, Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, The People's Republic of China.
3 J Nutr. 2005 Nov;135(11):2517-23. Reduced adiposity in bitter melon (Momordica charantia)-fed rats is associated with increased lipid oxidative enzyme activities and uncoupling protein expression. Chan LL, Chen Q, Go AG, Lam EK, Li ET. Food and Nutritional Science Program, Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, The People's Republic of China.
4 Br J Nutr. 2008 Feb;99(2):230-9. Epub 2007 Jul 26. Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) inhibits adipocyte hypertrophy and down regulates lipogenic gene expression in adipose tissue of diet-induced obese rats. Huang HL, Hong YW, Wong YH, Chen YN, Chyuan JH, Huang CJ, Chao PM. Department of Health and Nutrition, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan.
5 Chem Biol. 2008 Mar;15(3):263-73.Antidiabetic activities of triterpenoids isolated from bitter melon associated with activation of the AMPK pathway. Tan MJ, Ye JM, Turner N, Hohnen-Behrens C, Ke CQ, Tang CP, Chen T, Weiss HC, Gesing ER, Rowland A, James DE, Ye Y. State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
6 BMC Complement Altern Med. 2010 Jun 29;10(1):34. Momordica charantia (bitter melon) inhibits primary human adipocyte differentiation by modulating adipogenic genes. Nerurkar PV, Lee YK, Nerurkar VR.
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