A New Ayurvedic Herb For Diabetes?

In the February 2008 issue of the medical journal Diabetes care there is a report of a clinical trial of a “new” Ayurvedic herb for type 2 diabetes, Coccinia cordifolia.

Also know as koval or ivy gourd, this herb belongs to the same plant family as the better known bitter melon. Koval is a common plant from India and Bangladesh that grows in the Indian subcontinent much like kudzu grows in the southern United States.

Koval grows huge tubers that anchor it to the ground and then spreads the vines in all directions. Unlike kudzu, it has white trumpet-shaped flowers that produce a zucchini-shaped but purplish-red fruit. Ayurvedic medicine has used the fruit and leaves for centuries as a treatment for diabetes, but this study is the first detailed clinical trial.

Since Ayurvedic practitioners often recommend “a handful” of dried leaves and minced pumpkin for tea, researchers at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences in Bangalore prepared a standardized 15-gram extract of the dried herb. . They then gave 60 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics the extract or a placebo for 60 days.

If you are familiar with how most prescription diabetes medications work (many of them promote weight gain), you will be impressed by the finding that the people who took the herb not only did not gain weight, but there was slight weight gain. tendency to weight. loss (less than 0.1 kilo, or a quarter of a pound, per month). There was also a very slight trend for slimmer waists and tighter hips (again, a few millimeters, or tenths, or an inch), all with no change in food eaten or total calories. However, the body fat percentages increased very slightly.

And as you may have read in other natural health headlines, Ayurvedic herb definitely lowered blood sugar levels.

At the beginning of the study, the average fasting blood sugar level in the test group was 132 mg / dl, and the average postprandial blood sugar (after eating) was 183 mg / dl.

The effects of the herb gradually increased over 90 days. By the end of the third month of the clinical trial, the average fasting blood glucose among the diabetics who took the herb had dropped to 111 mg / dL, while the diabetics who did not take the herb actually had slightly slightly blood glucose levels. higher in the morning. In the group of diabetics who received the herb, postprandial (after eating) blood sugar levels dropped to an average below 150 mg / dl. The improvement in blood sugar levels was confirmed with an average 0.6 percent drop in HbA1C.

The researchers noted that similar percentages of diabetics who received the herb (94 percent) and diabetics who received the placebo (93 percent) were able to follow their diabetic diets. The difference in blood sugar levels was due to the herb. It is also important to note that the diabetics who took the herb did not take any of the commonly prescribed diabetes medications in North America, Australia, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom, and that they did not have blood sugar levels that required the immediate use of insulin.

Then how Coccinia cordifolia works?

Researchers don’t know for sure, but it appears that some chemical in the herb is a mimetic for insulin. That is, this as yet unidentified compound works in the same way as insulin to remove glucose from the bloodstream, but it does not work in the same way as insulin to move triglycerides into starving fat cells.

Will a koval extract for type 2 diabetes be arriving soon at a natural health product retailer near you? Just ask at any Ayurvedic herbal specialty retailer or anywhere the patented Gencinia extract is sold. It is now available. If you drink the herb, use 15 g (about half an ounce) a day to make a tea, which is drunk warm after brewing in a closed teapot for 15 minutes. If you are using a 15: 1 dry extract, use 1,000 mg (1 g) per day.

If you have relatively mild type 2 diabetes and check your blood sugar every day and avoid carbohydrates, this herb is worth a try.

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