A Natural Cure for Obesity and Insulin Resistance!? Promising Results from Animal Experiments with Bitter Melon Bioactives
In a very recent investigation, researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center ( Wang. 2011 ) found that high-fat diet fed mice gained less weight and had less compromised insulin response, if they received an (unfortunately) unspecified amount of an aquaeus extract from bitter melon : Body weight, plasma glucose, insulin, leptin levels and HOMA-IR values were significantly lower in the BM-fed HFD group when compared to the HFD group. BM supplementation significantly increased IRS-2, IR β, PI 3K and GLUT4 protein abundance in skeletal muscle, as well as phosphorylation of IRS-1, Akt1 and Akt2 when compared with HFD ( P <.05 and P <.01). BM also significantly reduced muscle lipid content in the HFD mice. BM extract greatly increased glucose uptake and enhanced insulin signaling in L6 myotubes. There is however two major caveat to these findings. Firstly, mice ain't a particularly good model for predictions concerning the effect of supplements that are add...