Gymnema Sylvestre extract - LifeSource Nutrition

Gymnema Sylvestre extract may help to maintain healthy blood sugar levels when used as part of your diet. Gymnema has been used traditionally in India for centuries and has been shown in research to support healthy glucose metabolism by mediation of insulin release and activity and enhancement of healthy pancreatic function. LifeSource’s Gymnema Sylvestre extract is standardized to minimum of 25% gymnemic acids, the same concentration used in clinical research.

*** Diabetes affects an estimated 18,200,000 people and there are another 15,000,000 not yet diagnosed, just in the United States alone!

Complications from diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, nerve damage, limb amputations and even death. On top of all that, prescriptive medications are drugs that can have toxic side effects including, but not limited to, nausea, diarrhea, skin rash, weight gain, respiratory infections, liver damage, and headaches.

The good news is: there is a safe and clinically proven effective solution to help control your blood sugar!

Precautions

Because gymnema sylvestre is known to lower levels of blood sugar, individuals who have diabetes should use it with caution. If blood sugar levels fall too low, shakiness, sweating, confusion, distorted speech, and loss of muscle control may occur. If it is not corrected, low blood sugar can lead to unconsciousness and even death.
Very little information is available on how gymnema sylvestre might affect a developing fetus, an infant, or a small child. Therefore, its use is not recommended during pregnancy, while breast-feeding, or during early childhood.

Gymnema Sylvestre: providing new hope for those with diabetes!

Called alternately Gur-mar or Mera-singi in Hindi, Meshasringi (meaning "ram's horn") in Sanskrit, "Periploca of the Woods" in English, wald-schlinge in German, and Sarpadarushtrika Meshasringi in Ayurvedic Medicine, Gymnema sylvestre is a woody, climbing plant that grows in the tropical forests of central and southern India. It also happens to be a first-rate warrior against diabetes.

History and traditional uses:

A member of the botanical family, Asclepiadacerae, an excellent variety of Gymnema was growing in the Indian city of Goa, ages before the year 1498, when the green-and-red royal Portuguese flag first waved in the warm breezes that grace the Malabar Coast of southwest India. It grew there during the Indian occupation of 1961-1962, which restored Indian rule to Goa. And this outstanding botanical will continue to grow there for as long as geology and humankind permit.

In classical Ayurveda, Gymnema sylvestre has been used for stomach upsets and as a diuretic. It was noted, even as far back as the first century A.D., that Gymnema successfully "destroyed" excess sugars in the body, a condition now recognized as diabetes.

What is its most impressive clinical application?

Diabetes. As early as 1930, researchers were also reporting the plant's blood-glucose (blood-sugar) lowering actions. In modern India, extracts of Gymnema's leaves are used successfully, either alone or in combination, with other Ayurvedic compounds as a remedy against diabetes mellitus.

What is diabetes mellitus?

Actually, there are two forms. Type I diabetes, or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a severe, chronic form of diabetes brought on by insufficient production of insulin, resulting in abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

This form of diabetes normally appears in childhood, or adolescence, and is characterized by excessive thirst, frequent urination, a build up of acids in the body--or a decrease in bicarbonates (acidosis), and heightened sugar levels in blood and urine (glucosuria).

Type II diabetes, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, is a less severe form of the disease that usually appears first in adulthood. Often manifesting no symptoms, and growing worse with obesity and physical inactivity, this form is treated with dietary changes and exercise.
In 1990, at the Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Diabetes (Kilpauk Medical College Hospital), Madras, E.R.B. Shanmugasundaram, et al., gave 400 mg/day of Gymnema sylvestre extract to 27 patients with Type I diabetes, the severe form.

The results indicate that insulin requirements and excessive excretion of glucose in the urine (glucosuria) were reduced in 22 patients; blood sugar (glucose) levels were reduced in 25.