On the southern tip of Italy – on the bottom of the boot facing Greece – grows a bitter citrus fruit called bergamot.
It’s the main ingredient in BergaMet, a new over-the-counter supplement that is being promoted as a potent weapon in the fight against metabolic syndrome and as an alternative for patients who cannot tolerate cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
An estimated 75 million Americans have metabolic syndrome, a constellation of symptoms associated with increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. The condition is characterized by obesity, insulin resistance, and high cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure.
Researchers first became interested in bergamot’s therapeutic potential when they noted that heart disease was less prevalent in the eastern side of Italy’s boot than on the western side.
“The only difference was that the people on eastern side cooked with bergamot oranges,” Dr. Walker tells Newsmax Health.
The eastern side of the Italian boot is the only place in the world where bergamot oranges are grown. In the United States, the only common source of bergamot is Earl Grey tea. But the peel used to flavor the tea contains far too little of the fruit’s active antioxidants to be of therapeutic value. So researchers turned their attention to the concentrated extract of the bergamot fruit.
In 2011, Italian researchers tested the effects of bergamot extract on 237 patients with abnormal cholesterol with diet-induced hyperlipidemia. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Fitoterapia, the research demonstrated stunningly beneficial effects on blood fats and blood sugar. Study subjects show an average 30 percent reduction in total cholesterol, a 38 percent reduction in LDL (bad) cholesterol, a 40 percent increase in HDL (good) cholesterol, an up to 40 percent drop in triglycerides, and a 20 percent drop in blood sugar.
In another study, researchers found that bergamot extract improved the function of the endothelium, which is the single layer of cells that lines every blood vessel in the body.
“It’s really important to maintain a healthy endothelium,” Dr. Walker says, “because the endothelium releases a substance called nitric oxide, which opens up the blood vessels and improves blood flow. So not only does bergamot lower blood fats. It also works directly on where you want it to work, which is the arteries.”
“There are five major antioxidants in bergamot, and each of them works in a different way,” explains Dr. Walker. “For example, one of them blocks cholesterol absorption in the gut, which is why we suggest you take BergaMet 15 to 20 minutes before a meal.”
According to Dr. Walker, bergamot’s major effect is the activation of AMPK, a substance involved in glucose and fatty acid metabolism.
“It works on the master metabolic switch to switch on sugar and fat metabolism and breaks them down.”
In his cardiology practice, Dr. Walker has placed about 1,500 patients on BergaMet.
“It’s a wonderful adjunct to my treatment,” he says. “It’s allowing me to run my patients with serious heart disease at much lower doses of statins and still get the same effect on their lipids.”
Except for about 20 patients who developed digestive upsets from BergaMet, Dr. Walker has noted no serious side effects associated with the supplement, unlike statin drugs.
In some patients, it also has been shown to lead to weight loss. Anecdotal reports suggest that the supplement – in combination with a healthy diet and increased physical activity – is associated with a weight loss as high as 90 pounds.
If there’s any downside to the BergaMet, he says, it’s that is doesn’t lower cholesterol as effectively as statins, which is why it is most commonly used with low doses of statins as an adjunct treatment.
Each BergaMet tablet contains 650 mg of dehydrated bergamot juice. The recommended dose is one tablet twice daily. In the U.S., online retailers sell a 30-day supply of the supplement for $30 to $50.
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