Several days ago, my wife brought some Gohyah Tea home. She began telling me about all its healthy attributes, which I immediately knew I had to investigate. I first read the packaging, which stated in part, Gohyah according to folk-experience and newest research materials of medicine and pharmacy has the cholagogue, liver refreshing, diuretic effects, good for digestion, sound sleep and especially can prevent diabetes mellitus,nephrolith, gall stone, with anthelmintic effect. I had no idea what half of that was so I went to the company’s website. Their website was still under construction, but did have a picture and a price for the tea of around seven dollars, my wife bought the same amount for $1.79.
I then got on the internet and began searching for any scientific research that had been done on Gohyah. Gohyah is also known as Bitter Melon, and the scientific name of Momordica Charantia. After about 30 mins., I found a scientific research website, from Cambridge (journals.cambridge.org), which had four studies that were taken from the British Journal of Nutrition. The articles initially stated that the studies conducted in Asia did not meet the scientific methods for evaluation, so they conducted their own studies using mice. I will not go into the 36 pages of scientific jargon that I went through. The bottom line was that in mice eating both a high fat and low-fat diet it reduced insulin resistance as effectively as the anti-diabetic drug TZD. It also suppressed the visceral fat accumulation and inhibited adipocy hypertrophy, which maybe associated with marketly down regulated expressions of lipogenic genes in the adipose. In english, the studies show that Gohyah has shown in mice that it helps regulate blood glucose, which improves insulin and prohibits the body from storing fat.
Disclaimer note, although the studies indicates it may help people with diabetes, do not change any medication without first talking with your doctor.
I have been using it for about a week, I have noticed the diuretic effect and that my fat across my belly hasn’t gotten any bigger, which may also be a result of my exercise program. Additionally, start with small amounts to make tea until you get it to the strength you like. The darker the tea the more bitter it is, I normally drink it when its the color of light green tea. However, you will know immediately if its too strong and just add water to it. I have yet to take the remains of the tea after boiled and put it in my food to eat it. My wife will surprise me with that one, I don’t always like to eat new things. I hope this is helpful, if you do try it please post your comments here, thanks for your help in advance.
Filed under: Supplements, weight loss Tagged: | bitter melon, Gohyah Tea, healthy, momordica charantia
Thanks for such a good post. I have a cannister of the bulk tea that I got over a year ago for my husband who has Diabetes Type 1. I don’t know why I ever thought he’d drink it! But I’m going to have a cup this morning and I was browsing the Internet looking for how much to use when I came across your site. I thought you might be interested to know that when I purchased it from a local International market, the shop owner told me that a guy had tremendous results with his diabetes such that he was able to get off his insulin with the help of this tea after about a month. Then he had a friend get on the tea with great results also. Again, I agree with you that someone should not change medication without supervision unless they are monitoring it very carefully with glucometers and such. Thanks!
I have been using the tea every now and then since Christmas. (It is now May and I still haven’t gone through the bag.) My sister lives on base in Japan and sent my family a package for Christmas with a bunch of treats and interesting finds. Mostly snacks and candy for the kids. All are labeled in Japanese so I have no idea what we are eating. I opened this bag and popped one in my mouth and chewed. Nasty. I flipped the package over and figured out this was a tea and how to use it by the pictured instructions. It’s quite pleasant as a tea. I enjoy it with no sweeteners, hot or cold. It seems to help me feel satisfied and not hungry. I like tea anyhow and kept coming back to this one because it has a different taste and seemed to clear my head. I thought is was some kind of green tea with caffeine so would drink it in the mornings to help wake up. Maybe it was all physiologic? But I always felt better… I had no idea it was anything healthy for me. I’m defiantly going to finish the bag off ASAP and ask for more.
I just purchased this tea from a local asian market along with Shirataki noodles as I am a diabetic that was told I had to start insulin. The owner of the market said his mother has diabetes & she drinks this tea daily & has cut her pills in 1/2. I’m having my first cup as I type this & am going to check my glucose level afterwards. I’ll check back at a later date to report! Also, to all diabetics, the Shirataki noodles have less than 1 carbs & ZERO others. Great alternative to pasta!