Bergamot or BergaMet. I choose bergamot, and I'll tell you why. But first of all,
you may be asking what is BergaMet? I got a question about that from one
of my viewers a couple of years ago.
BergaMet is a proprietary brand of bergamot, and if this is beginning to
sound too commercial, just hold on. It's actually anything but that. Here's what
happened. Bergamot oil has been known and prized
for centuries for things like teas... Earl grey tea and perfumes. You only get 3
ounces of oil out of a hundred oranges. As you might imagine, industry decided,
we're gonna make an artificial version, and they did, and the price drop
dramatically. Here's what happened. Because of the price dropping, the
southern Italian farmers, they were poor and getting poorer because of this
artificial product.They got together and said, we think our product is better, and
we think we can prove it. They got together with each other They got grants
from the Italian government. And that's exactly what they did. They proved that
their natural product was better. So let's go over a little bit more about
the detail in this. For those of you, who don't know bergamot is, from the bergamia
plant. It's also known as sour orange. It's only grown in a few areas, mostly
southern Italy. It's in the bergamia family, which is part of the mint family.
So as you see that's a family of plants that just have a lot of very aromatic
type of oils. It's actually the production and capital and symbol of
Calabria, Italy. As we mentioned that it's been used for centuries on
perfumes and teas, and as we also mentioned, it takes a hundred oranges
just to get three ounces of oil. Because of that, manufacturers decided to create
an artificial substitute. In fact, if you go look at your tea... Earl Grey tea (unless
you knew and focused on it, specifically your Earl
Grey tea) is probably made from artificial bergamot. What's the deal with
bergamot and health? Well it's been known for a while to have statin effects, and
hold on before you turn this off if you're a statin hater because this is a
much bigger story than just statins. Going to use a couple of
technical terms here. Bergamot oil has the same impact on the enzyme that
creates cholesterol HMG synthetics. It inhibits that, and we've known that for a
long time. But it also has some antidepressant effects, antimicrobial
effects, and even more specifically and more important in my mind, antioxidant
effects. So as I mentioned again, well-known anti-cholesterol type of
effects. But here's the thing again. Anti-inflammatory effects. Here's in
Clinical Nutrition Journal, The Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant
Effects of Bergamot Juice. They used it actually in a model for treatment for
inflammatory bowel disease. Here's what is my biggest interest though, and it has
to do with insulin sensitivity. As you know, if you've seen other videos of mine,
I personally think, and I'm not alone that, insulin resistance, prediabetes,
metabolic syndrome, they're the same thing, and they are the biggest killer of
mankind because they are the biggest cause of heart attacks. They're the
biggest disabler of mankind because they cause the major cause of strokes as in
80% of heart attacks, 80% of strokes, maybe even more because they caused
cardiovascular inflammation and plaque an inflammation of that plaque. Again, the
big deal with bergamot and insulin resistance. Here's one of the articles.
It's in Nutrients. I won't read the title, I'll just read the bottom line on this
article. This study suggests that food supplements containing full spectrum of
bergamot juice such as BPE-C efficiently induce a combination of weight loss and
insulin sensitivity effects together with a robust
reduction of atherosclerosis risk. That last component has to do with the
LDLs. Again, my major focus is insulin sensitivity. And if you decrease
someone's insulin resistance, increase their insulin sensitivity, you're
probably going to cause some weight loss. Now, it's not all peaches and cream and
everything good you know. What almost everything good has some bad with
it. The true bergamot oils, if you get too much of them on your skin can actually
cause significant rashes with big blisters. And these are comments from my
viewers who have had similar types of problems. There was actually even a
reported death among children that had gotten into concentrated bergamot oil
and drank way too much of it. So again, be careful how you deal with it. I don't
know of anybody having a problem though in, just routine teas, routine commercial
products, maybe that's got something to do with that
that you get when you drink Earl Grey tea. But back to the question of
BergaMet versus bergamot. So as I mentioned, the artificial oils had driven
the price down, and about 30 years ago the farmers in Calabria got together and
said, we think we can prove we've got a better product.
Antonio Familiari, Francesco Crispo, Ezzio Pizzi, and several others got
together, and their story was told by the BBC in 2006. They got together. They
formed a cooperative. They partially financed, and they got financing from the
Italian federal government to actually do the research, look at the science, the
health effects of their product versus the oils. And they went, and they've done
well since in their group, their product is called bergamot. So they have become a
hot commodity in the supplements industry.
Now, you remember I said I was gonna cover Calabria.
Anybody, remember Valter Longo, the fella that invented Prolon, the fasting
mimicking diet, the gerontologist? See that's his hometown. If you
get the book and read The Longevity Diet, he'll talk a little bit about Calabria.
It's one of the blue zones in this world where you have people living more than
anywhere else in the world except maybe five or six other blue zones, people
living into their 100s, centenarians. So again, a very healthy place hometown
of Valter Longo. But look at this, some of the prettiest beaches in the world.
So that's Calabria. Back to the bergamot story. As I mentioned, the purchasing
rights from the BergaMet cooperative have become a hot commodity, most
recently purchased by a group called Grey Clak. CEO is Sanjeev Javia.
I met about a year ago. He's got 17 years of formulating
nutritional products. He's got a specialty in nutrition and exercise, like
most specifically diabetes and other metabolic products. He's recently gotten
into neurologic diseases, focusing on CBD products. So here's the question:
bergamot, is it really better? I think so. Patients, as I mentioned before, say, well
Doc, this is an interesting story. You've given me a lot of interesting
facts, but what do you do? Well, I take it. This one was actually sent to me by
Javia. I have been talking with him about getting something set up for a
better price and better access for my patients. I don't have that set up yet. I
tend to move slowly on some of the business-related components. But I do
want to get the health story out there. I'm pretty sure it is available on
Amazon until we get something set up. I know you can get it. Thank you for your
interest.