11 Impressive Benefits of Garcinia Cambogia

Garcinia Cambogia health benefits includes promoting weight loss, reducing depression, suppressing appetite, aiding cholesterol level, treating gastric ulcers, promoting fat metabolism and inducing ketosis. Other benefits includes improving blood flow, increasing endurance, managing hemorrhoids and fighting inflammation

What is Garcinia Cambogia?

The name Garcinia Cambogia has become a household one over the past 10-15 years, thanks aggressive marketing exploiting its potential for weight loss. However, there is much more to this fruit, as you will soon discover.

Garcinia Cambogia is a small pumpkin looking fruit, belonging to the species of similar fruits named Garcinia. However, Garcinia Cambogia is actually not its current scientific name, but rather its previous one, which has since been replaced by Garcinia gummi-gutta. It is also known by other local names such as brindle berry and Malabar tamarind, in regions of Southern and South-east Asia where is grows abundantly. It also grows in other tropical regions, such as Central Africa, and is common fare in traditional recipes such as curry.

Even though its appearance on the international scene is almost solely due to its weight loss benefits, it was used as traditional medicine by the Africans and Asians where the fruit endemically grew, thanks to its range of biologically active compounds that promote health. These benefits include:

13 Impressive Benefits of Garcinia Cambogia

1. Promotes Weight Loss

The benefit that started it all is undoubtedly weight loss. In fact, has it not been for its effect on weight loss, you would probably never know that this fruit existed. Garcinia Cambogia possesses a compound known as Hydroxy citric acid (or HCA for short), which has the unique property of preventing food we eat, especially carbohydrates from being stored as fat. This is a major benefit, since the vast majority of weight people gain is due to excessive carbohydrate consumption, and not fat as you may believe. By inhibiting enzymes that facilitate the conversion of glucose into fat and then its subsequent storage, the ability for weight loss is immense. The glucose then either takes a separate conversion pathway and is turned into glycogen, or remain as glucose where it is used as fast acting energy in the event it is needed. Because of this effect, blood sugar levels may become elevated while using Garcinia Cambogia, so keep that in mind if you are diabetic or prone to adverse effects from high blood sugar levels.

2. Helps Reduces Depression

One of the major barriers to successful weight loss is your drive, or lack thereof. While dopamine is primarily involved in determining motivation and drive, serotonin also has a major regulatory function and could be considered as the master neurotransmitter. Garcinia’s HCA content once again is said to be able to elevate serotonin levels and reduce cortisol, leading to uplifted moods and sense of wellbeing. These effects are potent, and cumulative, which means that combing with prescription medications is a big no-no.

3. Aids In Cholesterol Support

Garcinia Cambogia can support your attempts to optimize blood lipid profiles as it simultaneously reduces levels of the bad cholesterol (LDL) and increases the good cholesterol (HDL). This helps prevent blockages to blood vessels in the form of reduced atherosclerotic plaque deposits, lowered risk of heart attacks and stroke, enabling blood to flow better and delaying the onset of fatigue. This ties into weight loss since if you are lethargic or tired all day you will be unable to burn calories.

4. Helps Suppress Appetite

Overeating is a major problem which inevitably leads to weight gain, but frequently has an underlying emotional aspect. Garcinia Cambogia helps suppress appetite by addressing neurochemical imbalances that tend to result in emotional eating, specifically serotonin. Serotonin, besides being important in regulating a pleasant mood, also reduces the desire for food as you know you are satisfied and will not be inclined to eat based on a whim. This can help especially with cravings for sugary foods, which derail the best of weight loss plans.

5. Can Help Treat Gastric Ulcers

Anyone who has experienced a gastric ulcer knows the pain and extreme discomfort associated with it, due in large part to the action of stomach acid on open lesions in the stomach lining. Prescription medication may focus on killing bacterial colonies that worsen the lesions, but in order to speed up healing, stomach acidity needs to be reduced as well. Garcinia Cambogia can help, as it reduces stomach acidity and allows healing to ensure. It can also be used to manage heartburn or acid reflux, both characterized by excessive acid secretion.

6. Promotes Fat Metabolism

In addition to preventing the conversion of carbohydrates into fats, Garcinia Cambogia also attacks fat already present, providing a useful double whammy in reducing overall body fat stores. This is what most people are actually after, as reducing body fat stores results in the greatest change in body composition, when compared to overall weight loss.

7. Can Induce Ketosis

Ketosis is a state that occurs in the body when there is insufficient carbohydrate to provide energy, resulting in the use of alternative sources of energy having to be used. In this case, that alternative source is fat, which is converted into substances known as ketone bodies. These ketone bodies are lower efficiency energy sources than glucose, but overtime actually makes the body function better. Ketosis is an extremely useful state to be in when trying to lose weight, as body fat stores are broken down to be used as fuel.

8. May Improve Blood Flow

While many supplements improve blood flow by causing dilation of blood vessels, Garcinia Cambogia actually promotes thinning of the blood so that blood viscosity is optimal for transport. Often times, the thicker blood is the more difficult it is to transit through blood vessels, making it more likely to develop clots along the journey. Clots are extremely dangerous as they can cause heart attacks, strokes and more.

9. Increases Endurance

Reports indicate that consumption/supplementation of Garcinia Cambogia is associated with increased endurance, characterized by time before fatigue occurs. This translates to many aspects of performance enhancement, including greater weight loss overall. Improving endurance is especially useful if you are a distance runner or marathoner.

10. Can Help Manage Hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoids are uncomfortable and sometimes painful episodes caused by inflamed and protruding blood vessels in the anal cavity. These inflamed vessels may bleed, itch, or make passage of stool painful. Besides surgery, the most popular management techniques include shrinking the inflamed tissue via use of astringents and corticosteroids. The rind of Garcinia Cambogia possesses astringent properties that helps to shrink the swollen tissue.

11. Possesses Anti-Inflammatory Properties

Besides its weight loss potential, the next most popular attribute of Garcinia Cambogia is its ability to reduce inflammation. This can be observed in helping manage hemorrhoids, but also to joint pain and recovery from workouts. All these involve inflammatory pathways that cause pain. Garcinia Cambogia can help alleviate some of your suffering, when combined with other pain management modalities.

Conclusion

Garcinia Cambogia has much more to offer than weight loss, although for the foreseeable future that will remain its most popular use. Regardless, supplementation or consumption of the fruit offers benefits that are important to health, and virtually everyone can benefit from a little weight loss. Garcinia Cambogia is here to stay, given you use common sense when consuming it. Don’t miss out on all this super fruit has to offer!