Last week I wrote about the health benefits of fermented foods. This has motivated me this week to write about hemp kombucha. One of the reasons I originally started stocking hemp kombucha some years ago was because of the fascinating story I came across about John Leith shown on the SBS Medicine or Myth program. This is an amazing story!!

John Leith when diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes was unable to take the pharmaceutical medication prescribed for his diabetes. It was on a doctor’s suggestion that he tried an alternative treatment – he combined hemp oil with kombucha. So just to be clear, whilst hemp and marijuana are both derived from the cannabis species, they are very different. The hemp oil we are talking about does not contain TCH, the ingredient which gets you high. The other ingredient, Kombucha is a fermented tea drink which we have known for decades has many therapeutic properties, especially for our gut health.

John decided to put aside his doubts and drank hemp kombucha every day. Within a matter of weeks, he was feeling much improved and his diabetes symptoms had gone, his blood glucose levels were restored plus his blood pressure had improved. He was astounded and couldn’t believe this information about hemp kombucha hadn’t been made available to others especially when we know 1.2 million Australians suffer from with Type 2 Diabetes.

John was thrilled to be able to share his story in Medicine or Myth and to also meet the amazing Dr Charlie Teo, Dr Ginnie Mansberg and Professor Ashraful Haque. As he said it was so refreshing to see the medical community open to alternative, natural health and being willing to invest in independent clinical studies.

The clinical trials undertaken by the TV series had very promising results. They recruited participants with Type 2 Diabetes or pre-diabetic blood glucose levels across Australia in an independent scientific study. 75% of participants reported improvement in their fasting blood sugar levels. 1.5mmol/L fasting blood sugar levels improved. Approximately 1 in 3 (31%) participants reported drastic results and completely resolved their diabetes symptoms.

The question is obviously going to be asked – how does this work?  Kombucha is believed to slow down the digestion of carbs, which in turn reduces our blood sugar levels. It may also improve our liver and kidney function. If you want to go one step further, using green tea instead of black tea in your kombucha, it may be even more beneficial as green tea itself may also be helpful in lowering blood sugar levels. It is believed the essential fatty acids in hemp oil may help lower blood sugar levels in the body.

Diabetes is a huge health problem. It is estimated one Australian is diagnosed every five minutes with diabetes. That’s 280 every day!! The health consequences of diabetes are even more scary. There are more than 4,400 amputations every year in Australia as a consequence of diabetes. There is a much higher risk of heart disease when suffering from diabetes – in fact we are two to four time more likely to suffer from heart disease. Diabetes is the major cause of preventable blindness

I often wonder if we fully realise the major consequences of being diagnosed with diabetes. The above statistics are extremely alarming.

Drinking hemp kombucha may not be the total solution, when it comes to preventing or treating type 2 Diabetes however it may be worthwhile including in our diet. As I said, both these ingredients have many other health benefits.

John Leith was so committed to helping other Australians with diabetes he launched his own hemp kombucha drink which we stock in store. Since writing an article on John’s success some years ago, we have had many customers have similar success with hemp kombucha and diabetes. Interestingly, I met John last year and he was thrilled to hear of the success our customers had gained from drinking hemp kombucha.

For further information on this topic or any other health topic call in to see Bev and the team at Go Vita, Your Health Shop at 5 North St, Batemans Bay or phone on 44729737. Don’t forget to tune into Bev on Go Get Healthy at 12.30pm on 2EC.