In the South of Italy grows bergamot - citrus fruit with bitter taste. 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, reports News Max Health.

“This is the only supplement on the planet that works on every parameter of metabolic syndrome,” says Ross Walker, M.D., an Australian cardiologist.

Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of symptoms associated with increased risk of diabetes and heart disease and 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. 

“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.” 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.”

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.