1. Cold Remedy
Bitter kola also can be used in alleviating sore throat and as a remedy for cold symptoms. Healers in Africa has been using it to treat people coughing and sneezes for hundreds of years effectively. It also helps to relieve the sore throat effects that may come as one of the symptoms of cold.
2. Relieve Arthritis
In July 2008 issue of the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, it is revealed that Garcinia kola reduces joint inflammation and pain caused by osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is one of the most common forms of arthritis, normally caused by aging, obesity, or a joint injury. It is characterized by swelling, pain, and inflammation in the joints, causing reduced movement. The antioxidant properties of bitter kola provide a significant analgesic or anti-inflammatory effects which significantly counters the effect of osteoarthritis.
3. Weight Loss Treatment
Chewing bitter kola could suppress the hungry feeling and makes your body wants to drink more water. In this case, it can be used to prevent any bad eating habit such as late night snacking, binge eating, etc. and by keeping your body hydrated, improved your digestive system as well. Bitter kola is also known to reduce glucose level in your blood.
4. Throat Clearing
If you have a problem with swallowing due to swelling or dry throat, you could try to chew bitter kolas. Experts said that it stimulates the mucus production along the vocal tubes to reduce the swelling and dryness in the throat.
5. Improves Lung Function
Some researchers reveal that bitter kola could improve lungs by strengthening fibers in the lungs tissue. This would dilate the alveolar ducts and sacs in the lungs, thereby improving the respiratory system. The 2008 Internet Journal of Pulmonary Medicine performs a series of experiments on mice which shows an improvement over the mice’s respiratory function after 28 days of bitter kola usage.
6. Prevents Glaucoma
A high eye pressure could lead to glaucoma, a condition of the eye that, if left untreated, could result in permanent blindness. Bitter kola has proven itself to be an amazing remedy for the eye. Lagos University Teaching Hospital has a journal which showed us that when you use bitter kola at least twice a day, it could successfully reduce the eye pressure.
7. Body Weight Management
Certain eating habits have a significant effect on your body fat, which in turn contributes to your body weight and overall health. If you really want to cut your weight drastically, these unhealthy eating habits need to stop and start burning the excess body fat. Bitter kola may not be able to burn any body fat, but it can help you refrain from bad eating habits. By suppressing your hunger effectively, you can limit your diet to only eating what your body needs.
8. Anti-Malarial Properties
Traditional African healers have been using bitter kola to treat malaria infections for years. The bitter kola is a good source of Quinone, which is known for its anti-malaria properties. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research found that Kolaviron, a chemical compound contained in bitter kola is also responsible for halting malarial activity.
9. Prevent Beer Spoilage
Another common known uses for bitter kola is that it can be used a hop substitution when brewing beer. As we all know, hops is the main beer ingredients which protect the beer from spoilage. So we can safely say that bitter kola can prevent beer from spoiling.
10. Remedy for Osteoarthritis – The researches found that bitter kola has the source to treat osteoarthritis.
11. Improve Respiratory Function –Thus, bitter kola may reflex your lung in order to improve respiratory function.
Meanwhile, that is all the health benefits of bitter kola. Indeed, you may never know it before.