#339 Is Berberine Nature's Ozempic?
In 2023, the dietary supplements market was valued at approximately $167.5 billion to $177.5 billion.
So it is no surprise when we see headlines touting the latest and greatest new supplement, that its benefits can be overstated and lots of people get caught up in the craze.
Recently, berberine has been getting a lot of social media attention, and since this is a supplement that I’m very familiar with and that I personally use, I thought I’d dig deeper into the science and share it with you.
In this Tuesday Terrain Talk, I’ll tell you everything you might want to know about berberine:
-What it is
-Where it comes from
-What the science says about it
-Whether or not it’s safe.
Check out this episode to hear all about what’s being called “Nature’s Ozempic”
Referred to in this episode:
Work with Laura
Studies:
Efficacy of berberine in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Lipid-lowering effect of berberine in human subjects and rats
Vascular smooth muscle cell dysfunction in neurodegeneration
Berberine and Its Study as an Antidiabetic Compound
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Read the full transcript:
0:00
You're listening to better than before breast cancer with the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm your host, Laura Lummer. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills and the insights and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis. If you're looking for a way to create a life, that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started.
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Hey, friends, Laura, here, you're listening to Episode 339. And this is our Tuesday terrain talk. So today we're going to talk about something that I've just been seeing pop up everywhere. It is so interesting to me, especially when some kind of a plant based substance and plant based supplement starts to become super popular, and it's been around forever, and then some Tiktok influencer apparently gets ahold of it and decides it's a great thing. And now it's this phenomenon. So I want to talk about something that is literally being called nature's ozempic. And it's an herb that is commonly known as Berberine. So all of a sudden, Berberine is getting all of this attention. And I want to talk today about what's being said about what is the truth, what Berberine is what the studies tell us about Berberine. And whether or not it's something that's safe, and something that you should consider speaking to your doctor about. So just before we get into it, this is for information, educational purposes only. I will link to the studies that I referred to in the show notes for this episode, you can find those where you're watching or listening to this podcast, or on my website, the breast cancer recovery coaches.com forward slash 339. But nothing I am saying here is a recommendation for you to take this herb, it is only for your information and education. And you should definitely speak to your doctor about it, especially if you're on other medications. And we'll talk about that in a minute. So Berberine suddenly on all the social media platforms is being touted as nature's ozempic. And if you haven't heard of ozempic, which would be very surprising. It's also known as semi blue tide. It is the prescription drug that people are injecting it's called a GLP, one inhibitor. And it's what all the celebrities are on. It's what's being talked about everywhere. And it's helping people to lose a tremendous amount of weight ozempic was approved to be used for people who have type two diabetes because it curbed hunger cravings, it slows the digestive process. So it has an effect on cravings for food. In fact, they're finding out it has an effect on cravings for just about anything that it reduces alcohol cravings, and cigarette cravings and all kinds of stuff. But mainly this drug was developed for type two diabetics. And then it was discovered that when people used it, that it not only helped with their diabetes, but they started losing a lot of weight. And so then people caught on to it and started taking ozempic for weight loss, which a lot of people have been very, very successful with this. But as with any drug, there's the good part and the bad part, right people talk about the benefits of losing a lot of weight, which improves your metabolic health. But then there are side effects of ozempic. But we're not talking this is not a show about ozempic. I just want you to know what it is and why Berberine is being compared to it. Since diabetes, type two diabetes, blood sugar control and weight are big topics in the world and topics that need and deserve a lot of attention. Berberine is being talked about a lot as this weight loss and diabetes control kind of supplement. It's also being talked about because of gut health, that it's being said that Berberine enhances your gut health, and that it improves the modulation in your gut microbiome. And that in and of itself also can help with weight management and overall metabolic health. That was an article on drugs.com that talked about it. And on frontiers. I read that they had this article that talked about the neuro protective effects of Berberine And recent studies that show that there may be some potential in helping with neurogenic neuro degenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease, and that it may help reduce oxidative stress and promote cell health. Basically, there's been talking about Berberine having an effect on cancer and your general health that not only can it improve metabolic health by helping control blood sugar and contributing to weight loss, but that there are some indications that it might also help with some types of cancer. So these are this is the buzz. These are the headlines that all of a sudden, I don't know it's like Berberine is this new discovery and it is in Berberine. It's been around for a very long time. And Berberine comes from several different plants. So it's a plant substance and there's lots of varieties of it. So Berberine comes from probably one of the most well known sources is Barbary bushes. And Barbary bushes contain a lot of the substance of Berberine in their roots and their bark. It also comes from a plant known as Chinese golden thread. And this plant is native to China. It's another really good source of Berberine and it's commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine, especially when treatments are involving digestion or infection. Another common name you may have heard is goldenseal. goldenseal is a North American plant and it also contains Berberine. In its roots, and in its rhizomes. It is traditionally used for medicinal purposes, including skin diseases, digestive issues, and for colds, you'll hear people take goldenseal when they have a cold. There's another one that's called the Emer a n, you are cork tree, and the bark of the M or cork tree is used to extract Berberine, also used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine. And then there's the Indian Barbary or tree Tumeric as it's known, and that is native to the Himalayas. That's Indian Barbary. And it's used similarly to Berberine containing plants. And it's noted especially for its rich concentration of this alkaloid. Then there's two more sources one is the Oregon grape, and that is a North American native plant. It's another source of Berberine. The plant is used often as an ornamental plant, because it's very pretty, it's used medicinally. The roots and the bark of this plant are used typically to treat bacterial infections, skin diseases, and other health issues. And then finally, there's the Asian Barbary. This is another plant that's found in the Himalayas, and it's used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine. And it contains a lot of Berberine, in the roots and in the bark. So these are all the sources it comes from. And it's pretty interesting too, because especially when it comes to a supplement or an herb, the effects of that are and the way it's used can be influenced by the environment in which it's grown. And you can see that this alkaloid Berberine is grown kind of all over the place, right? We see it in North America, we see it in India, we see it in China. So it's interesting, all the different varieties of Berberine. That can be found. But let's talk about instead of you know, we get our news today from tick tock headlines and Instagram headlines. Let's look at what the studies actually say about Berberine. Because honestly, to take an herb and call it nature's ozempic is kind of really bold statement. ozempic is a powerful drug that has powerful effects. So is Berberine something that we should think of like that. Let's take a look. So first of all, there was a study that I found that it's called the efficacy of Berberine in patients with type two diabetes mellitus type two diabetes, and they're looking at blood sugar control in this study. It's a small study, there's actually two parts to it. And in the first part of the study, they looked at 36 adults who are newly diagnosed with type two diabetes, and they were randomly assigned to either be treated with Berberine, or Metformin, Metformin is a common ly used drug for type two diabetes to help reduce blood sugar. So these people were given a three month trial, they were given a half a gram, three times a day of either Berberine or Metformin. And what the study discovered was that the effect of Berberine was very similar to that of metformin. That there there were significant decreases in the hemoglobin a one C, so that's looking at your blood sugar over a period of three months, there were significant significant decreases in the fasting blood glucose levels in the postprandial or your blood glucose after you've eaten, and also in plasma triglycerides in the Berberine group. And then in the second part of the studied study B, there were 48 adults. In these ones. The first group was newly diagnosed with type two diabetes in this group, there were 48 adults that had poorly controlled type two diabetes, and they were treated with Berberine in a three month trial, and again, they found that Berberine lowered their fasting blood glucose, their post prandial, blood glucose, their hemoglobin, a one C, their fasting plasma insulin, and their total cholesterol and low density lipoproteins, cholesterol significantly decreased as well. Now in that study, they also found that 20 of those patients are 30 A little over 34% of the patient Since that participated in that study experienced some gastrointestinal adverse side effects doesn't really go into the details of that. But that's an interesting thing too, because with the drug ozempic, or also known as semaglutide, oftentimes people have gastrointestinal distress with that also. So then there's another study, I was called Berberine is a novel cholesterol lowering drug, working through a unique mechanism distinct from statins. This study was published in Nature Medicine, and it found that Berberine significantly reduced serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels in hypercholesterolemic patients with patients that had high cholesterol issues. So now weight management, let's get to what everybody is always focused on is managing their weight. There was a study that was published in phyto medicine called lipid lowering effect of Berberine, and human subjects and rats. And that study also found that Berberine could reduce BMI or your body mass index, and improve lipid profiles, so your cholesterol levels in obese patients. So this study took obese human subjects, and obese would mean anyone with a BMI over 30, they were given 500 milligrams of Berberine, orally three times a day for 12 weeks. And they were looking for the effectiveness and the safety of Berberine. And they were deciding on whether or not it was safe and effective by looking at the measurements of body weight, their comprehensive metabolic panel, so their blood panel, their blood lipids, so their cholesterol panel, their hormone levels, and their expression of inflammatory factors, and another blood panel, which is the CBC the complete blood count. So that's what they used as measurements. And what that study found was that Berberine treatment produced mild weight loss. So there was an average of a five pound weight loss in obese human subjects. But what they found was even more interesting was that the treatment of Berberine significantly reduced cholesterol lipid levels, there was a 23% decrease of triglycerides, and a 12.2% decrease of overall cholesterol levels and human subjects. And the lipid lowering effect of Berberine treatment was also replicated in the rat study, because this study looked at rats and humans, there was a 34.7%, decrease of triglycerides and a 9% decrease of cholesterol. So that's interesting. I mean, it's neat to look at the rat study too. But you know, humans aren't rat. So it's great to see that there was a lot of positive effects from the use of Berberine. In that human study, a 23% decrease of triglycerides. That's pretty impressive. So other studies have also shown that Berberine has anti inflammatory effects, anti oxidant effects in time microbial effects. One study that we all like to hear about are the cancer fighting properties of Berberine. And this study was called the antioxidant properties of natural compounds and their potential for scavenging free radicals in Parkinson's disease. That study was published in the Annals of New York Academy of Sciences. And it showed that Berberine actually induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in cancer cells. So they were looking at it for other reasons, but also found that there was definitely some potential for anti cancer effects, which is also great news. They found in a study published in diabetes, that Berberine actually supported mental health, again, through its impact on metabolic pathways involving diabetes and insulin resistance. So that's so interesting, right? Because we've talked so many times on this show about how important it is to have good gut health. And when we have good gut health, it increases our mental health. So what they discovered in that study was that Berberine helped to reduce body weight, and it caused also a significant improvement in glucose tolerance without altering food intake. They also found that Berberine downregulated the expression of genes that are involved in lipo Genesis, and lipo Genesis, is the body's making a fatty acid from non fat precursors. So what that process is, basically is that the intake of carbohydrates stimulates the body to make fatty acids. So yes, people think, oh, you know, it's fats that make that but in the process of lipogenesis, and the synthesis of fatty acids, it's really driven by carbohydrate intake. And they found that Berberine downregulated, the genes that were involved in that process, plus it upregulated genes that were involved in energy expenditure in our To post tissue and muscles, so fat cells and muscle cells. So this is good news, right? We want to have less fatty acids, and we want to have more energy, and we want to be able to access that fat tissue to make energy from. So that's really exciting news. So when we look at these studies, there's definitely some validation here about all of the headlines we're seeing on tick tock and other social media platforms, which is good to know. And important to know, right, we don't want to just take something that we see on tick tock or Instagram and implemented as a diet or health strategy without looking into it. But it is important to talk about the fact that whether we're talking about a pharmaceutical drug, or we're talking about a natural substance, natural substances also have powerful effects, right? Herbal Medicine, is medicine. And we can't forget that we can't think that just because something is natural, that it's safe to take it. And sometimes it's not because of the natural substance, or the herb or the alkaloid, or whatever the plant material is that maybe that in and of itself may not be toxic, but it may interact with other drugs, and that may cause toxicity. And that's kind of the case with Berberine. So, overall, Berberine is thought to be generally safe when taken by adults in oral and typical doses, which means doses that are looked at in studies where they test the safety, like some of the dosage I referred to that was used in these studies. But when you take it in high doses, because people often think more is better. That is not always true, it can lead to toxicity. So common effects, side effects of Berberine can be gastrointestinal issues. So you can get diarrhea, constipation, gas or upset stomach. But a significant risk is its impact on liver function. So Berberine can inhibit certain liver enzymes that are responsible for drug metabolism. And Berberine can also cross the placenta. So it could cause harm to the fetus in it can interfere with bilirubin metabolism. So again, we see that effect on the liver. And it can be very dangerous for pregnant women and newborns. So always check with the doctor, no matter what the substance is you're taking if you're pregnant. And it's also been shown to have some interactions with over the counter medications, and other prescription medications for conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease. And so you always want to check and double check with your doctor, check. Good old Google for drug interactions, but consult with a physician, especially if you're in some kind of treatment. If you're on chemotherapy, if you're on hormone therapy, if you're on any kind of prescription medication, don't just go out and start getting Berberine. And you also want to make sure that you're getting Berberine from a good quality source. So I will post a link to where I get my Berberine from in the show notes for this episode. So you could check that out. But I think the bottom line here is to know that there's some really great stuff when we're taking a look at Berberine some good science behind it. Lots of potential. But again, the studies I referred to are small studies. And so you know, when we're looking at a human population versus a study of 20, some people or 40, some people, I mean, it's good to know that and it shows some potential. And there's also a lot of anecdotal evidence behind it meaning that's been used in Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine for a long time, and people have seen their own results from it. So if you've seen all of the hubbub about Berberine. Lately, it's good to know that there's science behind it and you can look into it more for yourself. Again, I will post links to the studies in the show notes for this episode, print them out, read them yourself, take them to your doctor, if you think Berberine might be something that can help you and your doctor agrees, it's nice to know that there can be a natural substance that might give you the support you need without some of the more serious side effects that can often come with prescription medications. And if you want to dig deeper into taking this thoughtful approach to health into managing your body naturally and from a heart centered place, know that I do metabolic health coaching, one on one coaching. And I also have a program that you can now access through my website called 90 days of wellness, which is a 90 day program where you get coaching but also where you take a look at your health from a really heart centered place when you start to meaning not beating yourself up not judging ourselves by a number on a scale, but really taking a mindful approach to healthy lifestyle practices to figure out what works for you, what feels good for you what works in your lifestyle, and how you can make these changes slowly and mindfully, well, taking care of yourself from a loving place, right? We don't want to be judging ourselves, especially when we're trying to create a healthy lifestyle takes a lot of effort. It's not always easy. And it's rarely a linear process, right? We take a step forward, we take a step back, that's not unusual. But what we do want to remove from that process is self judgment and criticism and telling ourselves that we're failures if we're not able to do things right off the bat, right? So you can find 90 days of wellness on my website as well and I'll post a link to that here in the show notes for this episode. All right, friends, I hope you enjoyed our Tuesday Train Talk and I will talk to you again very soon take care
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courage to the test, laid all your doubts your mind is clearer than before your heart is full and wanting more your futures you know, has you been waiting on
