there is one and only one important reason to take berberine supplements but the health industry will try and convince you it's a miracle supplement that improves blood sugar control weight loss and heart health there was even a recent viral video that concluded that berprene supplements shrinks blood vessel plaque and blockages berberine has been used for thousands of years and it's derived from a plant when it's tested in the lab berberine activates an enzyme called ampk which is an important Pathway to help treat type 2 diabetes but in clinical medicine we use a different medication called metformin to activate ampk which is also derived from a plant so why do we use metformin and not berberine well metformin is easily absorbed but the body struggles to absorb berberine and the small amount that is absorbed is quickly broken down by the liver but what about for non-diabetics do we want to use a supplement to activate ampk as explained in a recent video on Metformin trying to activate ampk by using a supplement for non-diabetics doesn't appear to offer any significant benefits it doesn't seem to work for mice and in a massive study looking at non-diabetic Patients over a 21-year period metformin did not offer any benefits trying to use berberine to activate ampk doesn't appear to be a convincing strategy remember though there is one important reason to take berberine supplements which we'll come to at the end of the video in a recent 2022 meta-analysis that combined all of the relevant clinical studies together it showed that berberine supplements offer a small decrease in weight compared to Placebo but it's less than one kilogram so a very small effect and just to mention metformin again in that same diabetes prevention study the patients who used metformin they lost about 2 kilograms which is still a very small effect in clinical medicine to help patients lose weight we offer diet and exercise advice but we're also starting to use medications called glp1 so these are things like semiglutid ozympic and tozipatide I've been prescribing glp-1 medications in my clinical practice here in New Zealand and I'm seeing awesome results for patients that want to lose weight the next proposed benefit for berberine supplements is reducing inflammation but having a look again at that 2022 meta-analysis it found that effects on CRP were non-significant and it's the same for interleukin-6 overall the clinical research that we have is not convincing for berberine's effects on inflammation the next proposed berberine benefit is lowering cholesterol and here is where berberine may be used taken directly from the clinical guideline database called up to date it states that in a meta-analysis that included six trials and 229 patients berberine supplements did improve total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol when compared to Placebo it's a notable but small effect it does this by reducing cholesterol absorption from the gut and blocking pcsk9 to explain if berberine should be used to lower cholesterol we need to go down a bit of a rabbit hole explaining why we should lower cholesterol in the first place we've known for decades that every cell in our body can produce its own cholesterol role and that organs such as the liver can produce extra cholesterol in case other cells in the body need a temporary top up which means we need a transportation system to move that cholesterol around the body and primarily it's transported via the blood but this is a problem blood is primarily water and cholesterol doesn't mix with water think about trying to mix oil and water it doesn't work and they separate out so the body packages the cholesterol up into a spherical ball called A lipoprotein and now we can transport that cholesterol which brings us to an important point when we measure the cholesterol in the blood that only represents a tiny fraction of the body's total cholesterol levels and it's during this transport that some of the cholesterol can get dumped into the blood vessel walls which is why we try and lower cholesterol levels and we can see from a large meta-analysis of 34 randomized clinical studies that when we lower LDL cholesterol we have Progressive reductions in total death rates so in addition to diet and exercise if we need to lower cholesterol levels in clinical medicine we typically prescribe reservostatin first online there's a lot of fear-mongering about Statin medications but we know from large studies that the side effects are small for example statins only cause a very small increase in muscle pains affecting about one to two people in a hundred we also know that statins are not associated with cognitive impairment and actually there's a suggestion that statins may be protective against Alzheimer's disease finally statins do not affect testosterone levels but there are a very small proportion of people which you commonly hear about online who are truly intolerant to statins and that's when we look to other agents such as acetamide pcsk9 Inhibitors and a new medication called bimpedoic acid the trouble is pcsk9 Inhibitors are incredibly expensive and bimpedoic acid is a new medication so it's still under patent and here's where berberine may play a role if a patient is truly intolerant to statins acetamide is not cutting the mustard and it's not a financial option for pcsk9 Inhibitors or acid then as a last resort we may consider berberine it's a last resort because the cholesterol lowering effect of berberine it's much smaller compared to the other medications that we have available today now to explore the study that's gone viral it concluded that it is Justified to develop berberine as a medicine for the treatment of atherosclerosis or blockages of our blood vessels it gave berberine to 21 patients diagnosed with atherosclerosis but not currently undergoing any treatment and the berberine was given for four months now that group of patients were compared to 12 other patients who were taking statins and aspirin so it's a tiny study it's not a randomized controlled trial and it only lasts for four months plus it used Doppler ultrasonography which is not a great measure for atherosclerosis the results therefore are uninterpretable because of the poor methods used in the trial it's disappointing to see that the study has been over interpreted and popularized at the end of the day however it's your health your money your decision but overall there are better options depending on what you're trying to do so in addition to diet and exercise and never forget that if you're a type 2 diabetic and you want to activate ampk metformin is the choice if you want to lose weight we've got glp-1 medications so again they are semiglutid ozympic and tazapatide if you want to lower cholesterol we've got statins acetamide pcsk9 Inhibitors and bamfordoic acid and as a final Last Resort berberine may be considered to put costs into perspective do not age. org offer berberine supplements for 19 a month compare that to metformin which only costs 3. 90 or receiver Statin which is 3.
60 and acetamide which is 4. 60 you can use all three of those medications and it's still cheaper than using berberine supplements if you're looking for a supplement that actually provides further benefits make sure to check out this next video here on Creatine a massive thank you to do not age.
