A viewer recently mentioned berberine and I started to say,
"look I've already done a video on berberine," and then I realized no I've
done one on bergamot and as I said in that video I'm not giving up my
metformin and just going with bergamot protection alone I did order some Earl
Grey tea it has bergamot in it that's the flavoring that you see but berberine
is something very different it was originally used in China - has been used
in China for a long time it was it's used over the counter for bacterial
diarrhea and has been discovered to have a significant impact on glucose how
significant? are you ready to give up metformin like some people - my viewer?
will talk about it in just a minute. this is Ford Brewer withPrevMed Heart
Attack Stroke Disability Prevention. today we're talking about berberine. it
was originally made from Rhizoma coptidis but that was too expensive so now
they've gone to a bunch of other different types of plants I'll show you
a picture of the plan in a few minutes as I said used in China over the counter
for diarrhea bacterial diarrhea until they noticed in 1988 when they
were treating a lot of bacterial diarrhea then it actually decreased
blood sugar now that's interesting now how much good science is out there
there's some and what does it say well first of all what does it say about
mechanisms. Well, the mechanisms appear to be jumbled up I
mean similar to metformin - with metformin you don't know if
it's just decreased ability of the liver to create glycogen
or if it's cellular sensitivity to insulin (it's pretty clear cellular insulin sensitivity isn't the mechanism for metformin at least) or if it's gut biome or or maybe
all are certain combinations with berberine it there's activation of AMPK
activated protein kinase there does appear to be enhanced insulin
sensitivity reduced the cell reduce weight gain in insulin resistant
patients and decreased hemoglobin a1c it lowered fasting insulin it did not
appear to increase insulin secretion except in certain types of patients with
more advanced diabetes it did appear to have a potential islet cell you know
pancreatic islet cell or beta cell protection mechanism and decreased
triglycerides well if you decrease blood sugar and hemoglobin a1c you're going to
decrease triglycerides I would remind you to go back and look at my video on
the HDL over triglyceride ratio if you have increased blood sugar and you chew
up your HDL and you have a lot of triglycerides out there so another
fairly academic,fairly rigorous article again reference again it's there's more
work to do in this area as I said I was going to talk a little bit more about
the plant sources there are several may be the most popular appears to be golden
seal. golden seal is used as a it's known as Barberry if you're a plants man
Here in the United States you may have seen this as you can see I
don't have color graphics and I know I get a lot of grief about my graphics
this is a yellow plant green I mean a yellow flower green leaf and a bright
red berry now it's hard to find a picture that showed the flower and the
berry at the same time because usually the berries form after the flowers have
dropped off. now here's the thing is it a go or no go/
Well some sources say it's as effective as metformin and as I mentioned my
viewer mentioned he's using it instead of metformin Yen and associates in
August of 22 said they actually got a two point decrease in hemoglobin a1c and
it appeared to be a fairly rigorous clinical trial that's comparable and
they said that's comparable to metformin at least in their experience. now I would
like to see more more clinical trials around it other sources say it's an it's
unproven here's the thing if you're looking at cost it's actually more
expensive than metformin these days you can get metformin for free from a lot of
pharmacies like I think Wal Mart pharmacy provides metformin for free .HJow
about me? I'm gonna try it. you can make a case that it's got
level 1 evidence because there are clinical trials around it I don't think
again I'd like to see those in a better state but still I'm gonna try it what am
I going to do in terms of metformin I'm not going to drop my metformin. what I
will do is start - is continue to monitor my glucometry, my blood glucose
levels as I start adding this we'll see where it goes and
hopefully I'll remember to give you a report thank you