The last time I talked about metformin or berberine was almost 2 years ago, and a
lot of new information has come out about both. So it's definitely time for an update. And I'll
also be sharing with you the reasons why I stopped taking metformin and have switched to berberine.
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OK. So, back about four or five years ago, metformin seemed have great potential to
extend the human lifespan. It seemed to be a longevity drug that showed a lot of
promise. In 2019 Dr. Greg Fahey published the TRIMM study. He used human growth hormone,
DHEA and metformin to reverse thymic involution, where the thymus converts to fat,
reducing the amount of active thymic tissue. An unexpected benefit of this
experiment was that he also reversed biological age by a couple of years.
In 2008 there was a mouse study that showed that they were able to extend the lifespan of
mice by 37.8%. And in 2014 there was a human study that demonstrated that diabetics on
metformin lived 15% longer than non-diabetics, normal people, who were not on metformin.
But a couple of years ago, all that started to change. First off, the 2008 mouse study was done
on SHR mice. That stands for spontaneously hypertensive mice. These are inbred mice who
all have high blood pressure. But in normal mice, metformin doesn’t seem to have the same effect.
The Interventions Testing Program tried to duplicate the 2008 study
in 3 different trials and were unable to produce any comparable results.
And in 2021 the National Diabetes Prevention Program published the results of a study that
they've been conducting for 21 years. In this study, done on over 3000 adults at risk for
type 2 diabetes, half got metformin and half got a placebo. In the 21 year follow up period,
there was no perceived increase in the death rates from all cause mortality,
cancer or cardiovascular disease. No difference between metformin and the placebo.
So, in recent years, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of evidence that supports the
idea that metformin can extend the human lifespan. In fact, there seems to be a
lot of evidence that metformin can actually produce negative effects on the human body.
Now, in the last video I did on metformin versus berberine,
I mentioned a 2019 study that looked at aerobic exercise combined with metformin. Since both
metformin and exercise have beneficial effects on blood sugar levels, one might
expect that these effects would be additive. Turns out, they're not.
This study found that participants who were doing both metformin and exercise experienced 50% less
improvement in their VO2 Max compared to those who were on a placebo. In other words, people who were
just exercising improved twice as much as people who were combining their exercise with metformin.
Now, this study was controversial because of its small size, but in 2022, a more thorough study
was conducted that got the same results. So it seems that the 2022 study confirmed the results
of the 2019 study. Metformin seems to interfere with the effects of exercise. Not a good thing,
since exercise has more beneficial effect on aging than just about anything else.
Unfortunately, that's not all. A 2021 study on humans showed that metformin has a negative
impact on testosterone production. After three months of treatment, the control
group had higher levels of total testosterone, free testosterone and bioavailable testosterone
than the metformin group. Testosterone levels in the metformin group had significantly decreased.
And my own, personal experience seem to corroborate a lot of this. So,
as many of you know, I've been using the Regenerative Medicine Institute
as one of my go-to sources for recommendations. In early 2022
the doctors there recommended that I start taking metformin. So I did.
I took metformin for a couple of months, in March and April. But I didn't take it
for long. First off, one of the potential side effects of taking metformin is digestive upset,
and it turned out that I was one of those people susceptible to that particular
side effect. It wasn't a very strong effect, but I did experience diarrhea.
However, the impact of metformin on my exercise was substantial. After only
taking it for a couple of weeks, I found that I didn't have nearly as much energy to complete
a workout session and I was a lot more wiped out at the end. And after a couple of months,
I saw no real improvement in my fitness level. In fact, I felt like I might have lost some fitness.
So, around the end of April I stop taking metformin. Within three days of quitting
metformin, once it was out of my system, I saw a big improvement in my workout sessions. It was
easier to get through the session, and I wasn't nearly as wiped out once I finished. After a
couple of weeks, I felt like I was back on track, that I was making improvements in my fitness
level. So that was pretty persuasive for me that my body did not respond very well to metformin.
OK, so that's why I quit taking metformin. Science didn't seem to indicate that there
was any apparent benefit in aging, but there was a massive negative
impact on my ability to exercise and any improvements in my fitness levels.
But RMI had recommended that I take metformin, or at least a CR mimetic and this still seemed like
a good idea. Calorie restriction is still one of the few proven ways to extend life
spans and I'm well aware of the negative impact that glucose spikes can have on my health. Now,
I'm already doing a lot of other things to control my blood sugar levels. Mostly,
I control it through my diet, but also with intermittent fasting and exercise.
But taking a CR mimetic seems like it could have an additive affect to all
the other things that I'm already doing. So, I decided to switch to Berberine.
Now, the first thing I wanted to know was; are there any studies that seem
to demonstrate that berberine has a positive impact on the aging process.
The Internet is full of studies and articles that seem to support this. And more importantly,
unlike metformin, I couldn't find any literature that seems to counteract, or disprove any of this.
A study published in July 2022 showed that berberine can slow signs of aging in heart cells,
decreasing cellular senescence. Now, interestingly enough, it also showed that many of the beneficial
effects of berberine require klotho, an anti-aging protein associated with extending lifespans.
And a mouse study published in January of this year shows that berberine can improve both
special learning and memory in mice with cognitive decline. Now, this is just a couple of the papers
or articles that I found on the anti-aging properties of berberine. There are a lot more.
OK, so, antiaging properties: check. Does it have any negative impact on exercise,
like metformin? Apparently, not. In a 2019 mouse study, it was demonstrated
that combining aerobic exercise with berberine led to greater improvements in
antioxidant enzymes in pancreatic tissue than either aerobic exercise or berberine alone.
And in a 2021 study, researchers found that both aerobic exercise and a berberine intervention
had a beneficial impact on chronic diseases, particularly diabetes. This study found that
combining both of these interventions produced a greater benefit than either one alone.
Now, both of these studies showed improvements in biomarkers for diabetes, not in fitness or cardio
improvements. But both of these studies looked at combining aerobic exercise with berberine and
neither of them found any contraindications.
And my own personal experience seems to back this up, so far. On my last trip down to RMI,
the good doctors down there recommended that I take berberine instead of metformin. So,
I've been taking berberine for a couple of months now. And I've experienced none of
the negative affects of taking metformin. I've experienced no digestive upset and
my ability to perform during workouts doesn't seem to be impacted whatsoever.
I've got plenty of energy to finish my workouts, and I'm not wiped out at the
end. And as near as I can tell, in the two months that I've been taking berberine,
I've still been able to continue making progress in my fitness,
endurance and stamina levels. So, all-in-all, I'm pretty happy with my experience on berberine.
OK, that wraps up this latest video on metformin and berberine. If you’d like to learn more about
longevity supplements & medications, watch this playlist. And don’t forget,
sign up to be notified when my online course, “Introduction to Longevity” is about to launch.
That’s it for me, I’m outta here. See ya next time.