A Powerful Natural Way to Fight Diabetes
Berberine may not be one of the most famous natural supplements yet, but if you have diabetes, you may want to find out about it! This huge new study will tell you why.
Berberine is the active ingredient in herbs like goldenseal, goldenthread, barberry and Oregon grape root. There are a lot of exciting studies on berberine as a herbal treatment for diabetes.
Berberine is as effective as the drugs metformin and rosiglitazone for managing type 2 diabetes (Metabolism 2010;59:285-92). It is actually better than metformin because it has the added advantage of lowering cholesterol and triglycerides. When drugs are not able to successfully manage type 2 diabetes, adding berberine significantly improves the efficacy (Metabolism 2008;57:712-17). A meta-analysis of controlled studies found that, for type 2 diabetes, berberine is more effective than placebo and as effective as drugs and that adding it to drugs is superior to drugs alone (J Ethnopharmacol 2015;161:69-81).
Huge news came a couple of years ago when a systematic review and meta-analysis of46 controlled studies of diabetics and prediabetics showed that, alone or combined with conventional treatments, berberine significantly lowered HbA1c, fasting blood glucose and blood glucose after eating. Improving HbA1c is big news because it is the most important marker of long term blood sugar and diabetes control. Berberine also significantly improved insulin resistance, triglycerides, and total, LDL and HDL cholesterol.
Berberine also markedly and significantly improve inflammation. Diabetes is associated with inflammation, and that inflammation makes blood sugar drugs work worse. This may be part of the reason why berberine improves the efficacy of drugs.
The researchers say that berberine lowers blood sugar as effectively as the drug metformin and that adding it to drugs improves their efficacy. It may be especially valuable for diabetics with cholesterol problems and who are overweight.
Berberine treatment was also safe and had a better safety profile than the control group (Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2021; 2021: 2074610).
Now, a huge new study is adding even more evidence. This study put together all of the meta-analyses of berberine published up to April 2023 into a type of study called an umbrella study.
It found that berberine effectively lowers fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and insulin. It also improved inflammation as shown in improvements in interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-a and C-reactive protein.
The new study solidly demonstrates that berberine can be effective in improving blood sugar control and inflammation in diabetics.
Clin Ther. 2023 Nov 27:S0149-2918(23)00429-0.
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For much more on preventing and treating diabetes, see our books The Family Naturopathic Encyclopedia and, happily, Chocolate: Superfood of the Gods.
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