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Dr. Ruscio Radio, DC: Health, Nutrition and Functional Healthcare

874 - What Is Berberine & Will It Actually Make You Lose Weight?

Dr. Ruscio Radio, DC: Health, Nutrition and Functional Healthcare

Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC

Medical, Health, Functionalmedicine, Alternative Health, Health & Fitness

4.5774 Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You might have heard the buzz around berberine, often referred to as “nature's Ozempic”.  

Berberine is a powerhouse for many things, from reducing inflammation to regulating blood sugar levels.

Tune in to hear which benefits the science supports (and the surprising ones it doesn’t) and get a simple dosing guide. 

And if you have any additional questions you would like answered in the future, let me know in the comments!

 

Watch/Read Next…

 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro 

01:00 What is berberine? 

01:37 Weight loss

02:34 Cholesterol

05:52 Blood sugar 

08:47 Gut health 

11:15 SIBO 

12:53 Berberine dosing guide 

 

Featured Studies 

 

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DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider before starting any new treatment or discontinuing an existing treatment.

Music featured in this video: "Modern Technology" by Andrew G, https://audiojungle.net/user/andrew_g 

*Full transcript available on YouTube by clicking the “Show transcript” button on the bottom right of the video.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Dr. Rousho Radio, providing practical and science-based solutions to feeling your best.

0:15.4

To stay up to date on the latest topics, as well as all of our prior episodes, make sure to subscribe in your podcast player.

0:22.9

For weekly updates, visit Dr. Russo.com. That's d r-R-R-U-S-C-I-O.com.

0:30.6

The following discussion is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or

0:36.0

treat any disease. Please do not apply any of this information

0:39.6

without first speaking with your doctor. Now, let's head to the show. Welcome back. Today, let's

0:45.6

discuss Berbering. You may have heard of this plant compound that's been studied for weight loss,

0:51.2

blood sugar, cholesterol. In fact, you may have even heard of one fairly seminal

0:56.1

meta-analysis comparing the effectiveness of berberine for blood sugar against that of metformin.

1:01.8

And also it has uses for gut health. So let's take a moment and look at this traditionally used

1:08.3

plant alkaloid, pass it through a filter of modern science,

1:13.2

and see what we can learn. Where or when should we use it? When might we not want to? And then

1:19.0

also provide you usage guidelines. As I mentioned a moment ago, berberine is an alkaloid.

1:27.4

Think caffeine, nicotine. Theseine is an alkaloid.

1:34.1

Think caffeine, nicotine, these are both plant alkaloids, in this case from a variety of plants,

1:43.1

barberry, golden seal, golden thread, Oregon grape, and the use of berberine does date back some 3,000 somewhat years in traditional and ancient Chinese medicine.

1:48.0

So, an interesting backstory, but again, we want to see if the traditional uses for gut and for wound healing and for metabolism hold merit modern day when examined with science.

2:02.3

So let's start off with weight loss.

2:05.1

Now, as many compounds do, they have and they exert interesting impacts.

2:12.2

So in this case, the impact of berberine does improve fatty acid oxidation and thermogenesis and therefore energy expenditure.

2:23.8

However, when we look at a 2003 umbrella meta-analysis, looking at 13 meta-analyses over 17,000 individuals being studied.

2:38.2

The effect of berberine on weight loss was 1.9 pounds considered non-significant.

...

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