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A class of medications commonly prescribed to lower blood sugar in diabetic patients appears to protect them from developing heart failure, according to a study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Gut hormone-based medications used to treat diabetes, such as GLP-1 receptor agonists, have also been shown to reduce body weight. Researchers have been working to understand how. This study, presented today at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions, sheds light on how GLP-1 receptor agonists alter the brain's response to food, possibly reducing cravings and increasing satisfaction while eating.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/berberine-powerful-supplement
A compound called berberine is one of the most effective natural supplements available.
It has very impressive health benefits, and affects your body at the molecular level.
Berberine has been shown to lower blood sugar, cause weight loss and improve heart health, to name a few.
It is one of the few supplements shown to be as effective as a pharmaceutical drug.
This is a detailed review of berberine and its health effects.
Berberine is a bioactive compound that can be extracted from several different plants, including a group of shrubs called Berberis (1).
Technically, it belongs to a class of compounds called alkaloids. It has a yellow color, and has often been used as a dye.
Berberine has a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine, where it was used to treat various ailments.
Now, modern science has confirmed that it has impressive benefits for several different health problems (2).
BOTTOM LINE:Berberine is a compound that can be extracted from several different plants. It has a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine.
Berberine has now been tested in hundreds of different studies.
It has been shown to have powerful effects on many different biological systems (3).
After you ingest berberine, it gets taken in by the body and transported into the bloodstream. Then it travels into the body’s cells.
Inside the cells, it binds to several different “molecular targets” and changes their function (4). This is similar to how pharmaceutical drugs work.
I am not going to get into much detail here, because the biological mechanisms are complicated and diverse.
However, one of the main actions of berberine is to activate an enzyme inside cells called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) (5).
This enzyme is sometimes referred to as a “metabolic master switch” (6).
It is found in the cells of various organs, including the brain, muscle, kidney, heart and liver. This enzyme plays a major role in regulating metabolism (7, 8).
Berberine also affects various other molecules inside cells, and may even affect which genes are turned on or off (4).
BOTTOM LINE:Berberine affects the body at the molecular level, and has a variety of functions inside cells. One of the main functions is activating an important enzyme called AMPK, which regulates metabolism.
Type 2 diabetes is a serious disease that has become incredibly common in recent decades, causing millions of deaths every year.
It is characterized by elevated blood sugar (glucose) levels, either caused by insulin resistance or lack of insulin.
Over time, high blood sugar levels can damage the body’s tissues and organs, leading to various health problems and a shortened lifespan.
Many studies show that berberine can significantly reduce blood sugar levels in individuals with type 2 diabetes (9).
In fact, its effectiveness is comparable to the popular diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage) (2, 10).
It seems to work via multiple different mechanisms (11):
- Decreases insulin resistance, making the blood sugar lowering hormone insulin more effective.
- Increases glycolysis, helping the body break down sugars inside cells.
- Decrease sugar production in the liver.
- Slows the breakdown of carbohydrates in the gut.
- Increases the number of beneficial bacteria in the gut.
In one study of 116 diabetic patients, 1 gram of berberine per day lowered fasting blood sugar by 20%, from 7.0 to 5.6 mmol/L (126 to 101 mg/dL), or from diabetic to normal levels (12).
It also lowered hemoglobin A1c by 12% (a marker for long-term blood sugar levels), and also improved blood lipids like cholesterol and triglycerides (12).
According to a big review of 14 studies, berberine is as effective as oral diabetes drugs, including metformin, glipizide and rosiglitazone (13).
It works very well with lifestyle modifications, and also has additive effects when administered with other blood sugar lowering drugs (2).
If you look at discussions online, you often see people with sky-high blood sugars literally normalizing them just by taking this supplement.
This stuff really works, in both the studies and the real world.
BOTTOM LINE:Berberine is very effective at lowering blood sugar and HbA1c, which are elevated in people with diabetes. It works as well as some pharmaceutical drugs.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/berberine-powerful-supplement#section4
Berberine may also be effective as a weight loss supplement.
So far, two studies have examined the effects on body weight.
In a 12-week study in obese individuals, 500 mg taken three times per day caused about 5 pounds of weight loss, on average. The participants also lost 3.6% of their body fat (14).
Another more impressive study was conducted in 37 men and women with metabolic syndrome. This study went on for 3 months, and the participants took 300 mg, 3 times per day.
The participants dropped their body mass index (BMI) levels from 31.5 to 27.4, or from obese to overweight in only 3 months. They also lost belly fat and improved many health markers (15).
The researchers believe that the weight loss is caused by improved function of fat-regulating hormones, such as insulin, adiponectin and leptin.
Berberine also appears to inhibit the growth of fat cells at the molecular level (16, 17).
However, more research is needed on the weight loss effects of berberine.
BOTTOM LINE:Two studies have shown that berberine can cause significant weight loss, while improving all sorts of other health markers at the same time.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/berberine-powerful-supplement#section5
Heart disease is currently the world’s most common cause of premature death.
Many factors that can be measured in the blood are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
As it turns out, berberine has been shown to improve many of these factors.
According to a review of 11 studies, it can (18):
- Lower total cholesterol by 0.61 mmol/L (24 mg/dL).
- Lower LDL cholesterol by 0.65 mmol/L (25 mg/dL).
- Lower blood triglycerides by 0.50 mmol/L (44 mg/dL).
- Raise HDL cholesterol by 0.05 mmol/L (2 mg/dL).
It has also been shown to lower apolipoprotein B by 13-15%, which is a very important risk factor (19, 20).
According to some studies, berberine works by inhibiting an enzyme called PCSK9. This leads to more LDL being removed from the bloodstream (21, 22).
Keep in mind that diabetes, high blood sugar levels and obesity are also major risk factors for heart disease, all of which seem to be improved with this supplement.
Given the beneficial effects on all these risk factors, it seems likely that berberine could drastically reduce the risk of heart disease.
BOTTOM LINE:Studies show that berberine reduces cholesterol and triglyceride levels, while raising HDL (the “good”) cholesterol. It may lower the risk of heart disease in the long-term.
Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is a 30-amino acid peptide hormone produced in the intestinal epithelial endocrine L-cells by differential processing of proglucagon, the gene which is expressed in these cells. The current knowledge regarding regulation of proglucagon gene expression in the gut and in the brain and mechanisms responsible for the posttranslational processing are reviewed. GLP-1 is released in response to meal intake,......
Alzheimer's disease (AD), characterized by the aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) protein and neuroinflammation, is the most common neurodegenerative disease globally. Previous studies have reported that some AD patients show impaired glucose utilization in brain, leading to cognitive decline. Recently, diabetes-induced dementia has been called "type 3 diabetes", based on features in common with those of type 2 diabetes and the progression of AD. Impaired glucose uptake and insulin resistance in the brain are important issues in type 3 diabetes, because these problems ultimately aggravate memory dysfunction in the brain. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) has been known to act as a critical controller of the glucose metabolism. Several studies have demonstrated that GLP-1 alleviates learning and memory dysfunction by enhancing the regulation of glucose in the AD brain. However, the specific actions of GLP-1 in the AD brain are not fully understood. Here, we review evidences related to the role of GLP-1 in type 3 diabetes.
The physiological effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) are of immense interest because of the potential clinical relevance of this peptide. Produced in intestinal L-cells through posttranslational processing of the proglucagon gene, GLP-1 is released from the gut in response to nutrient ingestion. Peripherally, GLP-1 is known to affect gut motility, inhibit gastric acid secretion, and inhibit glucagon secretion. In the central nervous system, GLP-1 induces satiety, leading to reduced weight gain. In the pancreas, GLP-1 is now known to induce expansion of insulin-secreting β-cell mass, in addition to its most well-characterized effect: the augmentation of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. GLP-1 is believed to....
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/51/suppl_3/S434
Forbes: Exercise Can't Save Us: Our Sugar Intake Is The Real Culprit, Say Experts
In a fascinating and scorching editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, three authors argue that the myth that exercise is the key to weight loss – and to health – is erroneous and pervasive, and that it must end. The evidence that diet matters more than exercise is now overwhelming, they write, and has got to be heeded: We can exercise to the moon and back but still be fat for all the sugar and carbs we consume. And perhaps even more jarring is that we can be a normal weight and exercise, and still be unhealthy if we’re eating poorly. So, they say, we need a basic reboot of our understanding of health, which has to involve the food industry’s powerful PR “machinery,” since that was part of the problem to begin with.
The major point the team makes – which they say the public doesn’t really understand – is that exercise in and of itself doesn’t really lead to weight loss. It may lead to a number of excellent health effects, but weight loss – if you’re not also restricting calories – isn’t one of them. “Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and some cancers by at least 30%,” they write. “However, physical activity does not promote weight loss.”
Full article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/04/24/exercise-wont-save-us-sugar-and-carbs-are-our-bodily-downfall