For anyone who has taken an interest in their health recently, especially those who have been trying to keep up or get on board with the latest trends, you may already be aware of the prominent presence that dietary supplements have started to take. However, you may not be completely aware of all of the supplements that are growing in popularity.
Those who are new to exploring the health world, and especially the world of dietary supplements, may not know all about the more common or trendy supplements and vitamins to try. For example, what is berberine?
Are there any berberine benefits if you decide to take it? Can berberine be especially helpful for particular groups? Or is it just as useful for everyone? And what places can you get berberine from? Does it come from particular plants? Can you get it in an assortment of supplement forms? And are there some people who might want to avoid it for any reason in particular?
What is Berberine?
According to WebMD, berberine is a chemical that is found in a small handful of plants. Additionally, it’s bitter-tasting and yellow in color. Further, Healthline explains that berberine is technically an alkaloid and that it’s historically been used as a sort of dye.
What Does Berberine Do? What are Berberine Benefits?
In hundreds of scientific studies, berberine and theoretical berberine benefits have been put to the test just to see how effective the supplement might be. But this isn’t just in one particular case, as it looks like berberine has the potential to be helpful and useful in multiple circumstances.
While berberine has proved helpful in a number of situations, however, it hasn’t been proven to be effective at all of the things that people claim. More research still needs to be done for many of these cases, so no decisions to use berberine should be based purely on the supposed berberine benefits.
Does Berberine Reduce Blood Sugar Levels?
One of the berberine benefits that has been proven true is that the chemical is actually able to reduce (and sometimes dramatically reduce) blood sugar levels in people. This is especially useful for people who have type 2 diabetes and can be as useful as a couple of particular diabetes drugs, including metformin.
This has a lot to do with the way that it causes the body to react to insulin, including potential insulin resistance. It can also help manage the sugar production and breakdown of carbohydrates throughout the body, making blood sugar levels even more manageable.
Can Berberine Help You Lose Weight?
Berberine has been thought of as somewhat of a weight loss supplement, but this still requires more research in order to be thoroughly proven. However, there are some interesting studies that have been done with the intention of investigating berberine’s abilities in this particular area.
With regular usage, berberine was able to help obese participants drop their BMI levels dramatically, allowing them to lose belly fat and otherwise improve various other areas of their health metrics.
The researchers seemed to believe that this mainly had to do with berberine’s ability to improve the functions of some fat-regulating hormones. One of these hormones, as aforementioned, was also insulin.
What Else Can Berberine Do?
Berberine potentially has the ability to accomplish many health-related goals that people have, in addition to the previously discussed berberine benefits. However, many of these still require a lot of research before anything conclusive can be determined.
With that in mind, it looks like berberine can help with the management of a great number of things, including strengthening your heartbeat and otherwise improving heart conditions. It also potentially has the ability to reduce swelling and aid in the regulation of the body’s metabolism.
Some other sources even claim that berberine can regulate and kill bacteria, creating the potential for healthier guts and lives in people.
In addition to being helpful for those with type 2 diabetes, berberine is also thought to be helpful in lowering some heightened levels of cholesterol, as well as other fats that could be present in your blood. It may also help those who deal with liver disease or high blood pressure.
And before there were a good many studies on the potential uses for berberine in terms of health benefits, the chemical was often used as a treatment for a variety of things. For example, berberine has also been used, historically, to treat some burns and canker sores.
Where Can You Get Berberine?
In addition to some plants, like the Oregon grape or the European barberry, berberine can be found in some supplements, including some plant-based varieties.
However, recommended dosages for the aforementioned berberine benefits will need to be spread out and be somewhat moderately high in order to obtain all of the positive aspects you’re aiming for. Therefore, you should be sure to adhere to a schedule closely and listen to a medical professional if you have any concerns or are looking for health-related advice.
Again, berberine looks like it can be helpful in many different cases, but many of these benefits have not been proven to be the case, so you should proceed with caution.
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