Berberine For Metabolic Health

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Berberine is popular for weight loss, and achieves this in several ways that are each considered good for metabolic health

  • Head-to-head with semaglutide drugs, it performs about half as well (but has fewer drawbacks)

• As we age, our collagen levels tend to get depleted more easily

  • Collagen is important not just for youthful good looks, but also for the health of bones and joints

    • Today’s sponsor NativePath are offering high-quality collagen without additives or harmful impurities

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Back Pain Not Going Away? Try Loosening These Muscles! (9:03)

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Stretchy menu:

• 0:29 | Hip flexors

• 4:21 | Gluteus medius

• 6:35 | Piriformis

(Don’t have time to watch now? Bookmark it for later!)

💊 MAIN FEATURE

Is Berberine Nature’s Ozempic/Wegovy?

Berberine is a compound found in many plants. Of which, some of them are variations of the barberry, hence the name.

It’s been popular this past couple of years, mostly for weight loss. In and of itself, something being good for weight loss doesn’t mean it’s good for the health (just ask diarrhoea, or cancer).

Happily, berberine’s mechanisms of action appear to be good for metabolic health, including:

• Reduced fasting blood sugar levels

• Improved insulin sensitivity

• Reduced LDL and triglycerides

• Increased HDL levels

So, what does the science say?

It’s (mostly!) not nature’s Wegovy/Ozempic

It’s had that title in a number of sensationalist headlines (and a current TikTok trend, apparently), but while both berberine and the popular weight-loss drugs Wegovy/Ozempic act in part on insulin metabolism, they mostly do so by completely different mechanisms.

Wegovy and Ozempic are GLP-1 agonists, which mean they augment the action of glucagon-like-peptide 1, which increases insulin release, decreases glucagon release, and promotes a more lasting feeling of fullness.

Berberine works mostly by other means, not all of which are understood. But, we know that it activates AMP-activated protein kinase, and on the flipside, inhibits proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9.

However, it does also have a slight GLP-1 agonist effect too! Bacteria in the gut can decompose and metabolize berberine into dihydroberberine, thus preventing the absorption of disaccharides in the intestinal tract, and increasing GLP-1 levels.

See: Effects of Berberine on the Gastrointestinal Microbiota

Does it work for weight loss?

Yes, simply put. And if we’re going to put it head-to-head with Wegovy/Ozempic, it works about half as well. Which sounds like a criticism, but for a substance that’s a lot safer (and cheaper, and easier—if we like capsules over injections) and has fewer side effects.

• Weight Loss Outcomes Associated With Semaglutide Treatment for Patients With Overweight or Obesity ← Wegovy and Ozempic are both brand names of semaglutide

• The effect of berberine supplementation on obesity parameters: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials ← a good recent research review giving clear data on many factors

• Lipid-lowering effect of berberine in human subjects and rats ← this is an older study, 2012, but it gives 3-month weight loss percentages rather than discrete values in the abstract, so it's easier to compare to the semaglutide study without grabbing a calculator

(click through to read in full)

Is it safe?

It appears to be, with one special caveat: remember that paper about the effects of berberine on the gastrointestinal microbiota? It also has some antimicrobial effects, so you could do harm there if not careful. It’s recommended to give it a break every couple of months, to be sure of allowing your gut microbiota to not get too depleted.

Also, as with anything you might take that’s new, always consult your doctor/pharmacist in case of contraindications based on medications you are taking.

Where can I get it?

As ever, we don’t sell it, but you can check out the berberine of one of our sponsors if you like, or else find one of your choosing online; here’s an example product on Amazon, for your convenience.

Enjoy!

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Restore Your Youth

We’ve written before about the importance of collagen for far more than just youthful skin—it’s also critical for the health of joints and bones!

Most collagen supplements on the market are made from industrial by-products of animal agriculture, and contain artificial ingredients. What NativePath does differently is focus on keeping things as close to nature as possible, with the highest quality (and purest) ingredients.

As a bonus: with 18 grams of protein per serving, their collagen powder also supports muscle growth and maintenance, keeping you feeling energized and strong throughout the day!

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

🌏 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

• Why clean air is a luxury that many can't afford

• Researchers are examining the range of environmental effects on people's health over their whole lives

• Smart brain-wave cap recognizes stroke before the patient reaches the hospital

• Retraining the brain for better vision

• New era in the treatment of breast cancer: AI is helping detect breast cancer earlier

• Researchers reveal link between Alzheimer's and (reduced) sex hormones

• How African sleeping sickness melts away body fat: new study sheds light on the role of lipolysis

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are – by Dr. Alan Jasanoff

How special is our brain? According to Dr. Alan Jasanoff, it's not nearly as special as we think it is.

In this work, he outlines the case for how we have collectively overstated the brain's importance. That it's just another organ like a heart or a kidney, and that who we are is as much a matter of other factors, as what goes on in our brain.

In this reviewer's opinion, he overcorrects a bit. The heart and kidneys are very simple organs, as organs go. The brain is not. And while everything from our gut microbiota to our environment to our hormones may indeed contribute to what is us, our brain is one thing that can't just be swapped out.

Nevertheless, this very well-written book can teach us a lot about everything else that makes us us, including many biological factors that many people don't know about or consider.

Towards the end of the book, he switches into futurist speculation, and his speculation can be summed up as "we cannot achieve anything worthwhile in the future".

Bottom line: if you've an interest in such things as how transplanting glial cells can give a 30% cognitive enhancement, and how a brain transplant wouldn't result in the same us in a different body, this is the book for you.

Click here to check out The Biological Mind, and learn about yours!

🗞️ OTHER NEWSLETTERS WE LOVE

Wishing you the most well-informed start to the week,

The 10almonds Team