Natural Supplement To Balance Sugars And Cholesterol Artwork

The Dr. Lam Show

Carrie Lam, MD and Jeremy Lam, MD, host the Dr. Lam Show, where they show their passion for Integrative and Functional Medicine and share nutritional education to empower people to take control of their health. This pair of siblings started LAM CLINIC, where they're able to provide whole-person healing not only in person but also through telemedicine all over the world.

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Natural Supplement To Balance Sugars And Cholesterol

May 05, 2024 • Dr. Lam

One of the most effective supplements for lowering blood sugar, helping with weight loss, improving cardiovascular health and lowering cholesterol. This is a key herb that can boost your metabolism to the next level.

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Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 0:00

Berberine - Berberine is one of the most effective natural supplements that we have found. It is able to lower blood sugars, help with weight loss, and actually improve cardiovascular health, even lowering cholesterol. It's one of the few supplements shown to actually be as effective as a pharmaceutical drug. So what is it? Berberine is a bioactive compound that can be extracted from many different plants, including one group of shrubs called Berberis. And it has a yellow color usually. And so in the past that has been used as a dye, and has been used in the past for many different types of ailments. So Berberine ingested, can get into the body and transport in the bloodstream. And inside the cells, it binds to several different targets. This is similar to how drugs can work. One of the major effects of Berberine that is being studied, is its effect in blood sugar reduction. As we know, Type 2 diabetes is a worldwide epidemic. It's characterized by elevated blood sugar levels, and can be caused by insulin resistance or lack of insulin. Berberine helps, through multiple different mechanisms. Its effectiveness has been compared to the popular diabetes drug metformin, and how does it work? It actually helps to reduce insulin resistance. So it makes the blood sugar lowering hormone insulin more effective, because insulin brings glucose into the cells. It also helps increase glycolysis, which is your body's breakdown of sugars inside the cells and reduces the sugar production in your liver. And it helps slow the breakdown of carbs in your gut, and also help beneficial bacteria in your gut. In a study of some diabetic patients, one gram of Berberine a day actually helped lower fasting blood sugar by 20%. And that could be from diabetic levels, like from 126 fasting blood sugar to 100 normal levels. It was also able to lower hemoglobin A1C and improve blood cholesterol and triglycerides. So Berberine now is being studied more and more as an effective supplement to be able to use for diabetes. And obviously, it is so important to continue to work well with lifestyle modifications if you have diabetes. And so and if you have very high blood sugars, definitely talk to your doctor before starting anything. Berberine can also be effective as a weight loss supplement. In a study of obese individuals, they took 500 milligrams three times a day, and over 12 weeks. Most of these obese individuals were able to actually lose around five pounds of weight and also 3.6% of their body fat. And so helping drop BMI, as it inhibits the growth of fat cells at the molecular level. As heart disease is now also one of the most common cause of death, berberine has been shown to lower total cholesterol, the LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol and triglycerides, and also apo-lipoprotein B which is a very important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. So Berberine has so many good cardiovascular health benefits. But there are some other health benefits like depression, cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory infections, especially in the gut, fatty liver and heart failure. As for dosage and side effects, dosing can range from 900 to 1500 milligrams a day. And a lot of people do take 500 milligrams three to four times a day. Berberine also has a half-life of several hours so spread your dosage across and you can take it before meals and that would be better so that you don't take it on an empty stomach and just as it could lower your blood sugar. It is very important if you're taking blood sugar lowering medications or any other diabetic medications to ask your doctor before starting. Berberine also could have some digestive side effects like cramping, diarrhea, flatulence, stomach pain, constipation. So Berberine is a great supplement to be able to help lower blood sugar levels help insulin resistance, lower your cholesterol and also with weight loss. If you have any questions about the usage of Berberine I suggest you give us a call.