Berberine - Anyone Using It

anyone using it?

curious why Biotest hasn’t come out with it, seems there aren’t many legit ones on the market.

I’m surprised Biotest hasn’t released a Vitamin D product

i know berberine as an anti fungal, anti bacterial herb. What business would Biotest have with this?

Ursolic Acid looks to have some interesting properties as well.

blood sugar management

I have actually never heard of this, but lately have became much more focused on unleashing blood sugar/ insulin effects to help pack on muscle. I’ll definitely be reading up on this, but can anyone explain in laymen’s terms what exactly it does?

[quote]Houston07 wrote:
I have actually never heard of this, but lately have became much more focused on unleashing blood sugar/ insulin effects to help pack on muscle. I’ll definitely be reading up on this, but can anyone explain in laymen’s terms what exactly it does?

[/quote]

check your PM’s

Berberine appears to be some great stuff - it activates AMPK (one of the principal benefits to health of exercise, dieting, & weight loss)… High glucose and glycogen levels inhibit AMPK. Bererine is one of the few chemicals (resveratrol and metformin being the others) which have been found to do this.

From what I have read berberine activates atrogin-1 directly and indirectly activates AMPk which will increase myostatin expression. This increase in expression will decrease muscle protein synthesis.

Atrogin-1 affects muscle protein synthesis and degradation when energy metabolism is impaired by the antidiabetes drug berberine. Wang H, Liu D, Cao P, Lecker S, Hu Z.

[quote]Berberine administration decreased protein synthesis and increased degradation in muscles of normal and db/db mice. The protein catabolic mechanism depended on berberine-stimulated expression of the E3 ubiquitin ligase, atrogin-1. Atrogin-1 not only increased proteolysis but also reduced protein synthesis by mechanisms that were independent of decreased phosphorylation of Akt or forkhead transcription factors.

Impaired protein synthesis was dependent on a reduction in eIF3-f, an essential regulator of protein synthesis. Berberine impaired energy metabolism, activating AMP-activated protein kinase and providing an alternative mechanism for the stimulation of atrogin-1 expression. When we increased mitochondrial biogenesis by expressing peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1alpha, berberine-induced changes in muscle protein metabolism were prevented.[/quote]

Studies have also shown berberine not only reduces insulin resistance (increases expression of insulin receptors) but it also normalizes the lipid profiles, fatty liver, and inflammation.

[quote]GrizzlyBerg wrote:
From what I have read berberine activates atrogin-1 directly and indirectly activates AMPk which will increase myostatin expression. This increase in expression will decrease muscle protein synthesis.

Atrogin-1 affects muscle protein synthesis and degradation when energy metabolism is impaired by the antidiabetes drug berberine. Wang H, Liu D, Cao P, Lecker S, Hu Z.

[quote]Berberine administration decreased protein synthesis and increased degradation in muscles of normal and db/db mice. The protein catabolic mechanism depended on berberine-stimulated expression of the E3 ubiquitin ligase, atrogin-1. Atrogin-1 not only increased proteolysis but also reduced protein synthesis by mechanisms that were independent of decreased phosphorylation of Akt or forkhead transcription factors.

Impaired protein synthesis was dependent on a reduction in eIF3-f, an essential regulator of protein synthesis. Berberine impaired energy metabolism, activating AMP-activated protein kinase and providing an alternative mechanism for the stimulation of atrogin-1 expression. When we increased mitochondrial biogenesis by expressing peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1alpha, berberine-induced changes in muscle protein metabolism were prevented.[/quote]
[/quote]
Hmm. Definitely worth noting. Thanks Berg!

decreased protein synthesis doesn’t sound so appealing

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
decreased protein synthesis doesn’t sound so appealing[/quote]
Agreed, based on this (atrogin/myostatin), it shouldn’t be advocated across the board for those looking to add muscle, but I don’t think it can be written off just yet. I mean, fasting is bad for protein synthesis, but still advocated by many. Perhaps this supplement could have application on those fasting days, or as a reset after a bulk, or …

Also, it’s tremendous for reducing inflammation, especially gut inflammation. Most bodybuilders probably also have some degree of fatty tissue in their liver, which berberine is also thought to address. So long term daily use = probably not a good idea, but whether or not it has a purpose, even for those trying to add muscle - the jury is still out. We don’t have a clue what dosage is required to give positive vs negative effects.

Been using this for a few weeks and decided to buy a glucose meter to see what’s what.
From what I’ve read you need to take it 30 minutes prior to eating.
Yesterday at 5pm after a few hours working in the yard and no food for three hours I measured
glucose at 82. I took a 400mg capsule of berberine and went to the supermarket, when I returned
45 minutes later I measured glucose again and was at 106 ??

This morning when I woke up I measured glucose at 89. I took a 400mg capsule of berberine with 8oz
of water, and had a cup of coffee with no sweetener and 2tbls of half and half (no sugar at all), and
measured glucose 40 minutes later and I was at 110 ?

Not noticing any real differences, but my muscles feel fuller, and somewhat harder. Was thinking the berberine
was pushing glycogen into muscles, but the rise in glucose suggests otherwise.

Anyone able to explain this ?

Stats
6’3" 232 35" waist, 44 years old.
On trt using 105 mg prop per week with 19.5mg Aromasin
I inject everyday and the aromasin eod…

We found Indigo-3G (cyanidin 3-glucoside) to be superior in reducing insulin resistance, fighting fat cell inflammation, activating AMPK, and in general, partitioning nutrients towards muscle storage instead of fat storage.