Berberine: Health Benefits, Side Effects, and Uses
What is Berberine?
Berberine is one of the chemical compounds, which is found in several plants including those of European barberry, goldenseal, goldthreads, Oregon grape, greater celamdine, tree turmeric, phellodendron.
Berberine has medical properties including those of controlling the diabetes, high cholesterol levels, and also in controlling high blood pressure. It is also used in curing the burns, canker sores, liver diseases and also in maintaining many other conditions.
Berberine is one of the natural compounds, which is most effective in treating many abnormal diseases in our body. It has a high amount of impressive health benefits which has the capability to affect our body up to a molecular level.
Berberine also works in lowering the blood sugar level, and aiding in weight loss and also in improving the health of vascular systems.
Berberine Source
Berberine is one of the most significant bioactive compounds which is extracted from different types of plants including some species of shrubs which are known as Berberis. Technically, berberine also belongs to the class go the alkaline compounds, which has its characteristic yellow color which can also be used in the form of dye.
It has also been found that berberine has been used traditionally in the cheese medicines, to treat the various kinds of ailments. In recent times, modern science has also confirmed that berberine has impressive benefits for curing different type of health issues.
Physiology of Berberine
It has also been tested in different types of studies, and also concluded that it has many powerful effects on dealing with many biological irregularities. When we consume berberine by food supplements, after the completion of the digestion process, ingested berberine is taken by the body, through the process of absorption and it is transported via bloodstream to all the cells of the body, after passing to the cells, via blood, berberine starts to bind up with the molecular targets and changes their function and helps in curing the mechanisms if it has any defects.
Simply, Berberine works in the same way how pharmaceutical drugs works in treating the ailments. One of the important actions of the berberine activation is due to presence of the enzyme named AMP-activated protein kinase, which is present inside the cells.
This enzyme can also be sometimes referred to as Metabolic master switch. This enzyme can also be found in cells of various organs in our body, including those of brain, muscle, kidney, liver and heart.
This enzyme also plays a vital role in regulating the metabolism of the body cells. Berberine also plays a role in affecting the other molecules that are found inside our cells, which participates in turning on and off the genes.
Berberine Benefits
Berberine acts as an effective antimicrobial agent, which helps us to inhibit the growth of the species of bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus. As Staphylococcus aureus has the ability to cause many of the health defects like pneumonia, sepsis, meningitis and also a wide variety of skin infections.
It has also been proved that Berberine has the ability to damage the DNA and the protein so the several species of bacteria. Berberine also aids in treating many of the inflammation processes and in treating many of the health factors like heart diseases and diabetes.
Some researchers also suggests that berberine has an anti-inflammatory property, which helps us to treat the diseases like diabetes and other inflammation related conditions.
Berberine plays an effective role in lowering the blood level in the blood and also in controlling the blood pressures. Berberine acts as a promising factor in treating the diabetes, especially for the people who are unaware or not in a condition to take the pharmaceutical drugs in case of heart or liver abnormalities.
Berberine also worked in changing the ailments caused by lifestyle factors like blood glucose level, cholesterols, etc. High levels of lipoprotein, triglycerides, cholesterols, etc. plays a significant role in increasing the risk of stroke and other cardio vascular diseases.
Berberine also helps in lowering the LDL cholesterol levels in the blood, along with human, animals also indicate the cholesterol lowering effects in the blood.
Berberine works equal to those drugs which aids in reducing the high cholesterol levels in the blood. We all know that high blood pressure is one of the major causes for heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.
Berberine acts as a significant agent in lowering the blood pressure and also in reducing the severity of the cases with high risk of heart diseases.
The common symptom for having type 2 diabetes is obesity, having heart sleazes and increased cholesterol and blood sugar levels, People who are suffering from the obesity are insisted to take berberine of about 750 grams in twice a day for about 3 months, which shows efficient positive results.
Berberine also plays a role in treating the Polycystic ovary syndrome, which is a condition occurring mostly in females, as they have a high number of male hormones.
This condition is often referred to as metabolic imbalances that leads to infertility and several mensural problems. Metformin is a drug used for treating this condition.
Berberine also has the same characteristics as of metformin and aids in treating this syndrome. Berberine also plays a vital role in fighting against the cancer-causing cells.
Berberine Citations
- Berberine and barberry (Berberis vulgaris): A clinical review. Phytother Res . 2019 Mar;33(3):504-523.
- Berberine, an epiphany against cancer. Molecules . 2014 Aug 15;19(8):12349-67.
- The metabolism of berberine and its contribution to the pharmacological effects. Drug Metab Rev . 2017 May;49(2):139-157.
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