Barberries Rather Than Berberine to Lower Cholesterol

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How many dried barberries do you need to eat to get the cholesterol-lowering dose of berberine?

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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

In my last video, I suggested we could eat artichoke hearts instead of taking artichoke extract to lower our cholesterol, and we can do the same by eating the whole food source of berberine by eating barberries. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 18 randomized, controlled trials, involving more than a thousand participants, found that taking between 900 and 1500 mg a day of berberine can reduce LDL cholesterol by about 18 points within one to six months.

Now, 15 out of those 18 trials were done in China, and there have been issues with quality found in clinical trials in China, leading to a questioning of China’s medical research integrity. Says who? Says China’s own food and drug administration. Eighty percent of China’s clinical trial data were found to be fraudulent. Its investigation found that 80% of clinical trials contained fabricated, flawed, or inadequate data, though things may be improving as researchers may face not a slap on the risk, but rather execution for fraud.

Ironically, Chinese studies on berberine supplements may be more valid, since it’s regulated there as an over-the-counter drug instead of a supplement; so, by law, it actually has to contain what it says it contains. Elsewhere, 15 berberine supplements were tested—I like that they named names, and most—nine out of 15—failed to come within 10% of the declared dose on their labels. And the quality of the berberine product appeared unrelated to the cost, as the ones with at least 90% of the labeled amount were not significantly more expensive than those that didn’t.

That was in 2017. A follow-up study published in 2023 of 18 berberine supplements bought online similarly found that about half failed to contain the claimed amount. Berberine supplement manufacturers NOW claim to have tested more than 30 competing berberine brands, and found more than half contained less than 40% of the labeled amount, and it appeared about one in five didn’t have any at all. I don’t recognize any of these brands, though; so, they may have gone out of their way to find shady fly-by-night companies to make theirs look better.

Is berberine safe? It’s a potent inhibitor of drug detox enzymes in the body, so can lead to high drug levels––in this case, leading to acute liver injury when it pushed blood levels of the blood thinner Xarelto to toxic levels. So, if you’re on medications, always ask your doctor first before starting any kind of supplements.

Gastrointestinal symptoms have been discovered to be the common side effects of taking berberine, including abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, or bloating. That certainly happened to me when I tried it. The berberine treatment-emergent diarrhea is associated with a disturbance in the gut microbiome, at least in rats, complete with a graphic illustration of fecal consistency.

Ironically, berberine’s been used as a treatment for certain forms of infectious diarrhea by killing off bacteria, such as cholera, but maybe it’s killing off some good bacteria too.

The side effects may be dose dependent; so, if it does cause you problems, you can try reducing the dose. I tried that, and it still upset my stomach. The solution to both the purity issues and the stomach issues may be to get berberine in its whole food form, barberries, which you can find dried in Middle Eastern spice stores or online. About 5 to 8% of the berry is pure berberine. There doesn’t appear to be a significant difference in cholesterol lowering between the larger doses and the smaller doses. So, to get the 900 mg dose, you’d just need to eat about two tablespoons of dried barberries a day.

This study got away with using less than two tablespoons and still got a significant drop in LDL, but they used purplish-black barberries, rather than the more common red ones, and I haven’t been able to find the black ones anywhere domestically.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

In my last video, I suggested we could eat artichoke hearts instead of taking artichoke extract to lower our cholesterol, and we can do the same by eating the whole food source of berberine by eating barberries. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 18 randomized, controlled trials, involving more than a thousand participants, found that taking between 900 and 1500 mg a day of berberine can reduce LDL cholesterol by about 18 points within one to six months.

Now, 15 out of those 18 trials were done in China, and there have been issues with quality found in clinical trials in China, leading to a questioning of China’s medical research integrity. Says who? Says China’s own food and drug administration. Eighty percent of China’s clinical trial data were found to be fraudulent. Its investigation found that 80% of clinical trials contained fabricated, flawed, or inadequate data, though things may be improving as researchers may face not a slap on the risk, but rather execution for fraud.

Ironically, Chinese studies on berberine supplements may be more valid, since it’s regulated there as an over-the-counter drug instead of a supplement; so, by law, it actually has to contain what it says it contains. Elsewhere, 15 berberine supplements were tested—I like that they named names, and most—nine out of 15—failed to come within 10% of the declared dose on their labels. And the quality of the berberine product appeared unrelated to the cost, as the ones with at least 90% of the labeled amount were not significantly more expensive than those that didn’t.

That was in 2017. A follow-up study published in 2023 of 18 berberine supplements bought online similarly found that about half failed to contain the claimed amount. Berberine supplement manufacturers NOW claim to have tested more than 30 competing berberine brands, and found more than half contained less than 40% of the labeled amount, and it appeared about one in five didn’t have any at all. I don’t recognize any of these brands, though; so, they may have gone out of their way to find shady fly-by-night companies to make theirs look better.

Is berberine safe? It’s a potent inhibitor of drug detox enzymes in the body, so can lead to high drug levels––in this case, leading to acute liver injury when it pushed blood levels of the blood thinner Xarelto to toxic levels. So, if you’re on medications, always ask your doctor first before starting any kind of supplements.

Gastrointestinal symptoms have been discovered to be the common side effects of taking berberine, including abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, or bloating. That certainly happened to me when I tried it. The berberine treatment-emergent diarrhea is associated with a disturbance in the gut microbiome, at least in rats, complete with a graphic illustration of fecal consistency.

Ironically, berberine’s been used as a treatment for certain forms of infectious diarrhea by killing off bacteria, such as cholera, but maybe it’s killing off some good bacteria too.

The side effects may be dose dependent; so, if it does cause you problems, you can try reducing the dose. I tried that, and it still upset my stomach. The solution to both the purity issues and the stomach issues may be to get berberine in its whole food form, barberries, which you can find dried in Middle Eastern spice stores or online. About 5 to 8% of the berry is pure berberine. There doesn’t appear to be a significant difference in cholesterol lowering between the larger doses and the smaller doses. So, to get the 900 mg dose, you’d just need to eat about two tablespoons of dried barberries a day.

This study got away with using less than two tablespoons and still got a significant drop in LDL, but they used purplish-black barberries, rather than the more common red ones, and I haven’t been able to find the black ones anywhere domestically.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Doctor's Note

This is the 12th video in an extended series on the critically important topic of how to lower LDL cholesterol, the primary driver of our primary killer. In this series, we take a deep dive into ways we may lower our cholesterol through diet. We’ll explore the Portfolio Diet, plant sterols, and cholesterol-lowering supplements, foods, herbs, and spices, before concluding with my Portfolio Plus Powder recipe “cooking” video.

If you don’t want to wait for all the videos to be released over time, we’ve compiled all the information into my latest book, Lower LDL Cholesterol Naturally with Food, available as a softcover, ebook, and audiobook.

If you missed the previous videos in this series, see:

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