Look into any garden or park and you'll likely see barberry, a striking ornamental maroon shrub. But did you know - rooted deep within traditional medicine practices from Western to Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine, barberry has a powerful secret - its active alkaloid, berberine.

Barberry’s benefits were being recorded from as far back as 650 BC, when blood-cleansing properties of the barberry were noted on a clay tablet in the library of King Ashurbanipal of Assyria. These days? Its diverse uses range from purifying blood to combating microbial infections and enhancing digestive health, as well as antimicrobial actions against diarrhea, dysentery, and parasitical infections.

With mild laxative effects, it's also used as a bitter tonic to improve digestion, alongside its efficacy in managing inflammatory conditions, gynecological issues, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. And all due to berberine, a compound showing its potential in managing the effects of type 2 diabetes by reducing serum glucose, insulin, and lipid levels.

With its powerful metabolism-enhancing properties, berberine is making waves as ‘Nature’s Ozempic’ in human health. But how does this natural powerhouse compare to the synthetic marvel Ozempic, especially when it comes to regulating blood sugar, fat storage, and energy metabolism?

A closer look at Ozempic

Let's delve into Ozempic for a moment. Known scientifically as Semaglutide, this injectable treatment for Type 2 Diabetes has has been a contentious topic since its introduction. Originally only available through prescription, its approval for obesity treatment thrust it into the spotlight. This propelled it into the global spotlight, so much so that the UK government recently unveiled a £40m initiative to explore its efficacy in weekly weight loss injections, in an effort to address the obesity epidemic.

However, the widespread adoption of Ozempic has raised important questions on the ethical and social consequences regarding the preference for pharmaceutical quick fixes over sustainable lifestyle changes, particularly given its severe side effects (including a serious black box warning for thyroid cancer). Crucially, its soaring popularity among individuals without a medical necessity for the medication has caused widespread shortages, jeopardising access for those genuinely in need due to obesity-related health risks. Not to mention that the lost weight also seems to be regained when they stop taking it.

The comparison between berberine and Ozempic arises from their shared ability to influence metabolic health. Berberine offers a natural alternative, with a history of safe use and a broad spectrum of actions that support metabolic health without the severe side effects associated with pharmaceuticals.

Berberine or Ozempic - weighing the options

No question – berberine will not induce the swift weight loss seen with Ozempic. But then berberine’s mechanism of action differs from that of Ozempic; being a synthetic medication, Ozempik operates through mechanisms that are not only unnatural but also potentially hazardous without a medical necessity for its use.

While Ozempic works on GLP-1 receptors, berberine operates its metabolic effects through AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). AMPK is a central regulator of energy and is involved in a number of metabolic pathways involved in blood sugar management and glucose metabolism, insulin signalling, mitochondrial biogenesis, food intake and body weight. 

Berberine boasts intriguing effects on gut health as well. Preliminary research suggests its antimicrobial properties may benefit the gut biota as it appears to suppress harmful pathogenic bacteria, while encouraging the growth of beneficial ones, such as Akkermansia spp.

This mechanism supports its application in functional medicine as a beneficial supplement for managing SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), hence why we include it in our SiboCARE product. A 2014 study further supports this, finding that herbal approaches to SIBO can match the effectiveness of antibiotics without the associated adverse effects.

Integrating barberry bark into equine health

Incorporating barberry into our EMS equines’ diets and health regimes helps support blood sugar and metabolic health, and can be a useful alternative to Metformin, as is Goat’s Rue, from which the pharma drug Metformin was originally synthesised from. Hence why both play a primary role in our synergistic EMS/IR herbal formula, MetaTonic, which when integrated into our horses’ targeted nutritional and health regime complements can help manage EMS/IR effectively.

We sell barberry bark in both dried, cut bark and organic tincture form.

As always, just a reminder that this blog is for information purposes only, and any opinions are my own.

It’s not a substitute for professional care by a qualified medical professional. 

Sources

1.   Chaoran Dong, Jiaqi Yu, Yanan Yang, Fang Zhang, Wenquan Su, Qinhua Fan, Chongming Wu, Shengxian Wu. Berberine, a potential prebiotic to indirectly promote Akkermansia growth through stimulating gut mucin secretion, Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.Volume 139, 2021.Doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2021.111595. 

2.   Chang W, Chen L, Hatch GM. Berberine as a therapy for type 2 diabetes and its complications: From mechanism of action to clinical studies. Biochem Cell Biol. 2015 Oct;93(5):479-86. doi: 10.1139/bcb-2014-0107. Epub 2014 Dec 1. PMID: 25607236. 

3.   Dong H, Wang N, Zhao L, Lu F. Berberine in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systemic review and meta-analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:591654. doi: 10.1155/2012/591654. Epub 2012 Oct 15. PMID: 23118793; PMCID: PMC3478874. 

4.   Aribeygi, H., Jamialahmadi, T., Moallem, S.A., Sahebkar, A. (2021). Boosting GLP-1 by Natural Products. In: Sahebkar, A., Sathyapalan, T. (eds) Natural Products and Human Diseases. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology(), vol 1328. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73234-9_36 

5.   Francini F, Schinella GR, Ríos JL. Activation of AMPK by Medicinal Plants and Natural Products: Its Role in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Mini Rev Med Chem. 2019;19(11):880-901. doi: 10.2174/1389557519666181128120726. PMID: 30484403. 

6.   Chedid V, Dhalla S, Clarke JO, Roland BC, Dunbar KB, Koh J, Justino E, Tomakin E, Mullin GE. Herbal therapy is equivalent to rifaximin for the treatment of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Glob Adv Health Med. 2014 May;3(3):16-24. doi: 10.7453/gahmj.2014.019. PMID: 24891990; PMCID: PMC4030608.