Berberine

Hi, I've read about berberine and other natural herbs/berries, etc. but I honestly don't know how effective they are. Frankly I feel the best way to deal with high blood sugar is by diet and exercise: no white food except cauliflower and regular sustained exercise like walking, biking, swimming, etc. "No white food" actually means to stay away from carbs because most of them are white: food made with flour, potatoes, rice and sugar.

Please have your husband read through the website in my signature for more understanding of the effects of high blood sugar, even elevated blood sugar. His metformin dosage is rather high. What is he eating?

I understand what you're saying about taking something natural but you know that even natural herbs or other plants can have side effects, some of which we might not be aware of. I am a big proponent of natural food.

If his blood sugar levels are high enough to be on 2500 mg metformin, he's either very insulin resistant or not making enough insulin (I mean his pancreas is not making enough insulin.) or both. I don't know of any natural herb or plant that has that kind of control. I did try berberine, Ceylon cinnamon and gymnena sylvestre at different times over the past 14 years but didn't find any effects on my blood sugar.

Here is a website that talks about these supplements. The bottom line is what his blood sugar readings are and that they are fairly consistent and don't fluctuate widely. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/blood-sugar-supplements.

Me neither!

Have a great day, really!

This evening he had a 4.9 blood sugar reading. He doesn’t get low readings like that in the evening!
I think he took two Berberine today.

I’ll have to check with him for what/when he took metformin and berberine and how much.

Lanie G said...
That's completely normal! What were his readings before? Do you know what his H1c was on the last test?

He usually has 5.2 to 5.5 - I should have mentioned that he dropped one metformin as well. So he took 2000 metformin yesterday. (Sometimes it is higher than 5.5 (around 6)

I don’t have his lab work handy now to check his A1C

** Edited to add: It really is too early to tell, but if the Berberine is making a difference, and he can reduce his Metformin...that would be great.

The berberine is working well so far.

He has reduced metformin to 1000 per day and taking berberine with it.

He will be making an appt with his Dr and let her know.
He will get a lab req for an A1C - although it’s too early for assessing the berberine.

Hi Turtle, yes, I think people with vision problems might have trouble using a phone to read forums because of the size of the print. Maybe there are different phones or apps that can adjust font sizes?

Hope you are well!

Good health and happiness to everyone!

You have a great attitude, HT. I've never heard that expression to "go Marilyn". Hope you're having a good day!