Berberine is a plant-based alkaloid compound that has been gaining a ton of attention lately due to its beneficial effects on weight loss, obesity, diabetes, and gut health, and for good reason, it works. It's even been referred to by some as nature's ozempic, in homage to the fact that it has a powerful influence on blood sugar as well as weight.
Even though I personally don't think it's fair to compare berberine to ozempic, this should give you an idea of just how powerful some people believe it is for an over-the-counter supplement. We'll talk more about what berberine is actually doing in the body and how it works, but for now, let's talk about why you're here.
Berberine HCL Vs Dihydroberberine
While there have been several different types and formulations of berberine available throughout the years, they all suffer from the same problem, poor absorption and poor bioavailability. In other words, even though you're taking a relatively high dose, usually around 500 milligrams to 1000 milligrams, only a very small portion of that is actually making it into your body. In fact, animal studies show that percentage to be less than 1%.
Usually people attempt to overcome this problem by simply taking higher doses of berberine and by multi-dosing that berberine many times throughout the day. That's why most formulations will recommend that you take 500 milligrams twice per day or 1000 milligrams twice per day.
But this comes with another problem, side effects related to increasingly high doses. The more of something you take, the more likely you are to experience negative side effects and berberine is no exception.
There are many people out there who have a lot of weight to lose and have a very high blood sugar who want to bring that down. This drives those people into increasing their dose of berberine, thus experiencing side effects as well as diminishing returns, and this is exactly why the creation and release of dihydroberberine is so interesting.
As a newcomer, dihydroberberine attempts to solve the problem of dose-related side effects as well as poor bioavailability. Here's what we know based on one pilot study. Researchers evaluated five healthy men, yes, only five, after providing them with either 500 milligrams of berberine, 100 milligrams of dihydroberberine, 200 milligrams of dihydroberberine, or a placebo.
What they found was that those people who took dihydroberberine at a much smaller dose saw comparable effects as those who were taking the higher dose of berberine. The implication, of course, is that dihydroberberine is far more powerful than berberine, given that it provided the same benefits at a much smaller dose. And this is also why you'll frequently see dihydroberberine being touted as five times more potent than berberine HCl.
This wasn't a study that attempted to see if berberine actually worked, because we have plenty of studies already to prove that. It was really an attempt to determine which form of berberine is best. And if we're looking purely at the numbers, it does in fact appear that dihydroberberine is a more powerful analog than berberine HCl.
But is this data convincing enough for you to run out and switch your berberine supplement for a dihydroberberine version? Potentially, but here are a few things to consider first.
1. Small sample size
This pilot study was done in only five people, which is incredibly small as far as studies go. With such a small number of people, it's difficult to extract that data and apply it to a broad percentage of the population. More people being included in the study would have meant that we would have had more confidence in the results.
2. Other metrics weren't evaluated
This study only assessed the impact that berberine and dihydroberberine had on metrics like blood sugar and insulin. It did not, however, assess other important metrics like weight, cholesterol, and even metabolism. So while we can tentatively say that dihydroberberine is more powerful than berberine at lowering blood sugar and insulin, we cannot say the same about its impact, at least not definitively, on weight and cholesterol.
That's unfortunate because most people who take berberine are doing it for its impact on weight, at least right now.
3. The length of time of the study
This particular study only evaluated these people over the course of a little more than 24 hours. As someone who has been recommending and using berberine for years and years, I can tell you from experience that it takes weeks and weeks for it to reach its full potential.
It's very likely that the short-term benefits that were seen in this study on insulin and blood sugar would have translated to better long-term results as well, but it's not something we can definitively say because we don't have the data.
Having said all of this, I personally still think it's worth using dihydroberberine over berberine HCl, and here's why.
In the world of natural ingredients, it's actually very rare and very uncommon for researchers to study and test these ingredients. So while the data we have is not very strong and isn't as robust as we'd like to see, it still points in the right direction.
When you combine this with the fact that we have seen plenty of anecdotal evidence in the form of patient reviews of people using dihydroberberine, I think there's sufficient data to say that it at least works as well as berberine HCl.
How to Transition from Using Berberine HCL to Dihydroberberine
If you are somebody that wants to transition from taking berberine HCl to dihydroberberine, here's what you need to know. Given it's roughly five times greater bioavailability over berberine HCl, the dose that you need to take for therapeutic benefits is much lower than you might think.
Standard dosing for berberine HCl is usually 500 or 1,000 milligrams taken twice per day. Dihydroberberine, on the other hand, is typically dosed at 200 milligrams per day, which is roughly the equivalent of 1,000 milligrams of berberine HCl.
So if you were to use dihydroberberine, you'd be taking 200 to 250 milligrams twice per day, usually about 12 hours apart. This leads us to the next section, which is symptoms and expectations.
Side Effects of Berberine Supplements
One of the main reasons that people don't get the benefits that berberine provides has to do with its potential interaction in the gut. Even though the majority of people who take berberine will not have any problems, there are some people who experience things like diarrhea and even an upset stomach.
In fact, one study showed that up to 34% of people taking berberine experienced these side effects. But this data conflicts with my own personal experience, which suggests that this number is much lower.
But this is still a big problem for people who experience them because it means they can't get the benefits that berberine provides. If berberine is going to cause problems for you, it usually occurs within the first 48 hours of taking the supplement, and it usually occurs at higher doses. As far as the exact symptoms go, here's what some people report.
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Gas,
- Upset stomach
- And nausea.
The good news is, even if you have experienced one or more of these symptoms in the past when using berberine, taking dihydroberberine may not cause the same issues. Because it's five times more effective, you can get the symptoms with much smaller dose.
But as a word of caution, I still have seen some people, although rarely, experience the same GI side effects when taking dihydroberberine as they did when taking berberine. So if you are someone with a sensitive stomach, beware. But what about weight?
Berberine Vs Dihydroberberine: Which is better for weight loss?
The answer is dihydroberberine, the reason I'm hemming and hawing is because we just don't have the data to prove it. But it does seem more likely and plausible, at least, given that dihydroberberine has a more profound impact on blood sugar and insulin.
My personal opinion is that dihydroberberine is preferred if you're trying to lose weight, but that doesn't mean you can't see results using berberine HCL. Just remember that no matter what type of berberine you use, you must combine it with a healthy whole food diet and regular exercise if you want to lose weight. These lifestyle changes compound the beneficial effects of berberine supplements in a synergistic way.
What about blood sugar?
Berberine HCL or Dihydroberberine, which is best in lowering blood sugar? If you are somebody who is primarily using berberine for something like diabetes, high blood sugar, or insulin resistance, then I would definitely go with dihydroberberine.
Using this new form means that you can continually increase your dose at a smaller risk of negative side effects. And given the serious consequences of leaving diabetes untreated, you want to be as aggressive as possible.
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