Calore-Burning Fat Boosted By Herb Extract: Berberine

The human body, most diet gurus fail to mention, contains not just one but two different kinds of fat. White fat is the fatty tissue that stores fat. Brown fat is the fatty tissue that burns fat to keep the body warm.

It should come as a surprise to no one that our bodies contain a lot more white fat than brown fat. But an extract from well-known herbs can help brown fat burn fat more efficiently, and even transform white fat into brown fat. First, however, let's review some definitions that a lot of health-oriented websites are getting wrong.

The Terms You Need to Know to Locate Berberine

The weight loss multiplier found in certain anti-infective herbs is berberine. Berberine isn't a plant. Berberine is a chemical. Berberine is found in:

• The Chinese herb called coptis, golden thread, gold thread, Coptis chinensis, or Huánglián. If this herb is included in a Chinese herbal tea, it's hard to miss. It dyes the tea yellow, and it has an intensely bitter taste.
• The American herb called Oregon grape root. or mahonia root.
• The American and European herb called barberry, which has the scientific name Berberis vulgaris.

There is also berberine in California poppies, Mexican prickly poppy, and phellodendron (Amur cork tree). These plants contain berberine. They aren't the same as berberine. Berberine can be extracted from them to make berberine capsules, which bypass your taste buds and make using the herb a lot easier. There is no Chinese herb called "berberine," despite what other websites say.

What's the Buzz on Berberine?

The latest news on berberine is that a group of scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine have figured out how it works. Giving the herb extract to mice in the lab, they have shown that:

• Berberine increases the rate at which brown fat burns fat.
• Berberine causes belly fat to burn fat, too. And,
• The way berberine works is by decreasing insulin resistance.

It's that last finding that's new. Insulin resistance is your body's way of avoiding the toxic side effects of too much sugar inside cells. Cells shut down their receptor sites for insulin so that they don't receive more glucose (sugar) than their antioxidant systems can handle. 

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However, this has a secondary effect. When your body shuts down insulin receptors, the amount of insulin in your bloodstream increases. When the amount of insulin in your bloodstream increases, fat cells shut down an enzyme that allows them to convert stable, stored fat into the fatty acids they can burn for fuel. Berberine makes cells all over your body more sensitive to insulin, so your bloodstream contains less insulin, so fat cells get the signal that it is safe to burn fat.

Research into how berberine aids weight loss isn't really new. There have been 19 studies over the last 16 years, and one clinical trial of a product that includes berberine but isn't just berberine. The clinical study found that the herb extract is not a weight loss miracle, but it is helpful.

How Can You Lose Weight With Berberine? The Polar Bear Plan.

The one clinical trial involving berberine in a weight loss plan was conducted by eight university hospitals in Spain. The researchers tested a product called (AP, Armolipid Plus) that combines red yeast rice extract, policosanol, berberine, folic acid, coenzyme Q10 and asthaxantine. That's a cholesterol lowering herb that is chemically identical to the statin drug Mevacor, several antioxidants, a vitamin, and the herb extract. The study found that:

1. Increased the ratio of "good" HDL to "bad" LDL.
2. Lowered the "bad cholesterol" LDL-c by about 6.6 percent.
3. Lowered the "really bad cholesterol" ApoB by about 8.8 percent.

These lipid-lowering benefits took about 12 weeks. Just using the product and not doing anything else resulted also in an average weight loss of about one kilogram, or a little over two pounds. That's not a lot, but many of us manage to gain weight when we don't try to diet, so even a modest benefit of berberine is worthy of consideration.

If your concern is how to lose 20 pound with berberine, however, you need to do a little more than just continue eating as normal and hoping for the best. Here's an optimal way to use berberine for weight loss.

1. Locate a berberine supplement that is standardized to provide 1000 mg of the plant chemical. Take twice a day.
2. Enhance the fat-burning effects of the herb by cold exposure. Berberine makes it easier for your brown fat to burn fat. Your brown fat is the fat that makes the heat that keeps you warm when you are cold enough to shiver. If you make a habit of getting just cold enough to shiver, your brown fat (and some of your abdominal fat) will burn more calories. 
3. Reduce calories, but allows yourself a "normal" day about twice a week. You don't want your metabolism to slow down by eating less all the time. On the other hand, you don't want to binge, ever, and there's no need to eat fat to lose fat. You already have the fat stored in your body. You don't need more, other than relatively small (1 to 3 gram) amounts of omega-3 essential fatty acids you can get with fish oil or microalgae oil.

An American friend made this diet work when he was living in northern California. Where he lived summers aren't especially warm, and winter temperatures linger around 40 degrees F (5 degrees C) for months. He made a habit of swimming in an outdoor pool every day in the summer and just kept swimming as the days got cooler. His neighbors thought he was nuts, but he lost about 25 pounds (11 kilograms) without dieting, and he saved a lot on my indoor heating bill that year, too. However, like a Russian polar bear taking the plunge in winter, he lost excess fat.

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Berberine will also work if you don't emulate the polar bears with winter outdoor swimming, too. Its effects will just be more modest. If you are diabetic, take your blood sugar levels regularly (several times a day, and after exercise). You may find that your sugars run a little too low if you take berberine and also exercise. Just take less berberine to avoid this effect.