Taking a special form of berberine called dihydroberberine (100 mg four times a day) gets way more of the active compound into your bloodstream than taking regular berberine pills (500 mg), meaning your body absorbs it much better.

Taking four 200 mg pills of dihydroberberine a day gives you more berberine in your blood than four 100 mg pills, but not enough to say for sure it’s a real difference—maybe your body can’t absorb more than a certain amount no matter how much you take.

When you swallow a 500 mg berberine pill, almost none of it actually gets into your bloodstream — your body barely absorbs it, so it’s mostly just passing through.

People who took dihydroberberine pills multiple times had more berberine in their blood before their last pill, which means their bodies built up the compound over time — like filling a glass drop by drop until it’s full.

Taking berberine pills daily for a few months may help lower your bad cholesterol and overall cholesterol levels if you have high cholesterol, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome.

Taking berberine pills for 3 months helped people with high cholesterol lower their bad fats in the blood—cholesterol dropped by almost a third, and triglycerides by over a third—so it might be a natural way to help manage cholesterol.