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.

33

Pro

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Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

33

Community contributions welcome

33

Berberine is a novel cholesterol-lowering drug working through a unique mechanism distinct from statins

Case-Control Study

Human

2004 Dec

The study gave berberine pills to 32 people with high cholesterol for 3 months and found their cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL all dropped by almost the exact same amounts as the claim says — so yes, the study backs up the claim.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Berberine is a novel cholesterol-lowering drug working through a unique mechanism distinct from statins

Score: 33

DOI: 10.1038/nm1135

Similar Assertions

Taking berberine pills every day for 3 months can lower your bad cholesterol and fat levels in the blood by a lot—like cutting your cholesterol by nearly a third.

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98%

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.

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94%

Taking berberine pills may help lower your 'bad' cholesterol and fat in your blood by about 10–20%, which could be good for your heart.

33

0

91%

Taking berberine pills (500 mg, 2–3 times a day) can help lower your bad cholesterol and fat levels in the blood almost as well as a low dose of statin drugs, and it might work by turning on a cellular switch that helps your body remove more bad cholesterol.

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1

89%

Taking a natural supplement called berberine hydrochloride twice a day for three months helped people with high bad cholesterol lower it by about 25%, without changing their good cholesterol levels.

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88%