Berberine - Dual Action Formula with Phytosome Plus Botanical Extract - Support Heart Health, Immune System, Healthy GI & Cholesterol* - Gluten-Free - 30 Servings

There's a #1 5-star review that accurately describes this product, but I can add information about why I chose Thorne's phytosome berberine and feel it is well worth it. I have been pursuing wellness since 2018 and by combining berberine with logging meals and appropriate meal planning using Cronometer to truly track macro and micro-nutrients and calories, I've finally lost the weight I gained when I quit smoking over 10 years ago. I have excellent energy and all the good things others are saying have also been true for me. I am 5'5" (shrinking shrinking - berberine won't help with that), 138 lbs, size 6-8, 29" waist (NOOO WAYYYYY WHAT). I have good health metrics (and am not claiming berberine was the cause of this). Another variety of berberine that I started taking did provide some benefits but also a lot of nausea and severe stomach cramps. I've worked to heal my microbiome but it's very difficult in today's US food and cosmetic environment. I've also switched to natural cosmetics too) to maintain that. Thorne's product has been consistent and reliable.

I thought I'd try this after extensive research-- escalating health problems have been putting weight on for years while creating energy and illness issues that made it impossible to be consistent with good diet and daily exercise. I read all the reviews so I knew to take it with food. Some minor gas/discomfort, but very manageable, and I noticed very quickly that I felt full on very little food. On the second day it was clearly affecting my sleep patterns -- I no longer wake multiple times in the night, and am appropriately tired at bedtime. My energy is up and stable, and best of all, my exercise tolerance radically increased-- I want to exercise and can now exercise vigorously on long walks (something I have been unable to do for quite a while without pain & exhaustion) and can do a long fast walk and make it up 3plus flights of stairs-- I haven't been able to do that for years without feeling like I would pass out. I am able to eat a very lo cal diet without cravings or hunger, and in one week, my weight is down 4 lbs. Something threw my metabolism off 20 years ago & it escalated into a whole variety of bad issues that looped on each other-- this is fixing whatever is at the core of it. I heartily recommend you try it. (I have added a good quality probiotic to it, and take it with yogurt or kefir-- the research I read said that improves the positive effects.)

This has been a miracle drug to the person for whom I purchased it because they are insulin resistant (apparently many people are who do not know it). The person lost an incredible amount of weight as a direct result of taking this version of berberine. The only side effect seems to be a more active bowel movement schedule. Not diarrhea, just more and looser BMs. If you are having an insulin resistance problem i.e. you can't lose weight no matter how much you exercise and cut calories you should consider looking into whether you are insulin resistant and taking berberine. Look up the studies comparing prescription Metformin to berberine and you'll see that berberine is literally just as effective but without side effects. Don't believe me, look it up yourself. And it seems this particular brand and dosage works as claimed whereas many others do not. I appreciate the "Amazon's Choice" endorsement of this and other supplements as they cut through the morass of ineffective versions of supplements. The person who is taking this was considering Metformin. According the U.S. government--the National Institutes of Health--berberine does everything Metformin does but without side effects. And as far as I can tell, that is absolutely the case. I am loathe to endorse any product as a weight loss drug because I have never seen one that worked without concomitant harm of some sort. But this one absolutely is a weight loss drug if--and it's a big IF--you are insulin resistant (borderline type 2 diabetic) and considering taking Metformin. In the case I am witnessing (it's been about 90 days--30 days on, 30 days off, 30 days on--there is no question that berberine has radically treated insulin resistance. When the person was off, appetite was high, weight loss stopped, tiredness returned, etc. On berberine (this brand and dosage in particular) the person has lost weight, reduced appetite, increased energy, improved muscle tone, complexion, etc.--all the stuff that the imbalanced blood sugar levels were affecting. Could not give this a higher recommendation.

41/F 5ft 155 lbs started at 164 2 weeks ago. I have tried so many diets, so many pills over the last 20+ years and nothing has ever worked! I worked on my mind, and had psychological help, but the food noise and cravings were always there! Every week I would make new promises to myself, only to break them again on the weekend. I felt so trapped and just wanted to give up. I looked into things like ozympic and other Glp1 medicines, but they were too expensive. I came upon a post online talking about berberine and how it was comparable to glp1s. So I ordered a bottle off Amazon, I took it for several days and gave up... But then recently I was revisiting the glp1 discussion to see if it had gotten any cheaper, I came across posts that raved about berberine, and one particular user said nothing worked for them until they tried the Thorne brand, others agreed, so I ordered my 1st bottle. This is my experience, and im not exaggerating: The difference was immediate, by the very 1st day the food noise shut off! I dont know if that's how others experienced their first day, but for me it was immediate! And then during the 1st week I noticed more changes; food cravings were gone! I could take a taste of something sweet and walk away and forget about it! The taste didnt even linger! My physical changes around food changed drastically too! When I am about to eat something tasty my pupils don't dilate anymore, my heart doesn't race, I don't salivate, I basically don't have that addiction response anymore! It makes me feel like I have always JUST eaten! I don't even think about food until I am physically hungry! I think this must be how a thin person feels, I don't have the emotional or psychological attachment to food anymore, at first I was a little sad because for 40 years food has been a huge part of my life. I just went and had an ice cream cone, I asked for 1 scoop because that's all I wanted, I didnt want to eat a lot of sweet. My brain did not light up at all! I dont have spikes and crashes in my blood sugar levels anymore.... But I think this medication does more than just that, I think it does something else to the body besides regulate blood sugar, because it shuts down the food noise, if anything I have more of an aversion to sweets. So this has been my experience so far. I started it October 12th. 1 pills with breakfast and 1 with dinner. I will try to come back and update next month.

I ordered this hoping for a natural alternative to replace a pharmaceutical brand to help lower blood sugar. I will say I have not recorded the lowering of blood sugar. I did want to mention potential side effects I think you could possibly eliminate if you are mindful of what you are taking it with. I noticed when I took this product with any of my other supplements such as nutrafol or cortisol calm, I felt very tipsy a feeling of being high and drunk, very out of it. When I took it with just food, I did not have that feeling. The one thing I am trying to pinpoint is some inflammation I think it may be causing in my intestines that is causing back pain. I did a test and stopped taking and after 4 days pain was gone. I started again two days ago and now it’s back. Very disappointed my body does not like it. I do think it’s worth a try for a natural alternative. I did not write this to discouraging others from buying, but to be mindful of how and when you take it. I do feel it’s a great alternative and worth trying.

I honestly still don’t know how I feel about this product. I thought coming into it i would start lose weight because that’s how it’s mainly marketed when you research it…but clearly my body had DIFFERENT plans for the use of Berberine. I did not know my insulin resistance was HIGH. But by week 2 I discovered what low blood sugar felt like and it KICKED MY ASS. I realized I wasn’t eating enough for all these years…Probably close to eating 1000 calories/day. This literally forced me to eat my maintenance calories so I didn’t feel like a zombie or dying mentally. And when I mean dying mentally, I was definitely going through DIE OFF symptoms from toxins and bacteria that were most likely lingering in my gut. My face looked horrible for 2 weeks… enough to make me buy collagen and vitamin c to bring back the life in me… I will say, because of die off symptoms my liver definitely was getting stressed a lot, I was also getting constipated frequently so I would recommend adding activated charcoal, lots of electrolytes, milk thistle, vitamin c, and magnesium citrate to the protocol. By week 3 I cut the dosage by half because it was too much for me, this Berberine is truly POTENT. When I asked Claude how is this compared to other Berberines it said it’s 2000% more potent than the other brands ….so I definitely think we’re in a clinical category of this supplement 😆. By week 4 I added other supplements like curcumin and sulforaphrane on the days I took off from Berberine and OMG THE AMOUNT OF FREEDOM MY MIND HAD TO THINK, MEMORIZE, PROCESS… it was like I activated an addiction to learning complex information and I absolutely think Berberine clearing out all the toxins out of my system was the key to being able to get to that next step. Although, I only experienced that for 5 days straight as my brain completely fried. Week 5 I took it a lot more easier, but started to experience brain fog a bit. Week 6 I could not handle taking Berberine for some reason , but this truly helped me get my health life together where I’m eating consistently now. Before, in week 2-3 I was fearing for my life not eating enough (fear of reaching low blood sugar ) which was a great lessen. I used to be fatigued all the time before, now I have the ability to be up all day without food tiring me… HIGHLY recommend a LOW FODMAP during this protocol. OH AND THE MOST FASCINATING PART… I have curly hair and I thought it was normal to shed a THICK handful of hairs when brushing it once a week (700-900 hair strands)…. I WAS SO WRONG. I DONT EVEN SHED MORE THAN 16 HAIRS PER WEEK. I CAN ACTUALLY COUNT THEM IF I WANTED TO. Before it looked like crazy thick chunk and I always shrugged and said “ good thing I have a lot of hair” 😂. I saved myself from being bald in the long run. I saw the results of this by later in week 2. Again, I’ve gone through the highs and lows of this product. It was not an easy journey for me. I did this during a month where I had the least amount of work just because the die off symptoms were too much for me at times and focusing was truly hard at times, and if you had adhd and get the die off symptoms…it’ll be tough… I will be doing another cycle starting in April and hopefully by then I will start experiencing weight loss as I’ll be starting off in a much healthier space than I was before. I will update again after 6 weeks on Berberine again! I would advise, to do research on your own, know your own complications before starting this, if you know you have a compromised liver… may not be right for you… if your on diabetes medication, I read that this could be quite dangerous combining it with this.

This deal action formula is good- I sometimes take a break or lower the dose as it can impact my heart rate and cause lower rate at nite- so took a break for a week or so one the and another time took two caps down to one- If I can afford to buy good products thrones is a company I will always seek out first Berberine is a good product used by eastern medicine for centuries for many ailments but I use it to keep my AiC stable which rally means consistent blood glucose level within a certain range- I have never had to go on insulin and with diet and exercise have been able to use berberine only- but monitor it well especially berberine can use slower heart rate

DIFFERENT,LOW QUALITY, BIOENGINEERED FORMULATION This is not the same formulation. This is no longer a natural product. The active ingredient (barberry root) has been cut by more than half and replaced by phytoestrogens; high omega 6 fillers; and a diluted, opaque, commodified, and bioengineered phantom product far from actual barberry. First I noticed the color of the pill on this reorder was different. Then I noticed that I didn’t feel the immediate effect. (I have been taking this for the last few years. I use it moderately and it’s been highly effective.) That’s when I compared bottles and realized this was an entirely different formulation. (See pics: original excellent high potency extract formulation is on left; what you get now is on the right). DANGEROUS LACK OF TRANSPARENCY I ordered this from my recurring order history. That means this was not posted on Amazon as the new product that it actually is. They slid it in the former product’s slot as if it were always this way. This means the new lesser formulation gets the high rating of the prior, and it also means people like me on reorder get something different *without warning*. Deceptive and dangerous. ACTION ITEMS I do not appreciate the lack of transparency nor the poorer quality product. This WILL be returned. Thorne has lost a loyal long-standing customer. And I have suggested to Amazon that they do the right thing and discontinue the old product record and clarify that this is a different product altogether! If you’re reading this, I suggest you do the same. UPDATE Amazon refunded me without issue. They are pretty good with that and no complaints there. The product listing however has not been updated and a glance of other online suppliers & recent reviews shows the same issue. I conclude then it is Thorne pushing a revised product w/o notice even to the distributors. If you are reading this and also dissatisfied by the inferior product and shady lack of transparency, I suggest you also insist on refund for this product. Money talks. Amazon & Thorne will listen when it hurts their bottom line.