Can the plant substance Berberine help prevent Alzheimer’s?

Berberine has been used extensively in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of various diseases, including diabetes and dementia.

The following is a laboratory study performed on cells. Since berberine has shown to be neuroprotective, the research was conducted to investigate if berberine could be helpful in treating early stage Alzheimer’s disease (Wong L,R, et.al., 2021).

Berberine was found to produce beneficial effects on disrupted metabolic processes in amyloidogenic cells and activated microglial cells, which are important for preventing or delaying early-stage disease progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers of the following investigation extracted material from 162 studies related to berberine’s effects on dementia and diabetes (Shinjyo, N., et.al., 2020).

The results showed that berberine produced beneficial effects directly in the brain: enhancing cholinergic neurotransmission, improving cerebral blood flow, protecting neurons from inflammation, limiting hyperphosphorylation of tau and facilitating β-amyloid peptide clearance.

There was also evidence that berberine was effective against diabetes and associated disorders.

When using berberine be sure it is in the form of Berberine HCL.

References

Shinjyo N, Parkinson J, Bell J, Katsuno T, Bligh A. Berberine for prevention of dementia associated with diabetes and its comorbidities: A systematic review. J Integr Med. 2020 Mar;18(2):125-151.

Wong LR, Tan EA, Lim MEJ, Shen W, Lian XL, Wang Y, Chen L, Ho PC. Functional effects of berberine in modulating mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammatory response in the respective amyloidogenic cells and activated microglial cells - In vitro models simulating Alzheimer's disease pathology. Life Sci. 2021 Oct 1;282:119824.