Why berberine, the ‘natural ozempic,’ is the dangerous new weight-loss trend on ‘TikTok’

At this point in 2023, who else and who least has a brother-in-law, a cousin, a neighbor or a co-worker who “the injections that lose weight have been pricked”. If you are from the resistance and this sounds Chinese to you, go ahead semaglutide and the liraglutide They are two relatively new drugs, subject to medical prescription, indicated for weight loss as long as they are accompanied by healthy lifestyles (diet, exercise, mental health).

Advantages of these drugs? They have shown that may help some obese people lose weight who are stagnant and who have been dedicated to diets and exercise for years without seeing results.

Drawbacks? Unfortunately its use is trivialized in many cases being used for people who do not have obesity but who they are simply looking for a shortcut to shed “those extra pounds”. Of course, like all drugs, semaglutide, liraglutide and other family cousins ​​also have side effects. It is essential that these drugs are only prescribed to people who are really candidates for using them according to the data sheet.

It is chemical compound named after a Marvel superheroine not born yesterday It is extracted from plants such as barberry and its millennial use was recorded on clay tablets from the library of the Assyrian emperor Asurbanipal, dated 650 BC. The berberine has always aroused therapeutic interest although, yes, its “benefits” have evolved over time.

In the time of Ashurbanipal the berberine it was proposed, in fine, to purify the blood (although the reality is that it was the Fortasec of the time). A few years ago she was called “the little sister of metformin” and now she succeeds in TikTok as “el Ozempic natural“. Is this true? We could say that “when the river sounds, water carries” or, as I always like to repeat, that all hoaxes or tendentious headlines have a leg of truth. But let’s see what the science says.