Yes I am. I’ve been taking it for years. Thanks for the info.
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Interesting metformin and berberine both inhibit cox-2 so maybe there will be this antiinflammatory effect. But still it does impair mtor so it will impair exercise adaptation.
From examine
In investigating how Berberine induces AMPK (commonly associated with energy restriction or some hormetic agents), a possible mechanism is inhibition of complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain[14] which is also observed with the anti-diabetic drugs Metformin and Rosiglitazone (with similar efficacy to the latter, more than the former), resulting in 50% inhibition of respiration at 15umol/L Berberine.
It appears they work by the same mechanism. Yet Rosiglitazone and Metformin can work by this mechanism yet have unique effects as combination of Rosiglitazone and Metformin is also proposed by papers.
It is hard to tell if Metformin and berberine are going to by synergistic or antagonistic to each other. My guess being that because the structures of the molecules are so different in structure that they may have synergistic effects. Either way they are definitely going to be interacting. If you want to know the answer you would have to get pre and post bloods. To be honest I would space them apart from each other since if they work on similar mechanism then you would think that you would get better coverage if you spaced the away from each other. And also possibly mitigates any interference in the position they are not synergistic. If you are T2D then you would definitely want to run this past your doctor and or get them to monitor the situation and or blood glucose.
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Well, there was a notable effect for about 2 hours after taking it. I basically felt very clear headed.
I feel it’s suppressed my appetite a bit too and that effect lasts longer than 2 hours.
But I’m only going to take 1x500mg a day for now.
There’s several bits of research that it helps weight loss so that would be a bonus.
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Second day @ 500mg.
Didn’t notice much of an effect today.
I do feel like it’s acting as a mild stimulant though. Possibly.
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Still second day.
I’ve been feeling very “off” today, more so than normal. I don’t know if it’s just coincidence or if the fact that it interacts with Abilify is already the problem.
I’ll give it a few more days.
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Day 3.
I took it at 6pm instead of the morning 
. This way I’ve already taken all my meds (Metformin and Abilify).
From what I can see, it just acts as a mild stimulant. Like taking a shot of espresso.
No magical effect on emotions or anything.
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I don’t think there’s going to be a day 4.
It’s just acts as a mild stimulant for me. And I feel uncomfortable.
Best of luck to anyone else who tries it.
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so far so good, improved quality of life for moment day 3 on it.
I hope I can kick my lyme disease and psychosis attached to it in the butt with it. 
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I have some caffeine pills with berberine. They end up making me super tired after about 5 hours.
Called Dynamax+
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Oh i checked its actually Methylliberine. Im guessing its similar though
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For me Berberine helped tremendously. But i didn’t use it alone.
I was diagnosed with paranoic schizophrenia with depression 2017. (schizoaffective disorder)
I had the usual paranoia, accompanied by thought input and delusions of persecution and guilt.
I got 15mg Abilify and Bupropion prescribed and the symptoms were reduced after a few months. I went down to
5mg Abilify and 150mg Bupropion, which i was on for 6 years. (Bupropion increases the avaiability of Abilify so 5mg are more or less 10mg)
Unfortunately even with just 5mg Abilify and 150mg Burprion i was always tired, felt restlessness, had problems engaging social contacts, had motivation problems, some residual paranoia and so on.
**I also had very unpleasant cognitive problems. I couldn’t remember things, i wasn’t able to learn things (had severe problems with long term memory) and sometimes my mind was cloudy with problems in orientation. In my opinion i had light dementia and was somehow hyperfocused. **
I also had severe generalized and social anxiety.
It didn’t get better until 7 months ago i found this combination:
-
2* one of Armo Lipid Plus (which contains 500mg berberine, 2,8mg red yeast rice extract, folic acid and astaxanthine)
AND
3*2,8mg monacolin K (lovastatin) from red yeast rice extract:
with this after 2-3 months i noticed no more cloudy brain and being much more clear headed in the morning. Also the residual paranoic thinking i had sometimes in the back of my brain disappeared. In short it helped me tremendously with my residual positiv symptoms and cognitive impairment.Thanks to Armolipid plus and red yeast rice extract i was then able to reduce abilify to 2,5mg a day without having any reappearance of positiv symptoms until now.
-
3*500mg of a 4/6:1melissa officinalis extract with 5%rosmarinic acid: it reduces my anxiety a lot and helps with cognitive impairment.
(It seems to act on muscarinic receptors …) -
i also still take
-
150mg buprion and 1*green tea extract in the morning for energy and against depression
-
Vitamin E with all tocopherols
-
melatonin and theanine for sleep and to prevent positiv symptoms
-
Also
- vigorous exercise (1h at high Zone 2 and 3) with a high dose of coffein (160-200mg) or guarana in the morning makes me more social and happy and gives me energy for the whole day
At the moment i feel very normal.
I can think clearly, i can recall things a lot more easily, my word finding improved, short term memory is alot better, i can even learn again … i also like to talk o people (i am no longer bored of it), MY RESTLESSNESS DISAPPEARED! (what a relief!!) and my anxiety is a lot better … incredible.
Issues that remained is my interruptet sleep pattern(i wake up every 3 hours at night) and the absence of some emotions i had before schizophrenia.
Hopefully my psychosis stays aways.
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I had my blood test today and the result was that after 18 months my LDL cholesterol has dropped from 146 to 79 and my triglicerides from 274 to 123. (mg/dl) HDL still the same at 56mg/dl.
But my fasting blood sugar has risen from 102 to 103.
Maybe I am pre-diabetic? Maybe it’s been that way since I started taking Abilify. It seems to be known that antipsychotics interfere with insulin secretion (article PMC6718373 at pubmed)
I also found an article that says
“Brain Insulin Resistance and Altered Brain Glucose are Related to Memory problems”
(pubmed PMC6656556)
maybe it’s my case.
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