A new study has found that taking berberine, a plant-based supplement, for six months did not reduce belly fat or liver fat in people with obesity but without diabetes.
The study involved several medical centers in China and was recently published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
More than 40% of people around the world carry too much body fat.
Some of this fat builds up around the organs inside the belly—called visceral fat—and some collects in the liver.
These types of fat are linked to health problems like insulin resistance, inflammation, and heart disease. A condition known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) happens when fat builds up in the liver.
Certain medicines like GLP-1 receptor agonists can lower this kind of fat, but they often come with side effects like nausea and are very expensive. Also, people tend to regain weight after they stop taking them.
Berberine is a natural chemical found in some plants. Scientists believe it helps the body use sugar and fat more efficiently and stops new fat from forming. But it was not clear whether berberine would work in people who do not have diabetes. No one had yet tested whether it could reduce belly fat.
To answer that question, researchers ran a clinical trial involving 337 adults with obesity and liver fat buildup. None of the participants had diabetes. Half of them took berberine and the other half took a fake pill (placebo) for six months. The study was double-blind, meaning neither the participants nor the doctors knew who was taking which pill.
At the start and end of the study, the researchers used CT scans to measure liver fat and visceral fat. The scans were checked by independent doctors who did not know which group each person belonged to.
After six months, the results showed that people in both the berberine and placebo groups had very similar changes in fat. There was no major difference between them. People taking berberine saw a small average change in belly fat of -0.6%, while those taking placebo showed a change of -2.0%.
For liver fat, the berberine group actually saw a tiny increase of 0.1%, while the placebo group saw a small decrease of -1.1%. These differences were too small to be meaningful.
Even though berberine did not reduce fat, it did lower certain blood markers. People taking berberine had lower levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL), apolipoprotein B (a protein related to cholesterol), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation).
These changes were small but greater than those seen in the placebo group. The effect was stronger in people who started with higher inflammation levels.
The researchers also looked at people with prediabetes to see if berberine helped them return to normal blood sugar. The difference was not significant between the groups: 21.9% of the berberine group and 16.1% of the placebo group saw improvement.
As for side effects, serious problems were rare. Six people (3.6%) in the berberine group and two people (1.2%) in the placebo group had serious side effects. Some people had mild side effects like stomach issues, but again, these were similar between the two groups.
In summary, the study found that berberine is safe and may slightly improve some cholesterol and inflammation levels, but it does not reduce belly fat or liver fat in people without diabetes. More research is needed to explore other possible benefits or combinations with other treatments.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people, and early time-restricted eating could help lose weight .
For more health information, please see recent studies that Mediterranean diet can reduce belly fat much better, and Keto diet could help control body weight and blood sugar in diabetes.
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