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Randomized trial · measured other health measures

A 16-week berberine trial in 184 adults with fatty liver found less liver fat

Yan and colleagues · PloS one · 2015

Original title: Efficacy of Berberine in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Berberine plus lifestyle change cut liver fat more than lifestyle change alone (52.7% vs 36.4%, p = 0.008), with better improvement in body weight and insulin resistance (all p<0.05). Berberine reduced weight more than pioglitazone.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
184 people · Adults with fatty liver disease
What was tested
Lifestyle change alone, or with pioglitazone 15 mg a day, or with berberine 0.5 g three times a day, for 16 weeks
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Daily amount
1.5 g a day
How long
16 weeks
Trial registration
NCT00633282
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
PloS one, 2015
Source
PubMed record 26252777. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • •Medium size: 184 people.
  • •Lasted 16 weeks.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: weight and blood sugar

    7

    7 benefit

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    7

    5 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    2

    1 benefit, 1 no difference

  4. Population studies

    2

    2 benefit

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    1

    1 benefit

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does berberine help with weight loss and blood sugar?”

Lowers blood sugar in diabetes; weight unclear.

Confidence: low. Based on 28 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 6 papers on the same step: 4 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 no difference. This one found benefit. It agrees with most of them.

  • Open item for a person: Yan 2015: the 52.7% vs 36.4% liver fat wording is unclear; check the full paper.

Other papers on the same step

See all 28 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
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