Comment · Tue, August 4, 2020 · ND Owner
Can Berberine Cause Hypoglycemia?
Original post in this thread
Experienced8 · 12 points
I usually only take berberine before a carb-containing meal, however, today I took some upon waking and then ate a steak.
The whole morning I felt like I could fall asleep at any second. Brain fog. Weak muscles. Absolutely CRAVING food and sugar. Seemed like hypoglycemia.
Can this happen to someone like me who is NOT diabetic, in shape, eats clean, sleeps well?
What they were answering
TheGermanGuy21 · 2 points
Wow, I didn't expect that! I've read countless times and on different websites that antioxidants, including ALA, reduce the inflammation in the muscles that is needed to signal the repair and thus muscle growth. So ALA even before or immediately after training is fine for muscle growth?
What about other antioxidants? NAC for example? Because I've avoided NAC for the same reasons recently, even though I do like its effects otherwise.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
NAC is one you want to avoid.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4084590/
Our results clearly show that NAC administration depresses the expression of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) and TP53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR), both of which play a predominant antioxidant role in mitochondria by reducing ROS level. In addition, we found no beneficial effect of NAC supplement on muscle mass but it can protect from muscle loss in response to fasting. Collectively, our findings indicate that ROS is required for skeletal muscle constitutive autophagy, rather than starvation-induced autophagy, and that antioxidant NAC inhibits constitutive autophagy by the regulation of mitochondrial ROS production and antioxidant capacity.
ALA should be fine before and after working out, though. ALA up-regulates AMPK and SIRT1 in skeletal muscle, which helps preserve muscle mass.