Posted on 07/27/2022 1:04:56 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
A half-century-old diabetes drug appears to help treat bipolar disorder by reversing patients' insulin resistance.
Bipolar patients who responded to the drug metformin experienced improvement in their mood disorder as their insulin resistance decreased, said Dr. Cynthia Calkin.
"We saw this improvement as early as week six in the study," she said. "Week 14 was the study endpoint, and patients remained significantly improved or in remission."
Calkin noted that some patients who started off in the trial are still in remission, six or seven years later.
Metformin helps treat type 2 diabetes by reducing production of glucose by the liver and increasing the body's sensitivity to insulin.
Studies have shown that more than 50% of people with bipolar disorder also have insulin resistance, said Dr. Claudia Baldassano.
The potential link between insulin resistance and bipolar disorder is causing a "paradigm shift in psychiatry," Calkin said.
The key is not that metformin is an antidepressant, "because I don't believe it is," Calkin said. "The key is reversing this underlying aberrant mechanism, reversing the insulin resistance."
"These patients on average had been sick for 25 years without a remission," Calkin said. "Over 55% had failed all four drug classes that we use in terms of mood stabilizers—lithium, anti-epileptic drugs, antipsychotics and antidepressants. And over 90% had failed three out of four of those drug classes. So this was really, really a very, very sick population."
Half of the metformin patients responded to the drug, and no longer were insulin resistant by 14 weeks, the study found.
Those patients also experienced significant improvements on standard tests used to assess symptoms of bipolar disorder.
"My hypothesis was that this barrier that normally protects the brain, it became leaky when people were insulin resistant," Calkin said. "Then inflammatory molecules could get into the brain."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Metformin doesn’t address the root cause.
Hm?.....Maybe they should try the Keto or carnivore diets.
Was on Metformin, was prescribed by my Doc for bordering type 2 Diabetes, and was promised with a moderate carb diet and this drug, the weight would fall off. 6 months and no appreciable weight loss. Went off drug and began more of a Keto plan of eating and just some exercise and the weight started to come off. More off-label use miracle pills coming to you via Big Pharma. People are not rats in a study, Metformin does not work for obesity...period. The studies are andectdotal.
In that case Berberine should do the same thing, and it’s a supplement that doesn’t have Metformin’s side effects.
Diet can beat insulin resistance, but it takes a very strict diet with practically no carbs, little protein, and lots of non-processed fats; some people can handle it, others get very sick from it. Keto+supplements (turmeric, berberine, MCTs) is a safer course, in general.
Spike blue city water supplies with this stuff stat
Our crappy carb-laden modern diet is the root cause of most chronic diseases. Big pharma does not profit from a healthy population.
Correct
Berberine has some known interactions:
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1126/berberine
In your research, do you recall the role that diabetic meds play in the down-regulation of ACE1?
Why does insulin cost so much the poor can’t afford it?
Drugs probably caused bipolar and 99% of all these diseases that never used to exist.
They’ve got a drug for everything and another drug that takes care of the side effects of the previous drug and so on and so on.
I don’t take one damn prescription drug even though Drs have tried to push them. Screwed my knee up pretty bad awhile ago and actually had to sign a letter in the hospital stating I refused the opioids (oxycodone) they were trying to give me.
Get rid of your prescriptions.. you’ll feel much better.
Yeah there were no crazy people in the world prior to the early 1900s, right?
The very best deterrent to bipolar issues is real life consequences. Facing real consequences makes people stop acting out their fantasies and act in the here and now. Been there, done that....NO excuses.
Ease bi-polarism?? Are you nuts? I use both sides of my brain unlike you puny monopolar people. I don’t want to ease it, I want to embrace it. With my doubled brain power, my cranium is so dense with knowledge my head tilts to one side because it weighs so much. We think this is just jealousy talking. Nothing more.
Greed. One vial of Novolin R costing $115 at Rite Aid can be bought over the counter at Walmart for $25. That's less than half the CO-PAY with my Medicare drug plan's online pharmacy.
I was on Metformin for 15 years. Tasted like ZEP industrial floor cleaner unless I swallowed it very quickly. Then I had to eat a substantial breakfast or I'd have heartburn all morning. Was never happier than the day I was allowed to get off it and start injecting insulin.
“They’ve got a drug for everything and another drug that takes care of the side effects of the previous drug”
Many moons ago I worked in hosp for twenty yrs. There were pts -older ones - who were admitted on loads of medicine, maybe twenty or so.
Sometimes the doctors would take them off of all the meds for a period of time - they called it a drug holiday
Sir, I unfortunately have not.
“Yeah there were no crazy people in the world prior to the early 1900s, right?”
There were a few but nothing like we have now. Now it’s being taught in schools and colleges.
Bi polar can also be from trauma. People on Metformin may have had abuse issues. Lots of overweight people suffer from bullying or other abuse that then turned towards food to self sooth.
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