Innerbody Labs Berberine+ Review

Berberine often presents a trade-off: the potential for better cardiometabolic health in exchange for some rough gastrointestinal (GI) side effects. The GI effects may relate, at least in part, to berberine’s naturally poor bioavailability, leaving more of it unabsorbed to act locally in the gut. It’s a property of the potion, so to speak, and many people aren’t willing to take the discomfort alongside the benefit.

But the bitter, yellow plant compound has spent the past few years rectifying its reputation with the advent of phytosomal preparations, which disperse the berberine in a phospholipid matrix that substantially increases absorption. A brand called Berbevis® is one of the best-studied forms of phytosomal berberine, and it’s the principal ingredient in Innerbody Labs Berberine+.

Here, we present the science behind phytosomal preparations such as Berbevis®, discuss how Innerbody Labs sets itself apart from other berberine products, and give the rundown on how it compares with its closest competitors. In the end, you ought to have all the information you need to determine how Berberine+ may fit in your health routine.

Innerbody Labs Berberine+ stands out on the berberine market by combining a clinically relevant dose of highly bioavailable Berbevis® with a likewise relevant dose of curcumin. The one-two formulation gives users a realistic chance of seeing cardiometabolic benefits from both ingredients, but with a reduced risk of the gastrointestinal side effects common to ordinary berberine supplements. The dosing recommendation is perhaps too simple — one dose per day, when some studies support a multi-dose protocol — but research suggests that it’s sufficient for potentially improving glycemic and lipid measures. Price-wise, Innerbody offers a good value, too, costing less up front than its leading competitors and less per dose than many.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

Our Berberine+ review rests on a long-built foundation of research into the alkaloid. Our editorial team has put more than 400 hours into understanding how it works, what it can do, and what brands offer the best version of it. You can see the fruits of our efforts elsewhere on this site, such as in our guide to the best berberine supplements and the best supplements to lower blood sugar. Suffice it to say, we’ve tried a lot of berberine supplements and therefore have a clear view of what makes for a quality product.

Our knowledge of both berberine’s mechanics and the berberine supplement market guided our sister company in its development of an Innerbody Labs berberine product. Innerbody Labs is an extension of Innerbody Research (that’s us). We believe in our products but also stand by our devotion to transparency and science-based reporting. So, apart from detailing the whys and wherefores behind the Berberine+ formulation, we’re quick to highlight areas where a competitor may have done better or in which consumers may prefer an alternative. Any dependable product review presents weaknesses along with the strengths, and you’ll find both exhaustively detailed on this page.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy and will continue to be monitored for updates by our editorial team.

We evaluated Innerbody Labs Berberine+ based on three criteria that are likely to inform consumer choices on the berberine market:

• Effectiveness: How likely is the product to yield desired health outcomes?
• Safety: How well does the product mitigate common side effects?
• Cost: How affordable is the product compared with its closest competitors?

Here’s how we rated Berberine+ in each criterion:

Effectiveness

Because berberine is naturally resistant to absorption in the human gastrointestinal tract, the most effective berberine supplements leverage absorption-enhancing technologies to get the most out of the supplement. Phytosomal preparations are especially appealing since they’ve demonstrated bioenhancing capability in strong clinical studies.

An example of a phytosomal preparation is Berbevis®, which is what Innerbody Labs opted to use for Berberine+. In a 2021 pharmacokinetic study, Berbevis® was found to have up to a tenfold superior bioavailability compared with the more common hydrochloride (HCl) form of berberine,17 allowing the user to see the cardiometabolic results they want with much less of the ingredient.

Other brands use Berbevis®, too, but Innerbody is one of the few that pair the bioavailable berberine with curcumin, which has exhibited its own cardiometabolic benefits, as well as berberine-enhancing capacity, in clinical and pharmacokinetic research.23 21 The brand of curcumin that Innerbody uses is called Meriva®, found to yield a total curcuminoid absorption around 29-fold higher compared with ordinary curcumin extracts.20 So, in Berberine+, you have two well-studied ingredients working synergistically to improve glycemic and lipid health, delivered in forms that maximize each one’s potential.

If Berberine+ has a shortcoming in efficacy, it’s that the label recommends only one 550mg dose a day, whereas some studies have suggested that a two-dose protocol would be optimal.18 Competitors Momentous and Nootropics Depot account for the possibility that users may need multiple doses, either packaging the bottle with 60 capsules by default (enough for up to thirty 1,100mg doses) or at least offering a 60-capsule size on the product page.

At the same time, some preliminary studies suggest that a single dose is sufficient for achieving cardiometabolic improvements,24 25 and the company that makes Berbevis® recommends a one-dose protocol, so Innerbody isn’t off-base with its directions. Perhaps a simple label revision, along with an increase in each bottle’s capsule count, is all that’s needed to raise Berberine+’s effectiveness score.

Safety

Using Berbevis® itself seems to decrease the risk of berberine’s most common side effects: nausea, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation. In clinical trials, Berbevis® users reported few to no GI events, whereas studies on berberine HCl have reported side effect rates as high as 34.5%.18 19 Notably, berberine-associated GI disturbances seem to be dose-dependent, so Innerbody’s one-dose protocol may actually improve Berberine+’s safety profile. The presence of curcumin may help, too, as doses of 100mg have been found to alleviate symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.22

Yet the curcumin may also increase the health risk in a separate area, as the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health warns that highly bioavailable forms of curcumin (a descriptor that applies to Meriva®) may harm the liver.27 Innerbody’s Meriva® dose may not be high enough to cause much concern in this regard, but it’s still a risk factor you should be aware of.

But apart from the hypothetical liver risk, Innerbody Labs Berberine+ has the makings of a generally safe health supplement. Innerbody’s operational practices are certainly helpful, with every batch of product undergoing third-party testing and test results being posted to the product page.

Cost

Innerbody Labs Berberine+ sells at a significantly lower up-front price point than its leading competitors, Momentous and Nootropics Depot. This table illustrates (prices rounded to the nearest cent or dollar):

Momentous has the advantage in per-serving cost, but it’s also a berberine-only product: none of the berberine-enhancing, cardiometabolism-improving, or GI-protective benefits of curcumin. Nootropics Depot offers plenty of supporting ingredients, but nothing to alleviate potential GI distress, and at significantly higher up-front and per-serving cost points.

Innerbody Labs Berberine+ is a daily oral cardiometabolic supplement consisting of two branded ingredients:

• 550mg Berbevis® berberine
• 100mg Meriva® curcumin

Berbevis® is a phytosomal berberine preparation that enhances bioavailability by way of a phospholipid matrix. Standardized to 28–34%, Berbevis® at a 550mg quantity equates to 154–187mg of actual berberine,1 with the remainder of the weight pertaining to the phospholipid delivery complex. It’s technically less berberine than a corresponding dose of the more common HCl form, but it delivers substantially more into the bloodstream. A 2021 pharmacokinetic study, for instance, reported an AUC of 4,952 total berberine plasma concentration with Berbevis® compared with just 1,217 with HCl.17

Meriva® is also a phytosomal, bioenhanced preparation. It’s standardized to contain 18–22% total curcuminoids, the active compound in turmeric. It, too, punches above its weight, yielding a much higher bloodstream absorption than a non-bioenhanced variant would. We get into more specifics on the matter a little ways down.

To discuss how Innerbody Labs’ berberine supplement works, we first need to explore how berberine works in general, and then examine how closely Berberine+ aligns with the relevant research on potential benefits.

A berberine primer: Mechanisms and potential benefits

Berberine, in general, activates adenosine monophosphate–activated protein kinase (AMPK), an enzyme that redirects metabolism from anabolism to catabolism.2 3 Anabolism is the buildup of smaller to larger molecules, while catabolism is the breakdown of larger to smaller. In the body, glycolysis — the deconstruction of glucose to release usable energy — is an example of catabolism. The body normally produces AMPK and increases catabolic processes during exercise, when you need energy to function. Because berberine activates AMPK, it’s sometimes described as an “exercise mimetic”: it mimics some of the metabolic signaling triggered by exercise.

AMPK is one of the main pathways, along with others, through which berberine exerts influence on human health, namely with regard to:

Berbevis® and Meriva®: Bioenhanced branded ingredients

Innerbody’s use of two bioenhanced branded ingredients is key to its effectiveness.

Bioenhancement is critical for berberine. With ordinary orally ingested berberine HCl, less than 1% of the compound — equivalent to under 5.5mg for a 550mg dose — enters the bloodstream.15 Its stubbornness here means that most of it remains in the gut and acts locally, which may be a key contributing factor behind one of its other famous properties: the dose-dependent propensity to cause nausea, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation.16 It’s relatively low reward for relatively high discomfort.

Berbevis® inverts the norm. Per a 2021 pharmacokinetic study, its phospholipid complex increases absorption “up to tenfold,” substantially improving bloodstream exposure to berberine.17 With its much higher bioavailability, one would need less of it to see berberine’s therapeutic effects, thereby decreasing the idling presence and associated risks of the compound in the gut. Indeed, in clinical trials, Berbevis® has caused few to no GI adverse effects (AEs), whereas studies on HCl have reported AE rates of up to 34.5%.18 19

There may be a deeper mechanism at play, too. The aforementioned pharmacokinetic study observed that Berbevis® caused less loss of viability in cultured intestinal cells compared with HCl, suggesting that the bioavailable branded form may interact differently with said cells — a potential reason for its lower associated rate of GI effects.4

Innerbody Labs isn’t the only brand that uses Berbevis®. Competitors Momentous and Nootropics Depot use it in their berberine capsules, too.

But Innerbody is one of the few products on the market that pairs a clinically relevant amount of Berbevis® with a likely effective dose of curcumin by way of Meriva®. Meriva®, like Berbevis®, is a phytosomal preparation. In one pharmacokinetic study, it was found to yield a total curcuminoid absorption around “29-fold higher ... than for [a] corresponding unformulated curcuminoid mixture.”20 With its 18–22% standardized curcuminoids, then, a 100mg dose of Meriva®, as used in Innerbody Labs Berberine+, would provide something equal to 580mg of curcuminoids — much more than even an ordinary, non-bioenhanced 95% standardized curcumin extract would provide. We’ve found only one competitor that also uses both Berbevis® and Meriva®: it’s called Carvalho’s Wellness Cardio Complete, and its 100mg Berbevis® dose is only 18% that of Innerbody’s.

As for the role of Meriva® in the Innerbody formulation, it may potentially confer manifold effects in the Berberine+ user:

• Greater berberine absorption: Curcumin inhibits CYP3A4, an enzyme involved in breaking down berberine before it reaches circulation.21 By inhibiting the breakdown, Meriva® may allow more berberine to reach the bloodstream.
• GI protection: Studies have found that doses of around 100mg curcumin may alleviate symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome,22 suggesting that it may help prevent GI symptoms that might otherwise occur, even with the reduced risk that Berbevis® presents.
• Additional metabolic support: Curcumin may lower blood glucose and lipid levels, as well as improve insulin resistance.23 In that regard, Meriva® complements Berbevis® in terms of therapeutic efficacy.

Among top competitors, only Nootropics Depot Berbelean may offer additional metabolic support, but it lacks any ingredients that could realistically avert GI side effects.

Dosing: Is 550mg Berbevis® enough?

Across its supplement line, Innerbody Labs consistently uses clinically relevant amounts of its ingredients, and Berberine+ maintains the pattern. It contains 550mg of Berbevis® per serving, and most noteworthy Berbevis®-based products deliver a 550mg dose.

Note, however, that Innerbody recommends just one 550mg serving per day, which aligns with some, but not all, human research studies. In a 2023 randomized clinical trial, for example, in which intervention subjects saw their fasting glucose drop from an average of 111mg/dL to 98mg/dL — that is, from prediabetic to normal values18 — the dosing protocol was two daily doses of 550mg Berbevis®. If we look at the 2023 study in isolation, it would seem to suggest that Innerbody Labs underserves its berberine. Competitors Berbelean and Momentous at least account for the possibility of needing a higher daily intake, recommending 1–2 and 1–3 servings, respectively.

But there are other studies out there that have seen positive outcomes with the one-dose regimen recommended by Innerbody, as well as by its developing company, Indena:

• A 2024 pilot study that reported improvements in total cholesterol, triglycerides, body weight, body fat, and abdominal fat thickness24
• A 2025 pilot study where subjects exhibited decreases in lipids, weight, fat percentage, and fasting glucose25

To be sure, the two pilot studies had limitations that lower their quality relative to the 2023 clinical trial. They were preliminary registry studies that don’t mention group randomization or placebo, whereas the 2023 trial was both placebo-controlled and double-blind. Yet they’re still useful as evidence that a single 550mg dose can be effective under practical conditions

Innerbody subjects every batch of its supplements to third-party testing, assuring you that your product contains what it promises to contain. Test results are even posted to the product page, giving you easy access.

Innerbody’s testing measures are especially important in light of a 2018 study that found wild variability in the strengths of several commercially available berberine supplements, with some potencies ranging as low as 33%.26 No need to worry about any such shortfalls with Berberine+.

Side effects and health risks

We’ve discussed how berberine is inclined to cause nausea, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation, but also how the superiorly bioavailable Berbevis® has acquitted itself well in tolerability studies.16 18 Berbevis® may still cause GI side effects, but the risk appears lower, and Innerbody’s addition of Meriva® curcumin may lower the risk further, still.22

Curcumin comes with its own risks, though. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health warns that “highly bioavailable formulations of curcumin ... may harm your liver,”27 and Meriva® certainly fits the description. In Berberine+, the dose of Meriva® may not be high enough to merit concern, but the danger is something to be aware of. Prospective users, especially those with an underlying liver condition, should consult a doctor before taking berberine.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

Health authorities also warn against taking berberine while pregnant or breastfeeding. The primary issue is that berberine exposure is linked to a buildup of bilirubin in the infant brain, which may in turn lead to serious health problems, including brain damage.28

Potential drug interactions

Side effects are just one facet of safety and aren’t as serious as potential drug interactions.

The problem relates to cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes, which metabolize a huge variety of prescription medications. (Indeed, the FDA’s list of CYP450-interactive drugs spans 245 entries across 25 pages, so it’s far too extensive to reproduce here.) Specifically, in a 2012 randomized clinical trial, a protocol entailing thrice-daily administration of 300mg berberine was found to produce changes in CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP3A4 activity.29 Berberine+ entails a different dose and regimen, but the risk remains. If you take a prescription such as metoprolol, metformin, atorvastatin, or alprazolam, you risk increased exposure to or reduced activation of the drug.

So, for prescription drug users, too, it’s imperative to speak with a doctor to confirm that a berberine supplement is suited to their health routine.

Innerbody Labs sells Berberine+ (30 servings per bottle) at multiple price points depending on the purchase option:

At these price points, Berberine+ is one of Innerbody’s most modestly priced supplements. Its cost value stands up well against competitors, too.

Momentous has a lower per-serving cost than Innerbody, but it lacks the oomph of a complementary ingredient like Meriva®. Nootropics Depot Berbelean offers more, but even its multi-ingredient formulation leaves us wanting. Also, look at the last row: Nootropics Depot doesn’t allow returns of opened items, whereas Innerbody and Momentous do.

The one small thing that Berbelean has over the others is that it ships free, even though it technically doesn’t cross Nootropics Depot’s $50 free-shipping threshold. Still, even with Innerbody’s $6.99 shipping fee on sub-$50 orders, it’s roughly $15 less than Nootropics Depot at its most expensive and $8 less than Momentous after accounting for the latter’s shipping cost.

Innerbody Labs Berberine+ may be well-suited for healthy, nonpregnant, nonbreastfeeding adults seeking the cardiometabolic effects of a berberine supplement while reducing the risk of GI side effects. More narrowly, it stands to offer the greatest benefit to those who wish to see relatively modest improvements to their glycemic and lipid panels.

It may be less suitable for women with PCOS, however, as relevant studies have tended to administer twice-daily doses of 550mg Berbevis®,1 and Innerbody’s dosing protocol would provide only half the clinically relevant amount. The user could double their daily dose of Berberine+, granted they have a doctor’s green light, but then they’d have to contend with a substantial decrease in cost-effectiveness: $1.53 per serving in every bottle.

It should be noted, by the way, that no berberine supplement can offer the same degree of cardiometabolic benefits as a prescription medication developed for cardiometabolic purposes. If your fasting glucose or lipid levels are at such a level that you’d be indicated for something like metformin, then you should ask your doctor about something like metformin. A supplement, even at its most potent and efficacious, is likely to confer comparatively modest improvements.

The same goes for anyone interested in weight loss. Berberine may be purported to have weight-loss benefits, but the research on the subject is limited and inconsistent. If your weight is in the obese range, a prescription option would again be the better-indicated treatment.

We’ve mentioned a few competitors to Berberine+ throughout this guide:

• Momentous Berberine
• Nootropics Depot Berbelean
• Carvalho’s Wellness Cardio Complete

Between the three, only the first two are worth considering, as Cardio Complete provides too low a Berbevis® dose to be a serious contender. So, below, let’s look at what Momentous and Nootropics Depot bring to the table.