In this solo video, board‑certified family physician Dr. Ashley Frazee, who runs a direct‑primary‑care clinic in Mesa, Arizona, explains what hemoglobin A1C measures and why elevated levels (≥6.5%) signal diabetes and its serious complications. She then presents four supplement‑based strategies to lower A1C without prescription drugs. First, berberine (500 mg three times daily) is described as equally effective to metformin (1,000 mg twice daily) at reducing liver glucose output, with an average 1.5 % A1C drop, plus lipid‑lowering benefits; she notes enzyme interactions, the need for doctor clearance, and a 3‑month on/1‑month off microbiome cycle. Second, alpha‑lipoic acid (300–600 mg before meals) acts as an antioxidant that reduces inflammation and helps pull glucose into cells, lowering A1C by ~0.5 % but may cause heartburn. Third, myo‑inositol (2 g twice daily) amplifies insulin signaling, offering ~0.6 % A1C reduction and additional benefits for PCOS and ovulation. Fourth, psyllium fiber (10 g daily) acts as a carbohydrate‑absorbing sponge, slowing glucose spikes; Dr. Frazee recommends a total of 30 g fiber per day, introduced gradually to avoid GI upset. She concludes by encouraging viewers to share A1C goals or successes, reiterating her preference for non‑prescription approaches within a direct‑primary‑care model.
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I'm a board-certified family medicine physician in the United States, and for the past 6 years I've been working directly for my patients versus the insurance companies in order to get down to the bottom of people's problems. Because I don't work for insurance companies, I've had more time to dig into issues that people really want to work on, such as avoiding prescription medications, which is crazy because I was trained very well to put you on prescriptions. But hey, as long as you're healthy, I got to give you what you want. Today we're going to talk about lowering your A1C. If you don't know what an A1C is, it's basically the percent of your red blood cells that are covered in sugar. If you have an A1C of 5.7%, you're considered pre-diabetic. Anything 6.5% and above is considered diabetes, and nobody wants diabetes. Why? Because extra blood sugar running around all the time can lead to heart disease, kidney disease, vision problems, neuropathy. There's so much more. Diabetes is not to be played around with. So now that I've depressed you, back to my top tips. Tip number 1, you might have heard this one already, but it's worth mentioning because it is just as effective as metformin in lowering your hemoglobin A1C. And metformin is the first-line prescription. It is the prescription that I was told to put every diabetic on. But in reality, there's been a supplement that is just as effective at lowering your A1C, and it's been around the entire time metformin has, and that's berberine. Berberine helps reduce insulin resistance just like metformin does. And let me detour here for just a minute because I want to explain insulin resistance just a bit for you so you understand the mechanism of action here and why this is important. You see, when the body works correctly and you don't have diabetes or insulin resistance, When you're not eating, your blood sugar drops, and so it's up to the liver to make extra blood sugar for you to keep everything steady. And then when you eat food, the pancreas makes insulin. Insulin tells the liver to stop. You don't need to make extra sugar now. The food is going to take over. There's always a balance with it. But when you have insulin resistance or diabetes and you're not eating, the liver's making blood sugar. But then when you do eat and your pancreas makes insulin, it's supposed to tell the liver to stop, but the signal gets jammed up and the liver just keeps making blood sugar too. So you've got blood sugar coming in from the food that you eat and from your liver, and it's a storm of high blood sugar all the time. That's insulin resistance. That's diabetes. The whole signaling process from insulin is just messed up. So, okay, back to our supplements. Berberine and metformin work by telling the liver to stop making extra blood sugar. They say, hey, it's okay, you're eating food, you don't need extra blood sugar. And so that's how they reduce your A1C. They allow the liver to stop making blood sugar and your A1C drops by about 1.5% on average. And they both have the same effectiveness. Berberine, 500 milligrams 3 times a day, is just as effective as metformin, 1,000 milligrams twice a day, which is the usual prescription if you have diabetes. And a bonus, berberine can also reduce your lipids, which metformin actually can't. Now, there are a couple of downsides about berberine. It can mess with some enzymes in your system. And so if you're somebody who takes a lot of medications, a lot of prescription medications, you need to check with your doctor about whether you can take berberine because it can increase the level of some of those other prescriptions in your bloodstream, and you don't want that. So again, just check with your doctor. Berberine also alters your microbiome, and so it's recommended that you take it for about 3 months and then take a month off to reset the gut biome. With metformin, you don't necessarily have to do that. You take it continuously every day, but it's also known to cause uncomfortable GI side effects like gas and bloating and diarrhea. So now you've got something to stop your liver from being a sugar factory. Now let's add in something to help insulin work better in your cells. Tip number 2, ALA, alpha-lipoic acid. ALA is an antioxidant that your body naturally makes in the mitochondria of your cells, the little powerhouses of your Simply put, it makes energy and reduces inflammation. Inflammation is a major driver for insulin resistance. Anytime we have chronic inflammation, it gums up the signaling that insulin's responsible for. If you want to get nerdy with it, ALA also is responsible for helping pull blood sugar into the cells, thus lowering the amount of blood sugar that you have. And this also helps insulin do its job. It just doesn't have to try as hard because ALA is helping it. ALA has been shown to reduce A1Cs by about half a percent. So honestly, that could be the driver between having diabetes and not, since diabetes is a 6.5. If you start taking ALA and somehow manage to get your A1C down to 6.0, you're not technically diabetic at that point. I'm probably gonna create some controversy by saying that, but hey. 300 to 600 milligrams of ALA taken before meals per day can reduce your A1C by about 0.5%. People get heartburn with ALA, just be aware of that. All right, you just helped your liver stop making extra blood sugar and you assisted insulin in doing its job. Now let's amplify the message it's trying to send. Think of this next one as insulin's Megaphone. Tip number 3 is myo-inositol. This is also something we make in our body. It's also found in certain fruits, beans, and grains. Myo-inositol acts as an amplifier of the signal that insulin is supposed to send. You see, insulin works like this. It's kind of like a spaceship landing on the moon, and when it lands, a signal gets put out to say, hey everybody, we just landed on the moon, you can start the party now. But when you have insulin resistance, that signal just gets really gummed up and nobody knows when to start the party. When you use myo-inositol, you actually amplify that signal. insulin is supposed to send. So it's just providing a clearer message. 2 grams twice a day can help lower your A1C by 0.6%. Again, that can be the difference between having diabetes and not. And a bonus, it's super helpful in PCOS and helping women ovulate, and I'll make another video on that later. All right, and if that was a lot of science for you, I have one last simple fix. This is something I'm a big fan of, and it's fiber. Psyllium fiber in specific is really good for lowering your A1C. It basically acts like a sponge in your stomach to absorb extra carbohydrates Sugars and slows down the absorption of those carbohydrates into your bloodstream. So when you eat a lot of psyllium fiber, 10 grams a day to be exact, you're inhibiting your blood sugar from spiking. Now I want you to have 30 grams of fiber a day. It is absolutely necessary for health. I just talked about it in a cholesterol video. It's helpful in preventing colon cancer and hemorrhoids and so many things. Fiber is just so good for you. So I want you to aim for 30 grams of fiber a day. But listen, don't jump into taking that full amount of fiber right away. You have to ease into it. Otherwise your gut is going to hate me. So those are my 4 top tips on lowering your A1C without using medication. It can be done, and if you can do it for me, I'm so proud of you, and I'm happy to not put you on prescription medications. Even though that's all I've been trained to do, I celebrate the wins with you if you're able to stay off prescriptions. Hey, drop your A1C goals or wins in the comments. I'd be happy to read through those, and it's also helpful for other people who read the comments. I'm Dr. Ashley Frazee. I run a direct primary care clinic in Mesa, Arizona. Direct primary care is where you take insurance out of the picture and your doctor gets to work directly for you. If you want to know more about direct primary care, there are a couple of links in my description. You guys have a good day.
