katabasis
Senior Member
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I recently found a probiotic marketed by Pendulum Life which contains Akkermansia muciniphila. This species has a lot of relevance to both IBS and ME/CFS, and I'm not aware of any other probiotics on market that contain it. In addition to A. muciniphila, the probiotic contains a few other interesting strains, and I thought I would bring it to the attention of this forum.
https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-glucose-control-2-og
The probiotic is being marketed for glucose control/diabetes, but A. muciniphila has an important role in the gut regardless - a 'healthy' gut flora normally contains 3-5% A. muciniphila. As its name suggest, the species subsists on mucin, a component of gut mucus, but has been shown to positively modulate mucus thickness and gut barrier integrity, presumably due to its production of SCFAs like butyrate. Mice that were supplemented with A. muciniphila show a reduction in serum LPS, implicating a possible role in preventing or healing leaky gut.
Another strain in Pendulum's probiotic, Clostridium butyricum, is not commonly sold as a probiotic, though there is one product on market that has it, called Miyarisan. This species is also a butyrate producer, and interestingly is protective against C. Diff infections, possibly due to genus-level similarities in its niche in the gut flora composition. Two other strains that Pendulum contains, Clostridium beijerinckii and Anaerobutyricum hallii, seem to be uncommon, but I'm not especially familiar with them. The last one, B. infantis, is very common in probiotics.
Having a deficiency in A. muciniphila seems to be pretty common, especially among those with gut issues - when I did PCR sequencing of my gut flora genome, I found I was extremely deficient. I found plenty of suggestions online for how to use prebiotics to increase A. muciniphila, but this kind of intervention can sometimes to be difficult to implement, and I imagine it would be completely ineffective if you are just missing a strain entirely. You can't feed what isn't there.
So to find an A. muciniphila probiotic is really interesting. Up until now, I had assumed there was nothing on market since this species is an obligate anaerobe and difficult to culture. I didn't see much on Pendulum's website about how they overcame this obstacle, or what data they had generated on ensuring the probiotic actually makes it securely into your gut, though. The cost of the probiotic is also rather high, at 165 dollars for a 1 month supply. I was wondering if anyone here had tried it, or even heard anything about its reputation. Perhaps Pendulum would consider making a probiotic with A. muciniphila alone, in the future, if there were enough demand.
https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-glucose-control-2-og
The probiotic is being marketed for glucose control/diabetes, but A. muciniphila has an important role in the gut regardless - a 'healthy' gut flora normally contains 3-5% A. muciniphila. As its name suggest, the species subsists on mucin, a component of gut mucus, but has been shown to positively modulate mucus thickness and gut barrier integrity, presumably due to its production of SCFAs like butyrate. Mice that were supplemented with A. muciniphila show a reduction in serum LPS, implicating a possible role in preventing or healing leaky gut.
Another strain in Pendulum's probiotic, Clostridium butyricum, is not commonly sold as a probiotic, though there is one product on market that has it, called Miyarisan. This species is also a butyrate producer, and interestingly is protective against C. Diff infections, possibly due to genus-level similarities in its niche in the gut flora composition. Two other strains that Pendulum contains, Clostridium beijerinckii and Anaerobutyricum hallii, seem to be uncommon, but I'm not especially familiar with them. The last one, B. infantis, is very common in probiotics.
Having a deficiency in A. muciniphila seems to be pretty common, especially among those with gut issues - when I did PCR sequencing of my gut flora genome, I found I was extremely deficient. I found plenty of suggestions online for how to use prebiotics to increase A. muciniphila, but this kind of intervention can sometimes to be difficult to implement, and I imagine it would be completely ineffective if you are just missing a strain entirely. You can't feed what isn't there.
So to find an A. muciniphila probiotic is really interesting. Up until now, I had assumed there was nothing on market since this species is an obligate anaerobe and difficult to culture. I didn't see much on Pendulum's website about how they overcame this obstacle, or what data they had generated on ensuring the probiotic actually makes it securely into your gut, though. The cost of the probiotic is also rather high, at 165 dollars for a 1 month supply. I was wondering if anyone here had tried it, or even heard anything about its reputation. Perhaps Pendulum would consider making a probiotic with A. muciniphila alone, in the future, if there were enough demand.
