Maintaining a balanced and healthy gut microbiome is essential to our overall health. The benefits include reduction in inflammation in our body, improved overall immune function, resistance to several gastrointestinal maladies, and even longevity.
Accordingly, there has been a remarkable proliferation of products on the market purporting to improve the wellbeing of the gut microbiome. These include probiotics, which are living bacteria and yeast that play important roles in health maintenance.
Most of the bacteria featured in probiotics are aerobic organisms that thrive in an environment that includes oxygen. A few are anaerobic bugs that are rapidly killed by even a few oxygen molecules.
Anaerobic bacteria are very difficult to grow and including living anaerobes in probiotics is extremely challenging. Several manufacturers have gone to great lengths to produce one particular anaerobe, however – akkermansia mucinaphila (A. mucinaphila).
A.mucinaphila has been extensively studied due to several of its unique properties.
The probiotic efects of this organism include metabolic modulation, immune regulation, and gut health protection. It normally consists of 3-5% of the gut microbial community in healthy adults. It has been reported that inadequate growth in the gastrointestinal tract of A. mucinaphila may play a vital role in the development of so-called “metabolic syndrome,” including type 2 diabetes and obesity. Autoimmune diseases and atherosclerosis (“hardening of the arteries”) have also been associated with low growth of A. mucinaphila.
Studies in animals and humans have shown that Akkermansia plays a key role in regulating glucose and energy metabolism. Accordingly, it may be very useful in controlled type 2 diabetes.
Clinical trial in diabetics have shown that, indeed, a probioitc containing A. mucinaphila leads to lower blood sugar values and weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes.
Studies have shown that A. mucinaphila play an important role not only in metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, but also diseases of the nervous, digestive, musculoskeletal, and respiratory systems.
It remains to be confirmed whether probiotics containing dead A. mucinaphila are effective, or if only living organisms are necessary for the health benefits desrcibed above. This is important, especially since it is so difficult to maintain because it is readily killed by the oxygen in the air.
Once again, the devil is in the detail with probiotics, so we must do our homework to determine the utility of the probiotic we are considering.
Note: Although I am a physician, the content in this article is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent illness or disease in the reader – it is for educational purposes only.
References
- Zhai Q, Feng S, Arjan N, Chen W. A next generation probiotic, Akkermansia muciniphila. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2019;59(19):3227-3236.
- Ghaffari S, Abbasi A, Somi MH, Moaddab SY, Nikniaz L, Kafil HS, Ebrahimzadeh Leylabadlo H. Akkermansia muciniphila: from its critical role in human health to strategies for promoting its abundance in human gut microbiome. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2023;63(25):7357-7377.
- Hasani A, Ebrahimzadeh S, Hemmati F, Khabbaz A, Hasani A, Gholizadeh P. The role of Akkermansia muciniphila in obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis. J Med Microbiol. 2021 Oct;70(10).
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