The Bacteria You've Never Heard Of That Promotes Weight Loss

Being overweight or obese has become a massive, worldwide problem. Over 600 million adults and 100 million children are obese, setting the stage for numerous problems including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Underlying this problem is metabolic syndrome, a cluster of nasty symptoms including high blood sugar and excess belly fat. These symptoms pave the way for obesity, diabetes, and so many other problems.

As a medical doctor who specializes in gut health, I see firsthand in my patients what the research also shows: Dysbiosis, or gut-flora imbalance, is often the catalyst for metabolic syndrome and all the problems associated with it.

The state of your gut—including those hundred trillion microbes that populate your gut lining—can influence your level of chronic inflammation, gut permeability, and endotoxemia (the transfer of bacterial endotoxin into the circulation), which can all trigger weight gain, high insulin, the deposition of abdominal fat, and even depression.

The good news is that we are in direct control of the quality and quantity of those gut microbiota that eventually prevent or create metabolic disorders, depending on how we eat and live our lives.

But as gut science continues to evolve, we are still discovering previously unknown new bacteria that show dramatic promise to help with weight loss, diabetes, and other diseases. One such bacterium, a favorite of mine, is called Akkermansia muciniphila, or A. muciniphila, one of the most abundant single species among human gut microbiota1.

First isolated in 2004, research shows that copious amounts of A. muciniphila can profoundly improve metabolic disorders1 associated with obesity, diabetes, liver diseases, and heart-related diseases. For certain people—like those with high body weight, body mass index (BMI), elevated cholesterol levels, and abnormal fasting blood glucose levels—the amounts of A. muciniphila are lower than for healthier people2.

Those findings reveal why A. muciniphila has become a research hot spot: Studies reveal how this bacterium can protect against specific inflammation-driven problems, including obesity and diabetes. Most so far have involved animals. In one, researchers gave mice a daily oral supplement with live A. muciniphila when they noted the mice were gaining weight and developing diabetes and gut problems. For these mice, supplementing with A. muciniphila protected against diet-induced obesity. In fact, mice showed a 50 percent lower body weight gain when given live A. muciniphila, without altering their food intake. The mice also no longer exhibited insulin resistance or the inflammatory response in fat tissue that drives obesity.

Keep in mind this was an animal study; while promising, we'll have to see how these benefits play out in humans. 

One human study did find that people with higher naturally occurring levels of A. muciniphila lost more abdominal fat compared with those with low amounts of this bacterium. Researchers here looked at 49 people before and after a six-week weight-loss diet. People with the highest A. muciniphila levels—sometimes 100 times more—also had better blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity.

What you put on the end of your fork can go a long way toward normalizing gut health and optimizing levels of A. muciniphila to keep you lean and healthy. But how you move, sleep, manage stress, meditate, and live your life can also have a dramatic effect on supporting gut health.

Over the next few years, I'm confident we'll see new gut-health products that include A. muciniphila. In fact, a new company was started in Belgium to research and produce the first A. muciniphila probiotic supplement.