How Gut Bacteria Can Change Your Weight & Metabolism

…molecular biologist and biochemist Colleen Cutcliffe, Ph.D., returns to the show with brand new science about your gut. She’s a regular guest because she and her team at Pendulum continue to uncover innovative ways to improve your gut health, your metabolism, your immune system, how your brain works and how long you live.

This time, Akkermansia’s back in the spotlight, with more than 300 new studies showing connections to weight, metabolism and immunity. A unique and novel probiotic strain (species of bacteria) naturally found in your gastrointestinal tract, Akkermansia muciniphila, directly interacts with your gut lining and helps regulate the mucus lining in your gut. Now, there’s growing evidence showing Akkermansia to be a keystone bacterial strain.

Why all the hype about Akkermansia? It’s the new kid on the research block, only gaining attention in the past decade or so.

“Akkermansia is in a part of the colon that doesn’t have any oxygen in it,” Colleen explains. “There was never an opportunity to see Akkermansia because the way we used to isolate strains was by growing them in culture. About 10 or 15 years ago, DNA sequencing technologies became affordable and usable enough that you could use DNA sequencing to look at your microbiome and now you can look at the things that are alive and dead and have just DNA fragments to them. And that’s how Akkermansia and tens of thousands of new strains got discovered, was because DNA sequencing became the new technology rather than culturing. And so now you could see these things that were in the oxygen free part of your gut.”

This conversation dives into the latest research and what it means for you. You’ll learn how to apply this new knowledge and how to boost Akkermansia in your gut.

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