Akkermansia muciniphila is a unique mucin-loving keystone species residing in the human gastrointestinal tract, purportedly offering health benefits, especially in the realms of metabolic health and obesity.1 Clinical investigations exploring A. muciniphila supplementation in overweight and obese cohorts seek to elucidate its potential impact on metabolic parameters, adiposity, and other health metrics. Studies consistently show reduced abundance in obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and other metabolic conditions.2 Intervention studies in animals demonstrated A. muciniphila administration reversed high-fat diet-induced metabolic disorders,…

Patients with obesity suffer from chronic, low-grade inflammation.1 That’s partly due to dysfunctions in the ability to endogenously create specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs).1 SPMs communicate with immune cells, telling them the inflammatory process is no longer needed and to finish the job.2 However, in many conditions, including obesity, the capability to send these potent signaling molecules can diminish, and so too can their effects.1-3 As a result, inflammation smolders and further perpetuates a vast array of associated conditions such as…

Menopause can be a serious disruption to a woman’s life. For decades, women and their doctors have turned to hormone replacement and nonhormonal therapies to seek relief. Many women prefer not to take hormones, or for various reasons hormones present a specific health risk, taking them off the table for therapy. A plant extract (ERr 731), made from Siberian rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) has been in use for treating menopause in Europe since the 1990s and is now gaining momentum in…

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a mainstay for treating menopause, but more and more women are searching for non-hormonal therapies. An extract from Siberian Rhubarb (latin name Rheum rhaponticum) has been in use treating menopause for decades, and is now gaining popularity in more markets worldwide. Recently (2021) another clinical trial demonstrated the efficacy and safety of this extract, ERr-731, in treating menopause in Indian women.1 In this Indian trial researchers found a 4 mg once daily dose led to…

Metabolic detoxification (detox)—or biotransformation—is a physiological function that removes toxic substances of endogenous or exogenous origin from the body. Because the function and regulation of this process varies from person to person, different people can have a different sensitivity to toxic substances and their effects on the development of a variety of diseases such as liver conditions, fertility problems, and cancer. Along with sex, age, and lifestyle, genetics play an important role in this variability. But do we actually know…

Probiotic Strain L. paracasei Lpc-37® Reduced Stress in Healthy Adults Scientists have been searching for “psychobiotics,” probiotics that can modify the gut-brain axis,1 and now a recent publication using a robust clinical trial design demonstrated a probiotic strain that improved the stress response. Previous preclinical studies demonstrated that Lacticaseibacillus paracasei Lpc-37 (Lpc-37), formerly known as Lactobacillus paracasei Lpc-37 prevented the development of certain behaviors associated with chronic stress.2 This “psychobiotic” candidate was selected from other probiotic strains for clinical effects on perceived stress…

Most patients seeking pain relief rely on the following three families of drugs: opioids, gabapentinoids, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs). These widely used drugs are associated with serious side effects.1 During the past decade there has been an increasing interest in cannabis-derived natural products for pain management with a better safety profile and adequate pain relief. However, we still know surprisingly little about the effectiveness on pain of nonintoxicating cannabis-based products—conventionally referred to as “industrial hemp.” To fill this knowledge…

Prebiotics are types of food ingredients that are nondigestible by humans and broken down by human gut bacteria into compounds that are beneficial for humans. Human breast milk contains a rich source of prebiotics called “human milk oligosaccharides” or “HMOs,” which act as the very first prebiotics taken in by a nursing infant.1 Among the HMOs, 2’-fucosyllactose (2’-FL) is the most abundantly produced.2 The effect of 2’-FL was recently studied in adults with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel…

Single-strain and multistrain probiotics can be beneficial for specific clinical applications.1,2 Potential advantages of multistrain probiotic supplements are a broader spectrum of health benefits (compared to intake of a single probiotic strain) and synergistic effects of the individual probiotic strains.2 Clinical trial results on a new, high colony-forming units (CFU) count combination of 8 strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium probiotics were recently published in Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal.3 The study evaluated the short-term impact of consumption of one capsule…

The ketogenic diet (KD) is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat, adequate-protein diet that has proven to be effective for the reversal of several chronic conditions including obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type-2 diabetes (T2DM) in trials of up to two years.1 However, the degree of therapeutic response to KD varies across individuals.2,3 For example, some KD dieters lose more weight than others, and, while most of them improve their blood lipids, so-called “high responders” experience abnormal increases in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Many…