Probiotic developed in Cork may reduce blood sugar and stress levels in overweight people

Atlantia Food Clinical Trials has completed a ground-breaking scientific study which found evidence that a probiotic developed at University College Cork has the power to reduce blood sugar and stress levels in overweight people and potentially counter obesity.

The study was led by Atlantia Medical Director, Professor Ted Dinan at the company’s world class research facility in Blackpool Cork. Professor Dinan is ranked as the world’s number one researcher in microbiota (gut microbes).

The Cork-based nutrition research company carried out the large-scale study into the effects of the probiotic on healthy overweight, or obese individuals, with high blood sugar levels registering in the pre-diabetic range.

The Atlantia study ‘Bifidobacterium longum counters the effects of obesity’ has now been published as a research paper on the EBioMedicine website by the world’s leading peer- reviewed medical journal, The Lancet. The research paper highlights the potential of the B. longum probiotic to be developed and commercialised as a valuable anti-obesity and anti-stress supplement, showing its clinically tested potential to naturally lower blood glucose levels and reduce the risk of high blood glucose related conditions such as type 2 diabetes.

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An esteemed scientist who retired from his position as Professor of Psychiatry and Principal Investigator in the APC Microbiome Institute in 2019, before joining Atlantia as Medical Director, Professor Dinan is primarily known for his research work on depression and the relationship between microbiota (gut microbes) and the brain. He is particularly interested in nutrition and mental health and has spent much of his career researching how nutrition influences the microbiota and how the microbiota in turn communicates with the brain, influencing our overall mental health, specifically our ability to deal with stress.

Ranked as the world’s leading researcher on the microbiota by medical expertise rankings organisation, Expertscape, Prof. Dinan was especially interested to discover that the B. longum probiotic was not only effective in reducing blood glucose levels, and thereby countering obesity, but that it also showed efficacy in reducing levels of the stress hormone cortisol, therefore reducing stress.

Explaining the clinical trial process, Professor Dinan said that 124 people who were overweight and regarded as pre-diabetic (with high glucose levels but not in the diabetic range) took part in the study. Atlantia put a random selection of half the participants on the probiotic and half on a placebo, which they each took twice daily.

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“What we found was that the blood sugar levels of those on the B. longum as opposed to the placebo, dropped. So, we were able to get participants who were in the pre-diabetic range back into the normal level by simply going on a probiotic. They weren’t put on a diet, they weren’t exercising excessively, they just took this probiotic and we were able to reduce their glucose levels on the probiotic alone. The purpose of the study was to see if this probiotic could reduce blood sugar levels and therefore counter obesity, and our findings showed clearly that it did.

“We also tested the cortisol levels of all the participants and we found that with the probiotic treatment, the cortisol levels dropped, which meant that this probiotic had an anti-stress effect.

“So the probiotic reduced glucose levels, which is obviously a good thing if somebody is overweight or pre-diabetic and the second important finding was that it helped to reduce stress levels by reducing cortisol, the main stress hormone. So, it had an anti-stress effect and it had an anti-diabetic effect,” Professor Dinan said.

Atlantia Food Clinical Trials Ltd specialise in conducting scientific food studies with a focus on natural approaches to improving health and disease prevention. It is widely regarded as the world’s leading food research company.

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Commenting on the study and its findings, Professor Dinan said, “At Atlantia, we conduct studies to a very high standard; we pride ourselves on scientific rigour. We consider ourselves to be the number one company internationally conducting trials in this area. If there’s one thing we’re proud of at Atlantia, it’s that a wide range of big multinational companies come here to Cork because they have a product and they want us to do high calibre research and human intervention studies on that product. Few products on the market have been subjected to as rigorous investigation as this particular probiotic and very few of them would have peer reviewed papers published in a reputable journal like EBioMed.”

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