I would use the probiotics for a month or two then support with prebiotics. So not sure I’d say they’re useless because some people have very poor initial combo of gut flora so it might be good to reintroduce specific strains. But for ongoing maintenance the way to go would be the right fiber mix.
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To be honest I don’t know much about it but they kept popping up as recommended products on Amazon after purchasing fructooligosaccharides and there seemed to be very positive feedback overall.
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And @L_Hayes seems good, but one might want to include TESTING in this program to know the effects vs just flying based on feelings
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Not sure how relevant / similar, but Blueprint has added this for BJ:
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Looks interesting. When I did a search, it came up as being in Nestle infant formula.
Wonder how similar it is to colostrum, which you can also buy:
https://www.amazon.com/WONDERCOW-Colostrum-Supplement-Concentrated-Unflavored/dp/B0BRTHDKDR
For Akkermansia, my guess is that if you don’t have glucose issues and/or aren’t overweight, your akkermansia levels are probably normal - assuming you’re following good dietary recommendations for gut health (fiber, yogurt, other fermented foods, kombucha maybe). I’m always looking for something promising and not too expensive.
Colostrum sold is of bovine origin. These are specific compounds found in human milk though it seems they’re being produced artificially (I should hope no women were milked for the Amazon supplement 
).
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Yes, it says right on it that it is made by fermentation. I have tried this stuff before. My brother has Crohn’s and it is supposed to help that. This form looked like it was a buck a day. I don’t think the other stuff I’ve tried was that expensive, but I’m pretty sure it was the same stuff.
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Is that enough color? Or would you like a picture?
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Perhaps a new untapped market opportunity, so to speak.
And yes, this seems like an area ripe for humor, and perhaps even a riff off that old saying about a “why buy the cow when the milk is free”… but I’m not going there. Only the brave will tread in that direction.
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(post deleted by author) 
Some things are best left to the individual’s imagination. Anything else might be too revealing. With my imagination, I have to keep admonishing it…“Hey, knock that off!”
Somehow missed this thread. A lot of good info here. Thanks everyone.
And, “DISCOUNT CODE: GREENFIELD (20% off) With this code” still works at Pendulum.
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Just got my new HbA1C results. Went from 5.4 to 5.0. I credit it to eating a bit healthier, low dose arcobose once a day 25mg, and pendulum probiotics.
I just bought the new glp1 pendulum product to try out. Once it runs out ill probably try switching to something cheaper and see if i can hold this blood level.
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Just close to the loop here, I did another Thorne test at early March, and the results show zip increase in akkermansia after 2+ months. And, whereas it seemed like something good was happening when a1c went from 5.4 to 5.1 after one month of GC, it subsequently seems to have rebounded to 5.4.
I wrote to Pendulum, including my Thorne report showing unchanged akk levels. They are refunding the three months Glucose Control payments.
Something to note: The following is from Pendulum FAQ:
‘Customers with a healthy a1c should not expect to see a decrease in a1c’ Of course, this should be the first question anyone not diabetic, including me, should be asking before purchasing the product. Funny they bury this in the FAQ. This statement notwithstanding, some here say they did see improvements.
I also wrote a one-star review because it didn’t work (according to the Thorne report) for me, and got this response:
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That’s a lot of variables?
I think it may not be all that helpful to focus on just one bacteria in the gut microbiome, when there are many thousands. Rob Knight, one of the world’s leading microbiome researchers, told me once it was all about diversity of the microbiome, with the greatest diversity like vegetation in a rain forest being the healthiest. Most of us have ecoli and H pylori present in our guts, but we don’t have diarrhea or uclers. The reason is that the total eco-culture of the gut keeps the bad ones in check. These are comensual animals - one bacteria digests fiber and produces something that feeds another bacteria and so on. It is the diversity that is key. Obese mice and people don’t have the same level of diversity as lean people and mice in whole genuses of bacteria. On the other hand, as a poster noted above, having certain other bacteria can increase the level of akkermansia. They are like matrioska dolls in the way they are symbiotic. the other thing to bear in mind in this debate is your poop test is not really representative of your microbiome but an attempt at an approximation. In mice, they kill the mouse and take the bacteria from the middle of their intestine. In humans, since this is not possible, the sample comes from what is expelled at the vey end of the 30 foot long tube and the sample — a teeny percentage of the 1 trillion bacteria there — could greatly depend on what you ate 48 hours ago.
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Here is my data (from the more quantitative/“medical grade” GDX test).
Incrased by half an order of magnitude in absolute levels / a 5.8x increase after 3 months (I had 5 days of non-supplementation/“wash out” before the post pendulum stool test):
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Yes, might need more data points and/or vary less variables at a time to see patterns, but I understand that we often first want to optimize the metric via multiple arrows from our quiver. When I do that, I then afterwards try to get more data while tweaking pieces one at a time.
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I’m not sure how the Thorne methodology - just a wipe - is able to quantity total levels. I can understand how it can give some signal about existence and perhaps relative abundance vs other strains, but not total levels?
Yes i am taking codeage akkermansia and pendulum merabolic control now (cheaper low amount of akkermansia) and I will retest in 3 months, and i will keep experimenting. Maybe just codeage since quite cheap compared to anything pendulum.
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