What started as a young woman trying to survive a confusing diagnosis of type 2 diabetes turned into decades of trial and error. From insulin, metformin and a long list of probiotics, she has tried everything to keep her blood sugar levels in check. She wasn’t exaggerating. “Hear me,” she told the audience, leaning into the microphone, “I tried every probiotic on the market and nothing happened.”
Until one day a conversation at home in Cleveland changed everything. Someone told her about it Garland, a company in which the Cleveland Clinic had invested. It used a live probiotic strain called Akkermansia muciniphila (Akkermansia) that no one else had at the time.
She tried it and six months later her A1C biomarker had dropped one point. Eighteen months later she was two points behind.
A1C is a clinical marker that shows your average blood sugar level over the past three months. A healthy A1C is considered below 5.7%, prediabetes starts at 5.7-6.4%, and anything 6.5% or higher is within the diabetes range. Many people with diabetes struggle for years to shave off even 0.3 or 0.4 points, despite medication, diet changes and exercise.
For Berry, after fifteen years of metabolic stagnation, this was ‘revolutionary’.
We spoke to the scientist behind the company, Colleen Cutcliffe Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Pendulum, to find out what makes this probiotic strain so powerful.
With a background in biochemistry and microbiology, Cutcliffe pointed out that Akkermansia is in its own category. “There are a lot of types,” she told Muscle & Fitness. “But Akkermansia is completely different.”
Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are currently the most popular on the shelves. But Dr. Cutcliffe says there are a few things “that we know Akkermansia does that are really unique from anything else on the market right now.”
The ‘Keystone Strain’ supporting intestinal lining
The superpower of Akkermansia comes from its direct interaction with your intestinal wall. According to Cutcliffe, this strain of bacteria lives in the mucus layer, or “glue,” that holds your intestinal wall together.
“Akkermansia is the only species we know of that can remove the glue and replenish new glue,” she explained. “It’s a regulator of the structure of your intestinal wall.”
That might sound like a nerdy detail, until you remember what happens when that lining starts to break down: permeability (“leaky gut”), unpredictable digestion, bloating, strange immune attacks, skin problems and low-grade inflammation that make recovery more difficult and fat loss slower.
This is why researchers and physicians have come to call Akkermansia a “keystone species.” Studies have shown that healthy levels of Akkermansia can improve intestinal barrier function, improve metabolic health and modulate the immune system.
This probiotic has a huge impact on everything else. “I think a lot of it is due to the structure of the intestinal wall, because it is so fundamental,” Cutcliffe told me. “When
you are low on Akkermansia or you are missing Akkermansia, it is correlated with so many diseases beyond just GI but also metabolism, skin and even brain problems.
Decrease appetite and increase GLP-1
The next layer is hormonal. “Akkermansia can stimulate your own GLP-1 production,” says Cutcliffe. “That’s phenomenal because there are so many things we’re trying to do to increase GLP-1.”
GLP-1 is the hormone that regulates appetite, satiety and the stabilization of blood sugar levels after meals. The same path that modern weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy focus on. But Akkermansia supports it naturally, not pharmacologically.
Most people describe a shift as less cravings, feeling full sooner, a more balanced relationship with food. I shared my own experience with Cutcliffe, how within three months of taking Akkermansia, I was done halfway through my meal, and how long-term stubborn belly fat finally started to bud.
She just nodded. “That’s exactly what we’re seeing. It’s really an important part of metabolic health because it can stimulate both your gut lining and GLP-1.”
Cutcliffe has seen patients lower their A1C (like Berry) and lower blood glucose spikes by stimulating your body’s natural mechanisms for metabolizing sugars.
Why you can’t “just eat more fermented foods
To diversify your microbiome, experts often suggest eating more yogurt, kimchi, or other probiotic-rich foods. However, Akkermansia was not found there.
“No one has found Akkermansia in food or drink,” Cutcliffe said. “You can feed it fiber and polyphenols, but you can’t get it from food.”
The only natural source that scientists have documented is human breast milk. “Your mother gives it to you at birth, and you spend the rest of your life trying not to lose it,” she explained. However, she noted that if your diet includes a lot of ultra-processed foods or if you have taken antibiotics at any time, you may be missing this “keystone bacteria.” There is good news. Cutcliffe points out that because your microbiome is constantly changing, with just a few adjustments you can replenish it and get healthy again.
However, your gut microbiome doesn’t change overnight. Cutcliffe explained that one of the best models we have is dietary shift studies. This means that if you take an omnivore and make it vegetarian, it will take about eight weeks for the microbiome to stabilize into a new state. That’s why she tells people to expect meaningful change around 90 days.
Live versus pasteurized
Akkermansia supplements come in two forms: live or pasteurized (killed by heat). Cutcliffe did not mince his words here. “Pasteurized Akkermansia can never colonize,” she said. “Because it’s dead, it can’t respond to your diet. It can’t eat fiber. It can’t settle in your intestines.”
She explains that the pasteurization process, while the bacteria die, is not entirely useless, but hardly enough for a meaningful improvement. “You still get some of those health benefits, but if you’re really trying to improve your gut health and you don’t want to be on the pill for the rest of your life and you’re going to make dietary changes, you should go with the live kind.”
A company built on science
Pendulum’s story is not common in the supplement world. Cutcliffe told me it took almost a decade of research before they sold a single product. “We first did preclinical and clinical studies and only brought something to market when we already had clinical research data.”
Supported by the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, Pendulum’s scientific team continues to conduct several clinical trials to further discover which conditions Akkermansia can help improve.
That explains why Berry trusted them. After Berry saw her A1C drop, she contacted Pendulum to connect with Cutcliffe. She told her: “This has really changed my life. How can I help you spread the word about this? People need to know about this.” Berry wanted to translate the science so that real people could understand it.
Today, Berry is Pendulum’s Chief Communications Officer, a title that reflects the kind of lived experience that easily resonates with audiences nationwide. It is common for Berry to share via social media that Pendulum is one of her daily non-negotiables no matter where she is in the world.
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