Probiotic supplement may slash BMI and body weight, improve heart health: RCT

Ildong Bioscience Co.’s B. lactis​ IDCC 4301, branded as B. lactis​ Fit, was also associated with improvements in serum triglyceride levels, according to findings published in Food & Function.​

“In this trial, we found that 12-week B. lactis​ IDCC 4301 supplementation had anti-obesity effects in obese women,” wrote scientists from Kyung Hee University, Ildong Bioscience, and Dongguk University. “The total fat mass of the probiotics group decreased 2.6 times and the trunk fat mass decreased 7 times compared to those in the placebo group.” 

“The difference in total fat mass change between groups among postmenopausal women was 38% greater than that of all women,” they added.

The study was funded by Ildong Bioscience Co., Ltd.

The link between the gut microbiota and obesity was first reported in 2006 by Jeffrey Gordon and his group at Washington University in St. Louis, who found that microbial populations in the gut are different between obese and lean people, and that when the obese people lost weight their microflora reverted back to that observed in a lean person. This suggested that obesity has a microbial component (Nature​, Vol. 444, pp. 1022-1023, 1027-1031​).

A 2013 paper in Science​​ (Vol. 341, Issue 6150), also led by Professor Gordon, found that transplanting gut bacteria from obese humans into germ-free mice leads to greater weight gain and fat accumulation than mice that were given bacteria from the guts of lean humans.  

The findings showed that weight and fat gain is influenced by communities of microbes in the gut and their effect on the physical and metabolic traits of the host, leading to metabolic changes in the rodents that are associated with obesity in humans.