Welcome, Christina. We're so glad to have you with us today. Thanks for having me — I'm excited to be here.
We recommend Pendulum products to all of our patients, and we take them ourselves, so we'd love to share a little more. Let's get started by talking about Pendulum, how the company came about, and what its mission is.
How Pendulum Began
We're a probiotic company, but a little different from what's existed in the probiotics realm. Pendulum Therapeutics was founded by a group of scientists — all PhDs with a background in DNA sequencing. About 20 years ago they started looking at some really unique strains and found a fascinating one called Akkermansia, which isn't new to the human gut microbiome but was only discovered in 2004. Our scientists noticed it had incredible benefits for human health and had the idea to bring it to the marketplace — to make it available for people who maybe didn't have Akkermansia.
The challenge was that it's a strict anaerobic bacteria that lives in the colon, and anaerobes can't be exposed to oxygen — a single molecule of oxygen destroys Akkermansia. So how do you grow it when there's oxygen all around us? Initially they sent it to other labs to grow, and everything came back dead. The technology didn't exist; no one had ever done it. They realized that to bring a live Akkermansia probiotic to this industry, they'd have to do it themselves and invent new technology to manufacture these strains — which is exactly what they did.
Sometimes people look at the price of our products and say it's too expensive compared to their other probiotics. That's fair, but this technology didn't exist before Pendulum. We've made great strides to lower the cost — we did that recently in January, which we're proud of, because we've gotten better at making these strains. But truth be told, it hasn't been easy.
Akkermansia and Longevity
Akkermansia has a lot of history with the Blue Zones — the people who live to 100 have higher concentrations of Akkermansia in their gut. What's most fascinating to me — my early career was in the NICU, so I'm obsessed with all things neonatal, pregnancy, and human milk, which is where I got interested in the gut microbiome — is that because it's an anaerobe, Akkermansia isn't available in the environment. You won't get it from playing in the dirt or eating fermented foods. The only food it's ever been isolated in is breast milk, so it's found in the guts of breastfed infants, but it's supposed to last through all life stages. We see these healthy centenarians with longevity on their side who have high levels of it. It's critically important to the gut microbiome ecosystem, and when it's not there you can see negative downstream effects.
It's really important for gut integrity — everyone has heard of leaky gut, and those are the benefits of having that strain.
The Products: Glucose Control
Tell us about Pendulum's products. As a dietitian, when I first started learning about Pendulum, what drew me was their innovation and their dedication to clinical research. I'm always a little skeptical of new supplements — there's a lot out there — so I have to look at the research, and Pendulum had it. And we're not stopping with our first clinical trial; we continue to research these novel strains and Akkermansia.
Pendulum Glucose Control was our first product — our flagship, our baby. We did a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial on it, which is the gold standard for a clinical study. It's a five-strain formulation. We knew Akkermansia helped the gut heal, but it also showed promising results in the metabolic space, so Glucose Control (which contains high levels of Akkermansia) was studied in type 2 diabetics. We wanted to see if we could affect long-term glucose (A1C at three months) and short-term postprandial glucose spikes (what your blood sugar does after a meal).
There were no dietary or lifestyle interventions — we didn't want anyone to change their diet or exercise habits. After 90 days, people taking Glucose Control saw a 0.6 drop in their A1C. That may not sound like much, but it's enough to take a diabetic to pre-diabetic, or a pre-diabetic to no longer being pre-diabetic. It's comparable to metformin, the standard medication for newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, which lowers A1C by 0.7 to 1.2 — so we got really close with a natural product. And for after-meal glucose spikes, we lowered those by 33%, which actually outperforms metformin (usually around 20%).
We're all dietitians on the healthcare side of the Pendulum team, and some of us wear continuous glucose monitors. We have pictures comparing cheesecake at night without Glucose Control versus with it, and there's a significant difference. If you like cheesecake, or if you find yourself in a challenged metabolic state, it's fun to wear a CGM and see the results in real time. As a result, it increases your insulin sensitivity.
The dosing is twice a day with food — the study did morning and evening. That can be challenging, so a lot of people just take two capsules once a day with food. We say with food to help protect the acid-resistant capsule, because Akkermansia needs to survive the stomach acid, make its way through the small intestine, and reach the colon. Taking the capsules with food protects them a little more from stomach acid.
The GLP-1 Product
You also have a GLP-1 product now. We do. It's called GLP-1, and we got so excited when the rest of the world wanted to start talking about GLP-1 — that's the work we've been doing since Pendulum's inception. We've been looking at Akkermansia and other butyrate-producing organisms and their effect on the GLP-1 hormone, which is made in the gut. It was thrilling; we had to get the word out that this is possible naturally. I think about it as giving your body back the tools it needs to perform these functions naturally. If you're looking to get to the root cause of your insulin resistance or stubborn weight gain, this is a piece of that puzzle.
You'll see crossover in our products — GLP-1 is similar to Glucose Control, but it isolates the two most important strains for GLP-1 production in the gut: Akkermansia, the star of all our shows, and its counterpart, Clostridium butyricum. I call those two Batman and Robin. They stimulate GLP-1 in a variety of ways — a couple of different pathways — to increase GLP-1 production naturally.
There are so many things that disrupt our gut these days and create dysbiosis. These bacteria thrive off each other and have to be in balance, and so much of what we do — diet, nutrition, environmental toxins, exercise or lack of it — plays into it. When you have gut problems, a lot of things trickle down and cause problems downstream. Toxins in our food are something I've really woken up to recently; even if you buy organic, it makes me want to grow my own food. Clean air, clean water, and clean, pesticide- and herbicide-free food matter.
The Gut-Brain Connection
One great thing about gut health and companies like Pendulum is that it affects so many aspects of life — mental health and more. Is there one study that stands out as exciting right now? The gut-brain axis is the most interesting to me. It's complicated, but we have a study in bipolar depression I and II that's actually studying Glucose Control — the same formulation studied for A1C and glucose spikes. Akkermansia is thought to be a GABA producer, and GABA is associated with feelings of calm and less anxiety. In a recent mouse study, Akkermansia was compared to Prozac and actually outperformed it.
There's a lot there when you consider how the gut — the "second brain" — influences brain health. Sometimes we don't give ourselves enough grace: the lack of willpower or the bad food choices could be related to your gut and the organisms living in it, which send signals to the brain about what they need to survive. One of the number-one things we hear from people is, "I enjoy eating salads now — I never did before," or "I'm reaching for fruits and vegetables as a snack, and that's not me," or "I can eat two cookies and walk away; I don't feel like the Cookie Monster anymore." That can largely be attributed to a change in the balance of microbes in the gut — these microbes need polyphenols and fiber, so they're telling your brain to eat those things.
The Polyphenol Booster
You also have a Polyphenol Booster. Akkermansia's energy source is strictly polyphenols, which is probably one reason it goes missing in so many people — if it's not fed properly, it can't survive. For listeners, polyphenols are found in colored, antioxidant-rich vegetables and fruits. We did an in-vitro study on our Akkermansia strain to see which polyphenols it prefers, and our strain in particular preferred green tea extract, red grape seed, and pomegranate. If you can get those in your diet, all the better; if not, it's available in supplement form.
What's Next
Any future developments? We're not stopping with Akkermansia. We have another novel strain on the horizon that hasn't been available in the marketplace, and in 2026 we'll launch a product with it. I think that's the future of probiotic supplementation — just as we have specific antibiotics for certain infections, we'll look at the gut microbiome and symptoms and recommend certain strains for specific disease states.
That's what I like about Pendulum — they have the research and studies to back the products up. It's not just about trace elements or minerals; you need to replenish the bacteria, and Pendulum feeds the good guys.
Antibiotics and Transitions
Sometimes we do have to take antibiotics, and you have a great protocol to help people repair their gut afterward, plus protocols for people getting off GLP-1 agonists to ease that transition. I used to be in the camp of waiting until antibiotics were finished before starting a probiotic, but research has recently shown it's actually helpful to take probiotics during your course of antibiotics — it protects against symptoms and leads to greater survival of good bacteria in the gut afterward. So I'm on that side of the fence now. That's what I do too when I write prescriptions for antibiotics — I always recommend probiotics, even for kids and toddlers, who benefit as well. The more antibiotics we take over the years, unfortunately, the more chronic-disease problems we may have.
Wrapping Up
This has been so lovely. Where can people find information about your products? Our website is pendulumlife.com, and we're available to consumers as well as healthcare practitioners. We always try to educate people — that's what it's all about. It's an honor to be a guest. Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Rev Up Health. We hope you're leaving with some valuable insights to supercharge your health journey. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to Rev Up Health wherever you listen to your podcasts, and if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. Have a topic you want us to explore? Reach out to us on our social media channels — we love hearing from our wellness community. Until next time, keep thriving, and remember: your journey to health is a journey to a better you.
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. The content is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient and their healthcare provider. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your healthcare regimen, including diet, exercise, or treatment plans. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Revelation Health and Well-Being.