Guide

Does NutriKey Akkermansia GLP-1 Probiotic work? No trial of the capsule, a dose far below the Akkermansia trials, and 3.8 from 20 reviews

NutriKey Akkermansia GLP-1 Probiotic is a once-a-day capsule of five bacterial strains, one of them Akkermansia muciniphila, sold by a Minnesota weight-loss clinic company for appetite and cravings. What sets it apart is the Akkermansia: part of it is pasteurized, it carries a strain code, and the amount is a small fraction of what the human trials used. This page covers the label, the trials of each strain, the reviews, the price and the refund terms, and the other bottles that carry the same formula.

What NutriKey Akkermansia GLP-1 Probiotic is, and what it is not

NutriKey is the in-house brand of Nutritional Weight & Wellness, a company in St. Paul, Minnesota. Its online store also resells practitioner brands including Ortho Molecular, Metagenics, NutriDyn and Designs for Health. This product is a digestive-resistant capsule (hypromellose and gellan gum), sold as a 30-capsule bottle with one capsule a day. The Supplement Facts panel prints a count and a strain designation for every organism, with no proprietary blend:

The other ingredients are microcrystalline cellulose, vegetable magnesium stearate and silica. The label carries gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and non-GMO marks; it makes no statement about egg, soy, tree nuts, fish or sesame, and gives no facility statement. CFU counts live cells that can form colonies. TFU, total fluorescent units, is a count that also includes pasteurized cells, so the 500 million figure is not a count of live bacteria.

It is not a gut-symptom product on its face. The product name and the brand’s lead claims are about appetite, cravings and the hormone GLP-1, with weight goals named in the copy. Digestion and bloating appear in the brand’s benefit list as secondary claims.

Is there a trial of the capsule itself?

We found none. A PubMed search on the Akkermansia strain AH39 returned one paper, a laboratory and mouse study, and a ClinicalTrials.gov search on the product name returned nothing. The brand page cites no study for its GLP-1 claims. Its testing statement is general: it says all NutriKey brand supplements are made in certified GMP facilities and are third-party tested, but it names no laboratory and links no certificate of analysis. The evidence sits with the individual strains, at other doses and mostly in other populations.

The Akkermansia trials and the dose gap

The strain on the label, AH39, has one published paper: an in vitro lymph node model plus mice. Akkermansia cells activated an immune signal in the dish (interleukin-10), and oral AH39 changed the share of regulatory T cells in the lymph nodes and spleen of mice (Feng et al., Journal of Genetics and Genomics, 2023). We found no human trial of AH39.

The human trials of Akkermansia used other strains and measured metabolic outcomes:

• Depommier 2019. 40 overweight or obese, insulin-resistant adults were enrolled and 32 finished. They took 10 billion bacteria a day for three months, live or pasteurized. Against placebo, the pasteurized group had insulin sensitivity up 28.62%, insulin levels down 34.08% and total cholesterol down 8.68%. Body weight was down 2.27 kg, a difference that was not statistically significant (P = 0.091) (Depommier et al., Nature Medicine, 2019).
• Zhang 2025. 58 adults with overweight or obese type 2 diabetes took the strain AKK-WST01 or placebo for 12 weeks, with lifestyle guidance for both. Weight and HbA1c fell in both groups with no significant difference between them. Benefit appeared only in the subgroup with low baseline Akkermansia (Zhang et al., Cell Metabolism, 2025).

The capsule’s 500 million TFU is one-twentieth of the 10 billion bacteria a day in the 2019 trial. The two units are counted by different methods, so the comparison is approximate, and only 80% of the capsule’s Akkermansia is pasteurized cells. Both trials were in people with metabolic disease, and we found no Akkermansia trial for a gut symptom. The Double Wood guide sets out more of the human Akkermansia trials, and the Akka guide explains the units and carries the same AH39 strain code.

The other four strains and their trials

Three details change how to read the table. In the HN019 transit trial the doses were 17.2 and 1.8 billion CFU, and the capsule’s 10 billion falls between them; the later constipation trials did not repeat the transit result. In the B420 trial, the authors’ per-protocol analysis (134 people who met compliance and antibiotic criteria) showed B420 alone with a 3.0% fat-mass difference that was not significant (P = 0.28), and B420 with 12 g of polydextrose fiber with a 4.5% difference (P = 0.02). The capsule contains no polydextrose. The authors also report a post hoc factorial analysis that was significant for B420. The C. butyricum trial used a strain and dose that are not matched to the “10” on this label, in people with IBS-D.

For Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, the capsule’s 2 billion CFU strain, the evidence we found is mainly in children: a meta-analysis of three trials in 167 children with irritable bowel syndrome found a treatment-success risk ratio of 1.70 (95% CI 1.27 to 2.27) (Horvath et al., Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2011). It is pediatric evidence.

The GLP-1 framing is a brand claim

The brand says the capsule naturally curbs cravings and raises the body’s production of GLP-1, a hormone it describes as signaling fullness. It also says B420 reduces abdominal fat and that C. butyricum makes butyrate for the colon lining. The capsule contains no GLP-1 compound; the name refers to the hormone the brand says the bacteria influence.

The trials above report insulin sensitivity, cholesterol, transit time, bowel movements and body fat. We found no trial measuring GLP-1 or appetite for this blend, and none in people taking this capsule. The brand’s mechanism may or may not hold at the capsule’s dose; the label and the published trials do not settle it.

How to take it, side effects and who should check first

The label directs one capsule daily, or as directed by a healthcare practitioner. The brand adds that evening is best for results, but that taking it daily and consistently matters more than the time of day. It does not say whether to take it with food. Storage is a cool, dry place or the refrigerator.

The label caution reads that anyone who is pregnant, nursing or taking medication should consult a healthcare practitioner before use, and the bottle is to be kept out of children’s reach. Among the 20 reviews on the brand’s page, single reviewers report vertigo that began after a couple of weeks (this reviewer says a neurologist suggested stopping), GERD symptoms, stomach cramps and bloating during the first weeks. The 2019 Akkermansia trial reported the supplement as safe and well tolerated at its dose. The usual effects of probiotics and when to stop are in the probiotic side effects guide.

What the reviews say

The only rating we found is the brand’s own: 3.8 out of 5 from 20 reviews, shown by the Judge.me review app on the product page. The split is 10 five-star, 5 four-star, none three-star, 1 two-star and 4 one-star, so half are five-star and a fifth are one-star. 19 of the 20 are flagged as verified buyers. We found no Amazon listing for the product or the brand, and we could not read Trustpilot.

The reviewers who praise it mostly describe less hunger between meals and fewer sugar cravings, and one describes less bloating along with a somewhat lower appetite. Complaints fall in three groups: no noticeable difference after weeks of use (including a two-month reviewer who saw no weight loss), side effects (vertigo, GERD symptoms, cramps), and price. One of the four one-star entries is about the store’s pricing and radio ads rather than the capsule. The reviews run from 2024 to 2026, and with 20 of them each entry moves the average noticeably.

Price and the refund terms

A 30-capsule bottle is $60.75 on the brand site, about $2.03 a day at one capsule a day. There is no subscription option, no bundle price on the product page, and no other retailer that we found. The store’s banners give a free-shipping threshold of $75 in one place and $50 in another, and say HSA and FSA funds can be used.

The brand’s pages describe the return terms three ways:

• Product page: a 60-day return guarantee. If the product does not deliver, the page says you get your money back.
• Refund policy: unopened, nonperishable items can be returned within 60 days, shipping is nonrefundable, and no refunds or exchanges are given on opened products. Returns are mailed to St. Paul, Minnesota.
• FAQ: any item can be returned for any reason within 60 days, and the brand reserves the right to reject returns it considers a repeated pattern or abuse of the policy.

The same formula under other names

NutriDyn’s practitioner sheet for UltraBiotic Akkermansia Plus (ND1194) lists the same five strains with the Akkermansia at 100 million CFU. The Chi Rho Chiropractic store in Morganfield, Kentucky sells a bottle called MetaProbiotic under its Legacy Pure label, and the store’s product record lists NutriDyn as vendor and tags it as a private label. Its panel matches NutriKey’s line for line for four strains (10 billion CFU of HN019, 10 billion of B420, 2 billion of LGG, 30 million of C. butyricum), and differs in the Akkermansia: 100 million CFU, with no statement about pasteurization, against NutriKey’s 500 million TFU with 80% pasteurized cells.

The NutriKey and Chi Rho SKUs share the same first six digits, but neither brand states who makes its bottle. MetaProbiotic sells for $58.99 for 30 capsules (about $1.97 a day), with a 10% monthly subscription and a 30-day guarantee on the first bottle of a first-time order. We found no ratings or reviews for it, so it is not scored on this site. Neither bottle has a trial of the finished capsule, so the strain trials above apply to both.

Who NutriKey Akkermansia GLP-1 Probiotic is for

• Someone who wants a five-strain capsule that includes Akkermansia and who has read that the Akkermansia amount is far below the trial doses, and that AH39 has no human trial.
• Someone comfortable with a rating that comes only from the brand’s own page and with return terms that read differently on three pages.
• Someone who is not pregnant or nursing, or who has checked with a healthcare practitioner, especially when taking medication.

Because the product is sold for appetite and cravings, and the quiz matches products to digestive symptoms and goals, this site lists it for browsing and does not return it as a quiz result. The other Akkermansia products in the catalog are Pendulum Akkermansia, Akka and Double Wood Akkermansia. What a CFU count does and does not predict is covered in the CFU guide.

The products in this catalog

Common questions

Sources

• Depommier C, Everard A, Druart C, et al. “Supplementation with Akkermansia muciniphila in overweight and obese human volunteers: a proof-of-concept exploratory study.” Nature Medicine, 2019;25(7):1096–1103. PubMed 31263284
• Zhang Y, Liu R, Chen Y, et al. “Akkermansia muciniphila supplementation in patients with overweight/obese type 2 diabetes: Efficacy depends on its baseline levels in the gut.” Cell Metabolism, 2025;37(3):592–605. PubMed 39879980
• Feng S, Wang S, Qu D, et al. “Species- or genus-dependent immunostimulatory effects of gut-derived potential probiotics.” Journal of Genetics and Genomics, 2023;50(10):786–794. PubMed 36356718
• Waller PA, Gopal PK, Leyer GJ, et al. “Dose-response effect of Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 on whole gut transit time and functional gastrointestinal symptoms in adults.” Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 2011;46(9):1057–1064. PubMed 21663486
• Ibarra A, Latreille-Barbier M, Donazzolo Y, et al. “Effects of 28-day Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis HN019 supplementation on colonic transit time and gastrointestinal symptoms in adults with functional constipation.” Gut Microbes, 2018;9(3):236–251. PubMed 29227175
• Ala-Jaakkola R, Forssten SD, Cheng J, et al. “Effect of an 8-Week Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 Supplementation on Functional Constipation: A Multi-Center, Triple-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.” Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 2025;69(17):e70081. PubMed 40320938
• Stenman LK, Lehtinen MJ, Meland N, et al. “Probiotic With or Without Fiber Controls Body Fat Mass, Associated With Serum Zonulin, in Overweight and Obese Adults.” EBioMedicine, 2016;13:190–200. PubMed 27810310
• Sun YY, Li M, Li YY, et al. “The effect of Clostridium butyricum on symptoms and fecal microbiota in diarrhea-dominant irritable bowel syndrome.” Scientific Reports, 2018;8:2964. PubMed 29445178
• Horvath A, Dziechciarz P, Szajewska H. “Meta-analysis: Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG for abdominal pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders in childhood.” Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2011;33(12):1302–1310. PubMed 21507030
• NutriKey: product page, Supplement Facts image, review widget, nutrikey.net; refund policy and FAQ
• Chi Rho (Legacy Pure) MetaProbiotic: product page, panel image and refund policy. shopchirho.com
• NutriDyn UltraBiotic Akkermansia Plus (ND1194) supplement sheet. nutridyn.com