Study Shows HK L-137 Reduces Inflammation in Healthy Overweight Individuals — Takes Front Line Against Metabolic Syndrome

There’s a reason why the health-conscious focus has turned toward foods, supplements and behaviors to reduce inflammation. It’s why House Wellness Foods has put decades of meticulous research into the anti-inflammatory benefits of its unique immunobiotic Lactobacillus plantarum HK L-137, the primary ingredient of its Immuno-LP20®. A just-published study illuminates how this bacillus, in its nonviable form, can be especially important, even lifesaving, to those contending with obesity.

Inflammation is a bodily response we rely on to counter stress, infection and external toxins. But we know that it is also one of the keystones of metabolic dysfunction. Many have gone as far as to suggest that inflammation is the defining characteristic of all infirmity, including the depredating aspects of the aging process itself, leading to eventual organ failure. Unchecked, it can cause the decline of overall health, is linked to a string of metabolic complications, and implicated in dozens of autoimmune diseases from lupus to MS.

Notably, even otherwise healthy individuals under the stress associated with high body mass can suffer a rapidly deteriorating downward spiral; and as we know, obesity is among the most prevalent disease factors in post-industrial society worldwide, (affecting about 40 percent of the U.S. population alone). Simply put, production of inflammatory cytokines increases in individuals carrying more body fat. Though the popular literature avoids the harsh details, the manifestation of this destructive cycle includes insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.

The new study from House Wellness Foods laboratories, in cooperation with the Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University, describes in detail the process by which inflammation sets its destructive effects in motion. Adipose tissue produces an abundance of inflammatory cytokines, resulting in elevated serum levels of inflammatory mediators (C-reactive protein and leukocyte concentration among them). Tumor necrosis factor and interleukin induce systemic insulin resistance and affect lipid metabolism. There is a concomitant elevation of the serum levels of triglycerides and very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL).

In the inflammation response, cells communicate via extraordinarily complex means to protect muscles and organs in bodies subjected to ordinary stress or injury. The research paper defines the consequences of lingering inflammation, such as that associated with overweight, and how the inflammatory mediators present in obese or overweight persons need to be suppressed to thwart associated metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and hyperlipidemia.

Lactic acid-based bacterial probiotics have long shown effectiveness in immune modulation and lipid metabolism. Viable lactobacilli in foods like kefir and other probiotic boosters have proved valuable in lowering total cholesterol levels, but their effect is limited both by their chemistry and the mechanisms by which they act on the body. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown that nonviable bacilli, like (heat-killed) HK L-137, are equally, and in many instances more effective in improving obesity-induced inflammation and abnormalities of lipid metabolism, with a more profound impact on immune response as gauged by multiple measurements including enhanced Th1-related immune functions, such as concanavalin A (Con A)-induced proliferation in T cell production.

Heat-killing’s advantage is that it strengthens the bacterial organism’s cellular barriers and fixes its biogenetic material. It stands up to gastric fluids and remains intact through to the ileum of the small intestine, to go on to spur immune response in the mucosa. Heat-killing is what gives HK L-137, the prime constituent of House’s Immuno-LP20, its character as an immunobiotic, and as multiple peer-reviewed studies show, its cell protective and regenerative function supports quality of life improvements that include dramatic reduction of upper respiratory infection and periodontal disease. It also makes HK L-137 available for the widest range of applications due to its ability to withstand processing. Nonviability gives it an unparalleled shelf life without diminishing its effectiveness.

House Wellness Foods has devoted nearly 30 years to both the clinical study of the immunological and protective properties of HK L-137, and the refinement of its natural, food product-based production. The apex of its efforts is Immuno-LP20®, its functional immunobiotic based on HK L-137.

Metabolic syndrome is a crisis of global proportion. Countering it, House Wellness Foods, in its supplements and functional food products, has concentrated its focus on supporting the body’s innate ability to bolster immunity and restore vitality at the cellular level. It is a quest for nothing less than the sustenance of superior health and vigor, and the extension of all life on the planet.

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Contact information

Kotaro Soga
House Wellness Foods Corp.
s-hirayama@housefoods.co.jp