Full trial breakdown: ATLAS clinical trial shows Urolithin A improved leg strength by 12% vs placebo

Study design:
Eighty-eight participants between the ages of 40-64 were involved in this four-month intervention. The investigators selected individuals who were overweight with low physical endurance to truly test the power of Urolithin A. The subjects were then randomized to one of three treatment groups: placebo, 500mg of UA daily and 1000mg of UA daily.

The effects of supplementation were determined by looking at the following markers of health:

1. Muscular strength in the lower leg muscles (hamstring and quadriceps) using isokinetic peak torque test.
2. Muscular endurance, measured by a stationary cycle ergometer to test Vo2 max and a walking test that measures the distance participants walk over six minutes.
3. Biomarkers of mitochondrial health were conducted by muscle biopsies and blood plasma.

It’s important to note that no changes to diet or exercise were initiated during this trial so the positive impacts can truly be attributed to Urolithin A supplementation.

ATLAS trial findings: 

1. Improved muscular strength: Muscular strength was measured using average peak torque, and both the 500 mg and 1000 mg groups showed a significant increase in hamstring muscle strength at the four-month mark as compared to baseline. Other indicators of muscle strength showed trends toward improvement even though the results were not statistically significant. Interestingly, the placebo group had significant decreases in average torque during the trial, indicating a loss of muscular strength over the four months when no treatment was received.
2. Improved exercise performance: Walk distance during the six-minute walk test improved by 33.43 meters with the highest UA does (1000 mg). Singh tells us that “in clinical practice, a clinically meaningful improvement on the walking distance is over 30 meters. Now, these estimates are built on frail, old, or sick people with declining lung or cardiac function, so for a healthy adult population, this is a big deal in the absence of any exercise. A healthy adult walks for example anywhere between 500-600m in 6-minutes so improving by over 33 meters is an improvement of greater than 7%!”
3. Biomarkers of mitochondrial health: Through a series of blood tests and muscle biopsies, the researchers evaluated changes in markers of cellular health. The groups that received Urolithin A saw the following:

• Increased mitophagy, the complex process where older, damaged mitochondria get regenerated into healthier, more efficient mitochondria, which Urolithin A is a powerful inducer of.
• Increased levels of circulating UA, with higher levels seen with increased dosing (i.e. with 1000-mg compared to 500-mg Mitopure)
• Improvements in biomarkers of inflammation such as C-reactive protein (CRP).

Read the full trial here.