atomera has three active ingredients. This page sets out the published research on each one — what it found, how strong it is, who paid for it, and where it stops.
We have not run a trial on the finished atomera formula. Everything below is research on individual ingredients at comparable doses. That is a weaker claim than a formulation trial, and we would rather tell you than let you assume.
Some of this research was paid for by the companies that sell the ingredients. Where that is so, the citation says so, because it is something you should weigh.
Some of it points the other way. The negative studies and one regulator's refusal are on this page too. If we showed you only the flattering half, you would have no way of knowing the other half existed.
Grouped by ingredient. Every entry names the researchers, says who funded the work where we could establish it, and links straight to the paper so you can check us.
An international consensus panel concluded that there is insufficient evidence to prefer any one oral iron formulation over another, and that outcomes depend more on the amount of elemental iron than on the type of preparation. We start here because it sets the ceiling on what anyone selling iron can honestly claim, including us.
In 80 pregnant women, 25 mg of elemental iron as bisglycinate performed as well as 50 mg as sulfate, and the bisglycinate group reported fewer gastrointestinal complaints. Read it carefully, though: the two groups received different amounts of iron, so the trial cannot separate the form from the dose.
Seventeen randomised trials, 2,191 participants. Haemoglobin outcomes favoured bisglycinate in pregnancy; ferritin outcomes were not statistically significant, and in children both outcomes were null. In nearly every included trial the bisglycinate group received far less elemental iron than the comparator, so the pooled result is largely a comparison of doses rather than of forms.
Radioisotope studies in 85 women showed that iron from bisglycinate joins the body's ordinary non-haem iron pool and is regulated by your iron status just as any other iron salt is. This is why we make no claim about a special or separate absorption route — the evidence says there isn't one.
Across five absorption experiments in 74 adults, espresso coffee and tea each roughly halved the absorption of iron from bisglycinate. Degrading phytate raised it by about two thirds, so bisglycinate is partly — not completely — shielded from phytate. There was no ferrous sulfate arm in the coffee and tea experiment, so it cannot show that bisglycinate fares better than other forms.
295 people starting oral iron, half of them also taking LP299v at 10 billion CFU for the first 30 days. Reported gastrointestinal intolerance was 13.0% with the culture against 46.5% without, and 3.6% stopped taking their iron within 30 days against 15.9%. The authors declared no funding and no conflicts, which makes this the only independent trial of its size. It was not blinded and had no placebo group — the weakest design for an outcome people self-report — so treat it as promising rather than settled.
The only double-blind isotope study of this strain, using the freeze-dried form that a capsule actually contains, in a deliberately difficult high-phytate meal. Iron absorption was 1.4% with the culture and 1.3% without — no difference. It is on this page because it is the study that most directly tests what our capsule does, and it found nothing.
An independent review with no author conflicts. Pooling eight LP299v absorption studies, it found a moderate effect on the fraction of iron absorbed — but no significant improvement in ferritin or haemoglobin. Put plainly: this strain may nudge absorption, and it has not been shown to change anyone's iron status.
The foundational work. Across 299 subjects, ascorbic acid improved non-haem iron absorption by countering the inhibitory effect of phytates and tannins, with around 50 mg per main meal identified as desirable for the effect. This is the reason vitamin C is in the formula at all.
440 adults, randomised to oral iron with or without 200 mg of vitamin C three times a day. Haemoglobin recovery was equivalent, and the authors concluded that vitamin C supplements are not essential alongside oral iron. A 2023 meta-analysis of seven trials reached the same non-significant result. So vitamin C is in atomera because the absorption rationale is sound and it means one fewer tablet — not because it has been shown to change an outcome.
References
Headings above are our plain-English descriptions rather than full paper titles; each citation identifies the work precisely, and every entry links to the source.
Two notes on the record. One trial included in the Fischer 2023 meta-analysis (Abbas and colleagues, Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, 2019) has since been retracted, and the meta-analysis has not been corrected — so its pregnancy figures include data that has since been withdrawn. And where we say a funder is not identified, we mean we could not establish it from the published record, not that there wasn't one.
Australian nutrient reference values quoted on this site come from the NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand.
Research on individual ingredients does not establish an effect for this finished product. atomera is not for the treatment of iron deficiency conditions. ALWAYS READ THE LABEL AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FOR USE. If you are unsure whether an iron supplement is right for you, speak to your doctor first.
In 2016 the European Food Safety Authority assessed the claim that Lactobacillus plantarum 299v increases non-haem iron absorption. It concluded that the scientific evidence was insufficient to establish a cause and effect relationship. In 2018 the European Commission formally refused the claim, and it remains unauthorised in the European Union.
So we don't make it. The culture is in atomera because it is a single named strain with published research behind it at the dose we use, and because the one large independent trial to look at tolerating oral iron found a difference worth having. That is a narrower reason than the one this ingredient is usually sold on. It is also the one we can stand behind.
Heavy metals tested against TGA limits on every batch, by an accredited third-party lab.
The culture count is guaranteed to the printed date, not to the date of manufacture.
Every bottle carries a batch code, and a retained sample stays on our shelf for its full shelf life.
The full ingredient panel is on the product page, and the certificate of analysis for your batch is available on request.
ALWAYS READ THE LABEL AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FOR USE. Not for the treatment of iron deficiency conditions. Vitamin and mineral supplements should not replace a balanced diet.