What is the difference between a Probiotic and a Prebiotic?

Prebiotics/Probiotic Extracts

• A collection of metabolites produced by beneficial bacteria during fermentation/co-culturing (do not contain live microbes)
• Maintain a healthy gut environment by regulating the growth and development of beneficial bacteria
• Not affected by the gut environment and stimulate immune system directly

Probiotics

There are more than 100 trillion microbes in the human gut (approx. 2.2lbs/1kg).

Gut microbes will produce enzymes for the body to digest certain foods that the stomach and small intestine have not been able to digest and produce some vitamins that are necessary for the body. They also play an important role in the immune system and in production of serotonin, which influences mood.

• Various types of live microbes (bacteria) that are similar to the beneficial bacteria found in the human gut
• Help restore the balance of gut flora by improving the ratio of good to bad microbes
• Popular probiotic foods (fermented foods): 
yogurt, miso, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, and kimchi. 

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Prebiotics: How much should you take?

EM-X Gold Probiotic Extract

EM･X GOLD is a health drink so there is no specific dose you need to take. You can drink as much or as little as you want to match your condition or lifestyle. The average person will drink 10ml to 30ml (2 teaspoons-1oz) per day.

Each one of us is different; moreover, the same individual also has different condition from day to day. EM•X Gold will stimulate the microbes in the digestive system. This may cause some people may have loose stool or some slight stomach pain or diarrhea-like symptoms after drinking. In that case, adjust the amount to suit your physical condition. You may need to take less than the recommended dosage. Other people may not feel anything. You can't really take too much, but the average person doesn't need more than the suggested dosage above.

EM･X GOLD is made with all natural and gluten-free ingredients so that it is almost flavorless and odorless.

Because the probiotic extracts in EM･X GOLD have heat-resistance, you can mix it with any (hot or cold) drink or even use it in cooking.

What is EM-X Gold?

What is EM-X Gold? This question has been on everyone's mind for quite some time. In 2010 Dr. Higa made some drastic changes to the EM-X formula.  The old formula, which many people considered amazing, was a fermented liquid made from fermenting EM-1, Rice Bran, Papaya, Kelp, and molasses. There was a long fermentation process and the product was micro-filtered down below 5 microns to filter out the microbes. EM-X was introduced to the market in the mid-1990's and had been fairly well-researched in various countries through various universities. Several of these original studies were published in journals and are still available on PubMed. Research was being done on Parkinson's, cancer treatments, and several on radiation exposure. For some unknown reason, Dr. Higa decided to completely change the formula and EM Rearch Organization in Okinawa, Japan (EMRO Japan) released a new formula called EM-X Gold in 2010.

The next generation in EM Technology--EM-X Gold. 
The new EM-X Gold is no longer made with rice bran, papaya or kelp. Earlier this year (2015), EMRO Japan presented new information on the product that shed some light on what it was and how it worked. To sum it up very simply, EM-X Gold acts is a highly complex prebiotic and synbiotic, boosting the effects of probiotic microbes, such as Pro EM-1 through tiny particles produced during a unique fermentation process developed by EMRO and Dr. Higa.

In our previous blog posts we've covered what prebiotics are. We now introduce the next level of prebiotics and the term "synbiotics". Synbiotics, are simply the combination of the a prebiotic and a probiotic. Traditional prebiotics are defined as "a non-digestible food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria..." Essentially, prebiotics are lumped into the same category as fiber.

(Gibson GR, Roberfroid MB. Dietary modulation of the human colonic microbiota. Introducing the concept of prebiotics. J Nutr 1995;125:1401–12.)

However, EM-X Gold goes beyond the average prebiotic, which are usually fructooligosaccharides or FOS. EM-X Gold contains substances that are not only digestible, but are also small enough to go through cell walls and nourish cells and stimulate the immune system in addition to increasing the effectiveness of probiotic microbes. EM-X Gold is made through a unique fermentation process. This unique co-culturing technique makes a wide variety of active components. Thus, EM-X GOLD contains more than 600 beneficial components such as lipopolysaccharide, nucleic acid and physiologically active substances. These metabolites (compounds produced by microbes' metabolic processes) include short chain amino acids (peptides), enzymes (which are specialized proteins) are low molecular weight, meaning they are extremely small (on the "nano" level!). For example, the largest metabolites in EM-X Gold are 1/10th the size of the enzymes in pineapple. Some are 1/1000th the size! Therefore, EM-X GOLD is extremely easy to digest and is quickly absorbed by digestive organs. 

How Do Prebiotics Work?

Shortly after the prebiotic is consumed it becomes a food source for probiotic bacteria, dramatically stimulating their activity. A probiotic extract is a prebiotic because it stimulates the growth and activity of probiotic microbes. Probiotic extracts will improve the balance of gut flora by acting as feed for beneficial bacteria. Moreover, they will also directly promote and regulate immunity, reduce stress, and inhibit aging.

EM-X Gold Probiotic Extract

EM-X GOLD is a probiotic extract that re-creates the ideal gut environment and makes it possible to produce beneficial extracts in a stable way.


Approximately 70 % of our immune system is located in the gut. The immune cells in the gut protect our body from infections by fighting harmful bacteria and viruses. However, modern lifestyles filled with processed foods and stress can disrupt the gut environment and therefore compromise our overall health. Also, there is growing evidence that the gut is like your “second brain” and it even influences your thoughts, feelings and stress levels.  (see this article from Johns Hopkins)  Thus, the key of both mental health and physical health is hidden in the gut. Due to poor diet or stress, beneficial microbes decrease and gut microbes will deliver harmful substances to the body. An example of this is E. coli. E. coli is essential to our health, but is considered a pathogen because it has genes that produce toxic compounds and can grow exponentially, producing excessive amounts of toxic metabolites that will make use sick...or kill us. Thus, the ideal cycle of metabolites when you are not healthy, becomes unstable, and you get sick. The gut environment changes from day to day, therefore it is difficult to produce beneficial metabolites consistently.
 This is possible by stimulating the growth of the good microbes, or probiotics, through the use of prebiotics and probiotic extracts.

By making the extracts outside the body, we can produce high quality probiotic extracts free of influence from living environments. Outside factors such as stress and diet make relying on production of probiotic extracts in the body very unpredictable.

Prebiotics are known to improve the efficacy of probiotic microbes. In other words, prebiotics are little energy power packs that feed probiotics. Here is an illustration of how they work together:

You can see the probiotics alone directly promote a good balance of gut flora. Probiotic microbes also produce lactic acid and suppress the growth of harmful microbes, promote the peristalsis of the intestines and prevent constipation, and stimulate the immure system to adjust metabolism. All this takes time as the probiotic microbes establish themselves and begin to secrete metabolites in the system. By adding the metabolites into the body, the probiotics can immediately use them and stimulate the immune system and begin to help get the host's gut back in balance. The combination of prebiotic and probiotic is known as a synbiotic effect.

Keep up to date with our information by subscribing to this blog. We have many new posts coming out about EM-X Gold and Pro EM-1.

What are Prebiotics?

Today we are bombarded with so much information and new terminology can get confusing. By now most people have at least heard of the term "probiotic". Yogurt companies have been able to get the word out to the masses about probiotics. Although the exact information is not clear to everyone what probiotics really are, at least people now know that probiotics are "good" for you. Once you start looking into probiotics you will start seeing the term "prebiotics" pop up here and there. Well, what are prebiotics? What do they do? Do you need them?

What Are Prebiotics?
Again, this is an area where the definitions vary. It seems most prebiotics are referred to as compounds (fibers and non-digestible sugars) that we cannot digest. One of the most common compounds you'll find are fructooligosaccharides, or FOS. The "fructo" stands for fructose, as sugar found in many fruits. It is often used as a sweetener in commercially processed foods. They are naturally found in onion, chicory, garlic, asparagus, banana, artichoke, and several other foods. "Currently FOS are increasingly included in food products and infant formulas due to their prebiotic effect stimulate the growth of nonpathogenic intestinal microflora." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20119826).

Another prebiotic is inulin. WebMD has a nice overview of inulin...and it sounds very similar to fructooligosaccharides: 

"It is a starchy substance found in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, including wheat, onions, bananas, leeks, artichokes, and asparagus. The inulin that is used for medicine is most commonly obtained by soaking chicory roots in hot water.

Inulin is used for high blood fats, including cholesterol and triglycerides. It is also used for weight loss, constipation, and as a food additive to improve taste." WebMD: Inulin

How does inulin work?
Inulin is not digested or absorbed in the stomach. It goes to the bowels where bacteria are able to use it to grow. It supports the growth of a special kind of bacteria that are associated with improving bowel function and general health. Inulin decreases the body's ability to make certain kinds of fats." WebMD: Inulin

There are other known prebiotic compounds: Galacto-oligosaccharides , Soya-oligosaccharides, Xylo-oligosaccharides, Pyrodextrins , Isomalto-oligosaccharides. For more information on these, please see: 

S. MACFARLANE, G. T. MACFARLANE & J. H. CUMMINGs: "Review article: prebiotics in the gastrointestinal tract".

A newly discovered type of prebiotic is known as a probiotic extract. While “probiotics” are known to optimize the gut flora and regulate several bodily functions, “probiotic extracts”, the metabolites produced by beneficial bacteria, are getting quite a bit of attention in Japan and are still virtually unknown in the West. Our EM-X Gold product is a probiotic extract using EM Technology. It is made in Okinawa, Japan by EM Research Organization.

Ingredients in EM-X Gold

Keep up to date with our information by subscribing to this blog. We have many new posts coming out about EM-X Gold and Pro EM-1.