What are enzymes and what do they do?

Here is another bit of information about Pro EM•1® Probiotic that you may find interesting.

Enzymes are specialized proteins that speed up the reaction times of various reactions. Many companies sell enzyme products to help with digestion such as caseinase to break down a milk sugar known as casein. Other products may be sold for increased absorption of protein (proteinase) or fats (lipase). Enzymes are crucial in the process for breaking down sugars for your body to be able to use the sugars for energy.

Do you know where enzymes come from? You guessed it, they are ALL produced by microbes. The average number of enzymes that a single microbe can produce ranges from 10 to 30 different type of enzymes. Which enzyme is produced depends on exposure to something needed to break down that substance. Here is an example, Lactobacillus casei is exposed to milk. The microbe produces the enzyme caseinase to start breaking down the casein, digesting parts of the sugar molecule to perform its own bodily functions (metabolism). There are other enzymes produced by L. Casei including: proteinase, high peptidase, esterase-lipase. 

There are smaller, even more specific, proteins known as "co-enzymes". These enzymes assist the main enzymes in breaking down large molecules such as polysaccharides (starches) into smaller and smaller chains. Again, one microbe can product up to 30 different co-enzymes! Imagine the diversity of enzymes alone when you think of how many microbes are in and on us, in our food, in our water, etc. 

If you are having digestive problems, that means something is out of whack. Why take one enzyme product when you can take a whole bunch of microbes that can produce a whole bunch of different types of enzymes and co-enzymes...ones that are produced when the need is addressed (or confronted!)?   Pro EM•1® Probiotic contains 6 different strains of microbes. Each can produce up to 30 different enzymes (potentially up to 180) and up to 30 different co-enzymes...this is in addition to a slew of other beneficial metabolite compounds produced by the live-active microbes in Pro EM•1® Probiotic.

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What makes Pro EM-1 different than other Probiotics On The Market

Pro EM•1® Probiotic is unique, not only in its formulation, but also in how it can be consumed and how it works. Most other probiotics on the market consist of freeze dried microbes that are selected because they are “found in the human gut”, put into a capsule, and bottled. Let’s look at why there are issues with some of these ideas.

1. High colony counts are important for freeze dried because 85-90% of the freeze dried microbes do NOT survive the freeze drying process. This is why so many companies stress how many cultures they have in their product.  Pro EM•1® is not freeze dried and contains all live, active, naturally occurring microbes that are not genetically modified.

2. Time.  According to the Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org/digestive-system/expert-answers/faq-20058340) the average time from ingestion to elimination can vary from 33 hours to 53 hours. The first 6-8 hours are from mouth to small intestines. The rest of the time is between small intestines to excretion. Freeze dried microbes need to re-hydrate before then can become active again. Most need 10-14 hours of hydration time before the microbes are able to start working. Once they do, they then need to start multiplying by eating foods and then take several more hours to days to establish themselves. During this time they are confronted with a harsh environment, having to compete with beneficial and pathogenic bacteria in the gut and their respective metabolites. If this is correct, the time from ingestion until the microbes can establish themselves is about as long as it takes the average person to completely digest and eliminate food. Many companies also put a coating on their capsules to “protect” their microbes from being exposed to stomach acids. Following that line of thinking, this means the first 6-8 hours of exposure time have not even started hydration and reanimation. Then we add 10-14 hours and we are up to 16 to 22 hours. That means 16 to 22 hours of exposure time are lost all due to way the probiotic is made in the first place. Pro EM•1® is a live liquid that start to be absorbed by your body as soon as you put it in your mouth.

3. The Stomach Acid Myth. It is believed that probiotics are weak and not able to survive the low pH of stomach acids. For microbes that are never exposed to low acids, this is mostly true. EM Research Organization ran a few studies a couple of years ago to see how their microbes stood up to low pH solutions. They compared three major company’s products to theirs and discovered there was nearly 100% survival of the microbes in Pro EM•1®. The microbes in Pro EM•1® will easily survive passage through the stomach acid.

4. Diversity is key to health and survival. Most products lack diversity of microbes. Take a look at the major probiotics on the market and look at the list of microbes in the products. The first word is the genus. The second word is the species. Most probiotics use a few different species of lactic acid bacteria. These include Lactobacillus, bifido, and bacillus bacteria. The species are different, yet being in the same genus, they all generally produce the same metabolites, with slight variation between species. This means, although they may have 4 or more species, they are all doing pretty much the same thing. What is needed is a diversity of genus so there will be different metabolites produced that will support the digestive system and the establishment of the beneficial microbes (the probiotics).

Pro EM•1® Probiotic contains microbes from three genus: Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces, and Rhodopseudomonus.
 

5. Lack of Metabolites. If the entire product ingredients were not fermented together, they lack metabolites. Freeze dried products are isolated species of microbes that are usually grown on agar. The microbes are scraped off the culturing plates, the sprayed on some filler like maltodextrin or dextrose (both are corn sugars...usually from genetically modified GMO corn). There are no metabolites (vitamins, antibacterial compounds, minerals, enzymes, co-enzymes, peptides, bioflavinoids, amino acids, organic acids, etc.). This means, when the micorbes enter a hostile environment, such as a compromised digestive system that is teaming with various microbes, acids, and gases, the microbe survival rate declines dramatically.  Pro EM•1® Probiotic is fermented at 100ºF and contains all the natural metabolites produced by the microbes during fermentation.

So, how does your probiotic compare to Pro EM•1®?

Is Yogurt A Good Probiotic?

People often say, "I take a probiotic, I eat yogurt every day." Is yogurt really a probiotic? It depends if you are eating real yogurt or not.

How do you know if the yogurt has been fermented or not? Well, if it is sweet it is likely not fermented. If it is really thick, it likely hasn't been fermented. If it has some fake coloring in it, it is likely not fermented either. What does all this mean? Let's look at how yogurt is made.

Commercially-produced yogurt is often made from dried milk and milk proteins and re-hydrated with water. An acid is added to the milk to thicken it. Then a bunch of sugar is added to it (we just go to have everything sweet!). After the sugars are added only then are the probiotics (which are often freeze dried, meaning 95% of the microbes are dead!) added and the "yogurt" is put in the chiller to prevent fermentation. This means no fermentation occurs at all in the process. 

This process is completely different than how traditional, real, yogurt is made. None of the milk sugars have been fermented and broken down, nor have any of the beneficial enzymes or other metabolites been produced. As for these sugary non-fermented yogurts, this means that all the health benefits that are touted about the probiotic aspects of yogurt are not really true. When you consume these popular yogurts, you are consuming quite a lot of sugars and some fairly ineffective microbes. It is totally different than if you consume a traditional, fermented milk product that is thicker than milk and pretty sour in taste, not sweet. Take a look at these resources on how to make your own REAL yogurt:

• Sandor Katz, in his book, The Art of Fermentation, has a very traditional recipe for making home made yogurt. You can read about it here: http://www.splendidtable.org/story/yogurt-an-excerpt-from-the-art-of-fermentation. 
• For those of you who prefer the thicker Greek style yogurt: http://www.happysimpleliving.com/2011/03/06/make-your-own-homemade-greek-yogurt/.

Please note, you can always add ProEM-1 as a starter to your fermented foods. You can also add some EM-X to the recipe to add in some prebiotics.

*photo from: Image by Profet77 from Pixabay.

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How do Probiotics and Prebiotics work together?

Prebiotics and Probiotics working together

The concept is pretty simple as to how prebiotics and probiotics work together. Basically, a prebiotic feeds a probiotic. The prebiotic is food and the probiotic is the living organism that eats it.

In our previous posts we went into some detail about how prebiotics work. The image on the right show that not only do prebiotics feed probiotics, they also have a direct affect on the immune system... stimulating it. The prebiotics help the probiotics establish themselves faster so they can help their host (us, or animals) sooner than if they had to do it all on their own. 

Imagine you bought a rundown home and moved into it right away before fixing it, or perparing it. You moved in and then had to start setting in, but nothing was quite right. You would be pretty stressed.  Now, imagine that you had a crew come in and clean it all up, repaint it, even move all your stuff in..right where you wanted it. You would be able to get right into the swing of things without skipping a beat and would be ready for action. The crew your hired is the prebiotc in this scenario. In reality, we are the broken down house that needs cleaning up and both the prebiotic and the probiotic are working together to fix it all and make it a happy home. Pretty simple, isn't it? When they work together you have synergy. This is why combining a prebiotic and a probiotic is called a synbiotic.

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